precious time

precious time
`Well, Linton,' murmured Catherine, when his corrugated brow relaxed. `Are you glad to see me? Can I do you any good?'
`Why didn't you come before?' he asked. `You should have come, instead of writing. It tired me dreadfully, writing those long letters. I'd far rather have talked to you. Now, I can neither bear to talk, nor anything else. I wonder where Zillah is! Will you (looking at me) step into the kitchen and see?'
I had received no thanks for my other service; and being unwilling to run out to and fro at his behest, I replied:
`Nobody is out there but Joseph.'
`I want to drink,' he exclaimed fretfully, turning away. `Zillah is constantly gadding off to Gimmerton since papa went: it's miserable! And I'm obliged to come down here--they resolved never to hear me upstairs.'
`Is your father attentive to you, Master Heathcliff?' I asked, perceiving Catherine to be checked in her friendly advances.
Red Hat Girl
Red Nude painting
`Attentive? He makes them a little more attentive at least,' he cried. `The wretches! Do you know, Miss Linton, that brute Hareton laughs at me! I hate him! indeed, I hate them all: they are odious beings.'
Cathy began searching for some water; she lighted on a pitcher in the dresser, filled a tumbler, and brought it. He bid her add a spoonful of wine from a bottle on the table; and having swallowed a small portion, appeared more tranquil, and said she was very kind.
`And are you glad to see me?' asked she, reiterating her former question, and pleased to detect the faint dawn of a smile.
`Yes, I am. It's something new to hear a voice like yours!' he replied. `But I have been vexed, because you wouldn't come. And papa swore it was owing to me: he called me a pitiful, shuffling, worthless thing; and said you despised me; and if he had been in my place, he would be more the master of the Grange than your father, by this time. But you don't despise me, do you, Miss--
Regatta At Argenteuil