Wuthering Heights

but you may sing a song if you can sing, or you may say a nice, long interesting ballad – one of those you promised to teach me, or a story – I'd rather have a ballad though, begin.«
    Catherine repeated the longest she could remember. The employment pleased both mightily. Linton would have another, and after that another; notwithstanding my strenuous objections; and so, they went on, until the clock struck twelve, and we heard Hareton in the court, returning for his dinner.
    »And to-morrow, Catherine, will you be here to-morrow?« asked young Heathcliff, holding her frock, as she rose reluctantly.
    »No!« I answered, »nor next day neither.« She, however, gave a different response, evidently, for his forehead cleared as she stooped, and whispered in his ear.
    »You won't go to-morrow, recollect, Miss!« I commenced when we were out of the house. »You are not dreaming of it, are you?«
    She smiled.
    »Oh, I'll take good care!« I continued, »I'll have that lock mended, and you can escape by no way else.«
    »I can get over the wall,« she said laughing. »The Grange is not a prison, Ellen, and you are not my jailer. And besides I'm almost seventeen. I'm a woman – and I'm certain Linton would recover quickly if he had me to look after him – I'm older than he is, you know, and wiser, less childish, am I not? And he'll soon do as I direct him with some slight coaxing – He's a pretty little darling when he's good. I'd make such a pet of him, if he were mine – We should never quarrel, should we, after we were used to each other? Don't you like him, Ellen?«
    »Like him?« I exclaimed. »The worst tempered bit of a sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens! Happily, as Mr. Heathcliff conjectured, he'll not win twenty! I doubt whether he'll see spring indeed – and small loss to his family, whenever he drops off; and lucky it is for us that his father took him – The kinder he was treated, the more tedious and selfish he'd be! I'm glad you have no chance of having him for a husband, Miss Catherine!«
    My companion waxed serious at hearing this speech – To speak of his death so regardlessly wounded her feelings.
    »He's younger than I,« she answered, after a protracted pause of meditation, »and he ought to live the longest, he will – he must live as long as I do. He's as strong now as when he first came into the North, I'm positive of that! It's only a cold that ails him, the same as papa has – You say papa will get better, and why shouldn't he?«
    »Well, well,« I cried, »after all, we needn't trouble ourselves; for listen, Miss, and mind, I'll keep my word – If you attempt going to Wuthering Heights again, with, or without me, I shall inform Mr. Linton, and unless he allow it, the intimacy with your cousin must not be revived.«
    »It has been revived!« muttered Cathy sulkily.
    »Must not be continued, then!« I said.
    »We'll see!« was her reply, and she set off at a gallop, leaving me to toil in the rear.
    We both reached home before our dinner-time: my master supposed we had been wandering through the park, and therefore, he demanded no explanation of our absence. As soon as I entered, I hastened to change my soaked shoes, and stockings; but sitting such a while at the Heights, had done the mischief. On the succeeding morning, I was laid up; and during three weeks I remained incapacitated for attending to my duties – a calamity never experienced prior to that period, and, never I am thankful to say since.
    My little mistress behaved like an angel in coming to wait on me, and cheer my solitude: the confinement brought me exceedingly low – It is wearisome, to a stirring active body – but few have slighter reasons for complaint than I had. The moment Catherine left Mr. Linton's room, she appeared at my bed-side. Her day was divided between us; no amusement usurped a minute: she neglected her meals, her studies, and her play; and she was the fondest nurse that ever watched: she must have had a warm heart, when she loved her father so, to give so much to me!
    I said her days were divided between us; but the master retired early, and I generally needed nothing after six o'clock, thus the evening was her own.
    Poor thing, I never considered what she did with herself after tea. And though frequently, when she looked in to bid me good night I remarked a fresh colour in her cheeks, and a pinkness over her slender fingers; instead of fancying the hue borrowed from a cold ride across the