Page 272 - WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Wuthering Heights

Chapter XVII

THAT Friday made the last of our fine days for a
month. In the evening the weather broke: the wind
shifted from south to north- east, and brought rain first,
and then sleet and snow. On the morrow one could
hardly imagine that there had been three weeks of
summer: the primroses and crocuses were hidden under
wintry drifts; the larks were silent, the young leaves of the
early trees smitten and blackened. And dreary, and chill,
and dismal, that morrow did creep over! My master kept
his room; I took possession of the lonely parlour,
converting it into a nursery: and there I was, sitting with
the moaning doll of a child laid on my knee; rocking it to
and fro, and watching, meanwhile, the still driving flakes
build up the uncurtained window, when the door opened,
and some person entered, out of breath and laughing! My
anger was greater than my astonishment for a minute. I
supposed it one of the maids, and I cried - ‘Have done!
How dare you show your giddiness here; What would
Mr. Linton say if he heard you?’
’Excuse me!’ answered a familiar voice; ‘but I know
Edgar is in bed, and I cannot stop myself.’

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