he began to make use of her nails;
and their sharpness presently ornamented the detainer's with crescents of
red.

'There's a tigress!' exclaimed Mrs. Linton, setting her free, and shaking
her hand with pain. 'Begone, for God's sake, and hide your vixen face!
How foolish to reveal those talons to him. Can't you fancy the
conclusions he'll draw? Look, Heathcliff! they are instruments that will
do execution--you must beware of your eyes.'

'I'd wrench them off her fingers, if they ever menaced me,' he answered,
brutally, when the door had closed after her. 'But what did you mean by
teasing the creature in that manner, Cathy? You were not speaking the
truth, were you?'

'I assure you I was,' she returned. 'She has been dying for your sake
several weeks, and raving about you this morning, and pouring forth a
deluge of abuse, because I represented your failings in a plain light,
for the purpose of mitigating her adoration. But don't notice it
further: I wished to punish her sauciness, that's all. I like her too
well, my dear Heathcliff, to let you absolutely seize and devour her up.'

'And I like her too ill to attempt it,' said he, 'except in a very
ghoulish fashion. You'd hear of odd things if I lived alone with that
mawkish, waxen face: the most ordinary would be painting on its white the
colours of the rainbow, and turning the blue eyes black, every day or
two: they detestably resemble Linton's.'

'Delectably!' observed Catherine. 'They are dove's eyes--angel's!'

'She's her brother's heir, is she not?' he asked, after a brief silence.

'I should be sorry to think so,' returned his companion. 'Half a dozen
nephews shall erase her title, please heaven! Abstract your mind from
the subject at present: you are too prone to covet your neighbour's
goods; remember _this_ neighbour's goods are mine.'

'If they were _mine_, they would be none the less that,' said Heathcliff;
'but though Isabella Linton may be silly, she is scarcely mad; and, in
short, we'll dismiss the matter, as you advise.'

From their tongues they did dismiss it; and Catherine, probably, from her
thoughts. The other, I felt certain, recalled it often in the course of
the evening. I saw him smile to himself--grin rather--and lapse into
ominous musing whenever Mrs. Linton had occasion to be absent from the
apartment.

I determined to watch his movements. My heart invariably cleaved to the
master's, in preference to Catherine's side: wit