I insisted on the funeral being respectable. Mr. Heath-
cliff said I might have my own way there too; only,
he desired me to remember that the money for the
whole affair came out of his pocket. He maintained a
hard, careless deportment, indicative of neither joy nor
sorrow; if anything, it expressed a flinty gratification
at a piece of difficult work successfully executed. I
observed once, indeed, something like exultation in his
aspect; it was just when the people were bearing the
coffin from the house. He had the hypocrisy to repre-
sent a mourner; and previous to following with Hareton,
he lifted the unfortunate child on to the table, and
muttered, with peculiar gusto, "Now, my bonny lad,
you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as
crooked 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 un-
disputed, 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 Earn-

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