ooked as another, with
the same wind to twist it!' The unsuspecting thing was pleased at this
speech: he played with Heathcliff's whiskers, and stroked his cheek; but
I divined its meaning, and observed tartly, 'That boy must go back with
me to Thrushcross Grange, sir. There is nothing in the world less yours
than he is!'

'Does Linton say so?' he demanded.

'Of course--he has ordered me to take him,' I replied.

'Well,' said the scoundrel, 'we'll not argue the subject now: but I have
a fancy to try my hand at rearing a young one; so intimate to your master
that I must supply the place of this with my own, if he attempt to remove
it. I don't engage to let Hareton go undisputed; but I'll be pretty sure
to make the other come! Remember to tell him.'

This hint was enough to bind our hands. I repeated its substance on my
return; and Edgar Linton, little interested at the commencement, spoke no
more of interfering. I'm not aware that he could have done it to any
purpose, had he been ever so willing.

The guest was now the master of Wuthering Heights: he held firm
possession, and proved to the attorney--who, in his turn, proved it to
Mr. Linton--that Earnshaw had mortgaged every yard of land he owned for
cash to supply his mania for gaming; and he, Heathcliff, was the
mortgagee. In that manner Hareton, who should now be the first gentleman
in the neighbourhood, was reduced to a state of complete dependence on
his father's inveterate enemy; and lives in his own house as a servant,
deprived of the advantage of wages: quite unable to right himself,
because of his friendlessness, and his ignorance that he has been
wronged.

CHAPTER XVIII

The twelve years, continued Mrs. Dean, following that dismal period were
the happiest of my life: my greatest troubles in their passage rose from
our little lady's trifling illnesses, which she had to experience in
common with all children, rich and poor. For the rest, after the first
six months, she grew like a larch, and could walk and talk too, in her
own way, before the heath blossomed a second time over Mrs. Linton's
dust. She was the most winning thing that ever brought sunshine into a
desolate house: a real beauty in face, with the Earnshaws' handsome dark
eyes, but the Lintons' fair skin and small features, and yellow curling
hair. Her spirit was high, though not rough, and qualified by a heart
sensitive and lively to excess in its affections. That capacity fo