Wuthering Heights

‘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
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Wuthering Heights