ave spoken to him!' she expostulated with Master Linton. `He was in a bad temper, and now you've spoilt your visit; and he'll be flogged: I hate him to be flogged! I can't eat my dinner. Why did you speak to him, Edgar?'

`I didn't,' sobbed the youth, escaping from my hands, and finishing the remainder of the purification with his cambric pocket handkerchief. `I promised mamma that I wouldn't say one word to him, and I didn't.'

`Well, don't cry,' replied Catherine, contemptuously, `you're not killed. Don't make more mischief; my brother is coming: be quiet! Give over, Isabella! Has anybody hurt you?'

`There, there, children--to your seats!' cried Hindley, bustling in. `That brute of a lad has warmed me nicely. Next time, Master Edgar, take the law into your own fists--it will give you an appetite!'

The little party recovered its equanimity at sight of the fragrant feast. They were hungry after their ride, and easily consoled, since no real harm had befallen them. Mr Earnshaw carved bountiful platefuls, and the mistress made them merry with lively talk. I waited behind her chair, and was pained to behold Catherine, with dry eyes and an indifferent air, commence cutting up the wing of a goose before her. `An unfeeling child,' I thought to myself; `how lightly she dismisses her old playmate's troubles. I could not have imagined her to be so selfish.' She lifted a mouthful to her lips; then she set it down again: her cheeks flushed, and the tears gushed over them. She slipped her fork to the floor, and hastily dived under the cloth to conceal her emotion. I did not cal her unfeeling long; for I perceived she was in purgatory through out the day, and wearying to find an opportunity of getting by herself, or paying a visit to Heathcliff, who had been locked up b the master: as I discovered, on endeavouring to introduce to him private mess of victuals.

In the evening we had a dance. Cathy begged that he might b liberated then, as Isabella Linton had no partner; her entreaties were vain, and I was appointed to supply the deficiency. We got rid of all gloom in the excitement of the exercise, and our pleasure was increased by the arrival of the Gimmerton band, mustering fifteen strong: a trumpet, a trombone, clarionets, bassoon French horns, and a bass viol, besides singers. They go the rounds of all the respectable houses, and receive contributions every Christmas, and we esteemed it a first-rate treat to hear them. After the usual carols had been sung, we set them to songs and glees. Mrs Earnshaw loved the music, and so they gave us plenty.

Catherine loved it too; but she said it sounded sweetest at the top of the steps, and she went up in the dark; I followed. They shut the house door below, never noting our absence, it was so full people. She made no stay at the stair's head, but mounted farther, to the garret where Heathcliff was confined, and called him. I stubbornly declined answering for a while; she persevered, and finally persuaded him to hold communion with her through the boards. I let the poor things converse unmolested, till I supposed the songs were going to cease, and the singers to get some refreshment; then, I clambered up the ladder to warn her. Instead of finding her outside, I heard her voice within. The little monkey had crept by the skylight of one garret, along the roof, into the skylight of the other, and it was with the utmost difficulty I could coax her out again. Whe

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