yer
ill ways, but goa raight to t' divil, like yer mother afore ye!'

I imagined, for a moment, that this piece of eloquence was addressed to
me; and, sufficiently enraged, stepped towards the aged rascal with an
intention of kicking him out of the door. Mrs. Heathcliff, however,
checked me by her answer.

'You scandalous old hypocrite!' she replied. 'Are you not afraid of
being carried away bodily, whenever you mention the devil's name? I warn
you to refrain from provoking me, or I'll ask your abduction as a special
favour! Stop! look here, Joseph,' she continued, taking a long, dark
book from a shelf; 'I'll show you how far I've progressed in the Black
Art: I shall soon be competent to make a clear house of it. The red cow
didn't die by chance; and your rheumatism can hardly be reckoned among
providential visitations!'

'Oh, wicked, wicked!' gasped the elder; 'may the Lord deliver us from
evil!'

'No, reprobate! you are a castaway--be off, or I'll hurt you seriously!
I'll have you all modelled in wax and clay! and the first who passes the
limits I fix shall--I'll not say what he shall be done to--but, you'll
see! Go, I'm looking at you!'

The little witch put a mock malignity into her beautiful eyes, and
Joseph, trembling with sincere horror, hurried out, praying, and
ejaculating 'wicked' as he went. I thought her conduct must be prompted
by a species of dreary fun; and, now that we were alone, I endeavoured to
interest her in my distress.

'Mrs. Heathcliff,' I said earnestly, 'you must excuse me for troubling
you. I presume, because, with that face, I'm sure you cannot help being
good-hearted. Do point out some landmarks by which I may know my way
home: I have no more idea how to get there than you would have how to get
to London!'

'Take the road you came,' she answered, ensconcing herself in a chair,
with a candle, and the long book open before her. 'It is brief advice,
but as sound as I can give.'

'Then, if you hear of me being discovered dead in a bog or a pit full of
snow, your conscience won't whisper that it is partly your fault?'

'How so? I cannot escort you. They wouldn't let me go to the end of the
garden wall.'

'_You_! I should be sorry to ask you to cross the threshold, for my
convenience, on such a night,' I cried. 'I want you to tell me my way,
not to _show_ it: or else to persuade Mr. Heathcliff to give me a guide.'

'Who? There is himself, Earnshaw, Zillah, Joseph and I