the fire." For I dare
not go in myself again just then.

Joseph rattled some fire into the shovel and went; but he brought it
back immediately, with the supper tray in his other hand, explaining
that Mr. Heathcliff was going to bed, and he wanted nothing to eat
till morning.

We heard him mount the stairs directly. He did not proceed to his
ordinary chamber, but turned into that with the paneled bed; its window,
as I mentioned before, is wide enough for anybody to get through, and it
struck me that he plotted another midnight excursion, which he had
rather we had no suspicion of.

"Is he a ghoul, or a vampire?" I mused. I had read of such hideous
incarnate demons. And then I set myself to reflect how I had tended him
in infancy, and watched him grow to youth, and followed him almost
through his whole course, and what nonsense it was to yield to that
sense of horror.

"But where did he come from, the little dark thing, harbored by a good
man to his bane?" muttered Superstition, as I dozed into
unconsciousness. And I began, half dreaming, to weary myself with
imagining some fit parentage for him: and repeating my waking
meditations I tracked his existence over again, with grim variations; at
last picturing his death and funeral; of which all I can remember is
being exceedingly vexed at having the task of dictating an inscription
for his monument, and consulting the sexton about it; and as he had no
surname, and we could not tell his age, we were obliged to content
ourselves with the single word "Heathcliff." That came true--we were. If
you enter the kirkyard, you'll read on his headstone only that, and the
date of his death. Dawn restored me to common-sense. I rose, and went
into the garden, as soon as I could see, to ascertain if there were any
foot-marks under his window. There were none.

"He has staid at home," I thought, "and he'll be all right to-day!"

I prepared breakfast for the household, as was my usual custom, but told
Hareton and Catherine to get theirs ere the master came down, for he lay
late. They preferred taking it out of doors, under the trees, and I set
a little table to accommodate them.

On my re-entrance I found Mr. Heathcliff below. He and Joseph were
conversing about some farming business; he gave clear, minute directions
concerning the matter discussed, but he spoke rapidly, and turned his
head continually aside, and had the same excited expression, even more
exaggerated.

When Joseph