Page 170 - WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Wuthering Heights

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 conclusions he’ll
draw? Look, Heathcliff! they are instruments 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 speaking 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

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