'Well, I cried last night,' he returned, 'and I had more reason to
cry than she.'

'Yes: you had the reason of going to bed with a proud heart and an
empty stomach,' said I. 'Proud people breed sad sorrows for
themselves. But, if you be ashamed of your touchiness, you must
ask pardon, mind, when she comes in. You must go up and offer to
kiss her, and say - you know best what to say; only do it heartily,
and not as if you thought her converted into a stranger by her
grand dress. And now, though I have dinner to get ready, I'll
steal time to arrange you so that Edgar Linton shall look quite a
doll beside you: and that he does. You are younger, and yet, I'll
be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders;
you could knock him down in a twinkling; don't you feel that you
could?'

Heathcliff's face brightened a moment; then it was overcast afresh,
and he sighed.

'But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn't make
him less handsome or me more so. I wish I had light hair and a
fair skin, and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of
being as rich as he will be!'

'And cried for mamma at every turn,' I added, 'and trembled if a
country lad heaved his fist against you, and sat at home all day
for a shower of rain. Oh, Heathcliff, you are showing a poor
spirit! Come to the glass, and I'll let you see what you should
wish. Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those
thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the middle;