"Yes," said Catherine, stroking his long soft hair; "if I could only get papa's consent, I'd spend half my time with you. Pretty Linton! I wish you were my brother." "And then you would like me as well as your father?" observed he, more cheerfully. "But papa says you would love me better than him and all the world, if you were my wife; so I'd rather you were that."

　　"No, I should never love anybody better than papa," she returned gravely. "And people hate their wives, sometimes; but not their sisters and brothers: and if you were the latter you would live with us, and papa would be as fond of you as he is of me."

　　Linton denied that people ever hated their wives; but Cathy affirmed they did, and, in her wisdom, instanced his own father's aversion to her aunt. I endeavoured to stop her thoughtless tongue. I couldn't succeed till everything she knew was out. Master Heathcliff, much irritated, asserted her relation was false.

　　"Papa told me; and papa does not tell falsehoods," she answered pertly.

　　"Ny papa scorns yours!" cried Linton. "He calls him a sneaking fool!"

　　"Yours is a wicked man," retorted Catherine, "and you are very naughty to dare to repeat what he says. He must be wicked to have made Aunt Isabella leave him as she did!"

　　"she didn't leave him," said the boy; "you shan't contradict me!"

　　"she did!" cried my young lady.来源：www.examda.com

　　"Well, I'll tell you something!" said Linton. "Your mother hated your father: now then."

　　"Oh!" exclaimed Catherine, too enraged to continue. "And she loved mine!" added he.

　　"You little liar! I hate you now," she panted, and her face grew red with passion.

　　"she did! she did!" sang Linton, sinking into the recess of his chair, and leaning back his head to enjoy the agitation of the other disputant, who stood behind.

　　"Hush, Master Heathcliff!" I said; 'that's your father's tale, too, I suppose."

　　"It isn't: you hold your tongue!" he answered. "she did, she did, Catherine! she did, she did!"来源：www.examda.com

　　Cathy, beside herself, gave the chair a violent push, and caused him to fall against one arm. He was immediately seized by a suffocating cough that soon ended his triumph. It lasted so long that it frightened even me. As to his cousin, she wept, with all her might; aghast at the mischief she had done: though she said nothing. I held him till the fit exhausted itself. Then he thrust me away, and leant his head down silently. Catherine quelled her lamentations also, took a seat opposite, and looked solemnly into the fire.

　　"How do you feel now, Master Heathcliff?" I inquired, after waiting ten minutes.

　　"I wish she felt as I do," he replied: 'spiteful, cruel thing! Hareton never touches me: he never struck me in his life. And I was better today: and there——" his voice died in a whimper.

　　"I didn't strike you!" muttered Cathy, chewing her lip to prevent another burst of emotion.

　　He sighed and moaned like one under great suffering, and kept it up for a quarter of an hour; on purpose to distress his cousin apparently, for whenever he caught a stifled sob from her he put renewed pain and pathos into the inflections of his voice.

　　"I'm sorry I hurt you, Linton," she said at length, racked beyond endurance. "But I couldn't have been hurt by that little push, and I had no idea that you could, either: you"re not much, are you, Linton? Don't let me go home thinking I've done you harm. Answer! speak to me."来源：www.examda.com

　　"I can't speak to you," he murmured; "you've hurt me so, that I shall lie awake all night choking with this cough. If you had it you'd know what it was; but you'll be comfortably asleep while I"m in agony, and nobody near me. I wonder how you would like to pass those fearful nights!" And he began to wail aloud, for very pity of himself.

　　"since you are in the habit of passing dreadful nights," I said, "it won't be miss who spoils your ease: you'd be the same had she never come. However, she shall not disturb you again; and perhaps you'll get quieter when we leave you.

　　"Must I go?" asked Catherine dolefully, bending over him. 'do you want me to go, Linton?"

　　"You can't alter what you've done," he replied pettishly, shrinking from her, "unless you alter it for the worse by teasing me into a fever."

　　"Well, then, I must go?" she repeated.

　　"Let me alone, at least," said he; "I can't bear your talking."