I pushed forward, trusting to my own resources, for the porter's lodge is untenanted as yet.
The distance from the gate to the Grange is to miles: I believe I managed to make it four; what with losing myself among the trees, and sinking up to the neck in snow, a predicament which only those who have experienced it can appreciate. At any rate, whatever were my wanderings, the clock chimed twelve as I entered the house; and that gave exactly an hour for every mile of the usual way from Wuthering Heights.
My human fixture, and her satellites rushed to welcome me; exclaiming, tumultuously, they had completely given me up; everybody conjectured that I perished last night; and they were wondering how they must set about the search for my remains.
I bid them be quiet, now that they saw me returned, and, benumbed to my very heart, I dragged up-stairs, whence, after putting on dry clothes, and pacing to and fro, thirty or
