instead of a wild, hatless little savage jumping into the house,
and rushing to squeeze us all breathless, there 'lighted from a
handsome black pony a very dignified person, with brown ringlets
falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and a long cloth
habit, which she was obliged to hold up with both hands that she
might sail in. Hindley lifted her from her horse, exclaiming
delightedly, 'Why, Cathy, you are quite a beauty! I should
scarcely have known you: you look like a lady now. Isabella
Linton is not to be compared with her, is she, Frances?' 'Isabella
has not her natural advantages,' replied his wife: 'but she must
mind and not grow wild again here. Ellen, help Miss Catherine off
with her things - Stay, dear, you will disarrange your curls - let
me untie your hat.'

I removed the habit, and there shone forth beneath a grand plaid
silk frock, white trousers, and burnished shoes; and, while her
eyes sparkled joyfully when the dogs came bounding up to welcome
her, she dared hardly touch them lest they should fawn upon her
splendid garments. She kissed me gently: I was all flour making
the Christmas cake, and it would not have done to give me a hug;
and then she looked round for Heathcliff. Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw
watched anxiously their meeting; thinking it would enable them to
judge, in some measure, what grounds they had for hoping to succeed
in separating the two friends.

Heathcliff was hard to discover, at first. If he were careless,
and uncared for, before Catherine's absence, he had been ten times
more so since. Nobody but I even did him the kindness to call him
a dirty boy, and bid him wash himself, once a week; and children of
his age seldom have a natural pleasure in soap and water.