Wuthering Heights

The next morning, Cathy and Nelly go to Wuthering Heights and enter through the kitchen, where Joseph and Linton bicker over the fire. Cathy and Nelly help tend the fire while Linton complains about the lack of attentiveness he is experiencing. Cathy tells Linton she loves him “better than anybody living” (173), stroking Linton’s hair, but soon they begin to argue about their parents. In frustration and anger, Cathy pushes Linton’s chair over and “caused him to fall against one arm” (174), which inspires Linton to “distress his cousin[...]for whenever he caught a stifled sob from her he put renewed pain and pathos into the inflexions of his voice” (174). Cathy apologizes, and Nelly suggests they leave. After they exit, “Linton had slid from his seat on to the hearthstone, and lay writhing in the mere perverseness of an indulged plague of a child” (175). Cathy helps him, and Linton agrees they are friends again. When Cathy promises to come back to Wuthering Heights, Nelly, in dismay, promises to lock the gate so Cathy can’t get out. The following morning, Nelly falls ill, which means Cathy is free to do what she likes for several weeks.