rapid succession, and, while tears beaded her lashes,
bent the strength of her small fingers to loosen the firm
clutch of Catherine; and perceiving that as fast as she
raised one finger off her arm another closed down, and
she could not remove the whole together, she began to
make use of her nails; and their sharpness presently
ornamented the detainer's with crescents of red.

"There's a tigress!" exclaimed Mrs. Linton, setting
her free, and shaking her hand with pain. "Begone,
for God's sake, and hide your vixen face! How foolish
to reveal those talons to him! Can't you fancy the con-
clusions he'll draw?--Look, Heathcliff! they re instru-
ments that will do execution; you must beware of your
eyes."

"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 speak-
ing 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, "ex-
cept 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 com-
panion. "Half a dozen nephews shall erase her title,

-105-