ther the sheep nor he would go on so I bid him take
the road lower down. He probably raised the phantoms from thinking, as
he traversed the moors alone, on the nonsense he had heard his parents
and companions repeat. Yet, still, I don't like being out in the dark
now; and I don't like being left by myself in this grim house: I cannot
help it; I shall be glad when they leave it, and shift to the Grange.

'They are going to the Grange, then?' I said.

'Yes,' answered Mrs. Dean, 'as soon as they are married, and that will be
on New Year's Day.'

'And who will live here then?'

'Why, Joseph will take care of the house, and, perhaps, a lad to keep him
company. They will live in the kitchen, and the rest will be shut up.'

'For the use of such ghosts as choose to inhabit it?' I observed.

'No, Mr. Lockwood,' said Nelly, shaking her head. 'I believe the dead
are at peace: but it is not right to speak of them with levity.'

At that moment the garden gate swung to; the ramblers were returning.

'_They_ are afraid of nothing,' I grumbled, watching their approach
through the window. 'Together, they would brave Satan and all his
legions.'

As they stepped on to the door-stones, and halted to take a last look at
the moon--or, more correctly, at each other by her light--I felt
irresistibly impelled to escape them again; and, pressing a remembrance
into the hand of Mrs. Dean, and disregarding her expostulations at my
rudeness, I vanished through the kitchen as they opened the house-door;
and so should have confirmed Joseph in his opinion of his
fellow-servant's gay indiscretions, had he not fortunately recognised me
for a respectable character by the sweet ring of a sovereign at his feet.

My walk home was lengthened by a diversion in the direction of the kirk.
When beneath its walls, I perceived decay had made progress, even in
seven months: many a window showed black gaps deprived of glass; and
slates jutted off here and there, beyond the right line of the roof, to
be gradually worked off in coming autumn storms.

I sought, and soon discovered, the three headstones on the slope next the
moor: the middle one grey, and half buried in the heath; Edgar Linton's
only harmonized by the turf and moss creeping up its foot; Heathcliff's
still bare.

I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths
fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind
breathing through the grass, and wondered how