CATHERINE: I wouldn't be you for a
kingdom! Nelly, help me to convince her of her madness. Tell her what
Heathcliff is: an unreclaimed creature, without refinement, without
cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze and whinstone. I'd as soon put that
little canary into the park on a winter's day, as recommend you to bestow your
heart on him! It is deplorable ignorance of his character, child, and nothing
else, which makes that dream enter your head. Pray, don't imagine that he
conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior! He's not
a rough diamond - a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic: he's a fierce,
pitiless, wolfish man. I never say to him, "Let this or that enemy alone,
because it would be ungenerous or cruel to harm them;" I say, "Let
them alone, because I should hate them to be wronged:" and he'd crush you
like a sparrow's egg, Isabella, if he found you a troublesome charge. I know he
couldn't love a Linton; and yet he'd be quite capable of marrying your fortune
and expectations: avarice is growing with him a besetting sin. There's my
picture: and I'm his friend -- so much so, that had he thought seriously to
catch you, I should, perhaps, have held my tongue, and let you fall into his
trap. Banish him from your thoughts. He's a bird of bad omen: no mate for you.
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