I could gather from her that he continued in weak health, and was a tiresome inmate. She said Mr. Heathcliff seemed to dislike him ever longer and worse, though he took some trouble to conceal it: he had an antipathy to the sound of his voice, and could not do at all with his sitting in the same room with him many minutes together. There seldom passed much talk between them: Linton learnt his lessons and spent his evenings in a small apartment they called the parlour: or else lay in bed all day: for he was constantly getting coughs, and colds, and aches, and pains of some sort.

‘And I never know such a fainthearted creature,’ added the woman; ‘nor one so careful of hisseln. He WILL go on, if I leave the window open a bit late in the evening. Oh! it’s killing, a breath of night air! And he must have