Chapter 25 — Wuthering Heights

Dean pauses to needle Lockwood about Catherine Linton's portrait and his interest, then resumes the winter story with Edgar visibly failing in spring: Cathy obeys her dying father, and Edgar asks whether nephew Linton improves. Nelly calls the boy delicate and unlikely to reach manhood, yet manageable in marriage unless Cathy indulges him foolishly.

Edgar, looking toward Gimmerton kirkyard, admits he once prayed to join Catherine underground; now he would accept Heathcliff's triumph if Linton could console Cathy, but fears abandoning her to a feeble tool of his enemy. He would rather lay Cathy in the earth before him than resign her to an unworthy heir. Spring weakens him while Cathy mistakes his flushed cheeks for recovery; Heathcliff screens every letter while Linton pleads eloquently for supervised moor meetings that sound simple and probably genuine.

Cathy and Nelly together crack Edgar's steady refusal into weekly supervised rides on moors nearest the Grange as June finds him steadily declining, still hoping union with his heir may keep Cathy at the Grange. Nelly closes already knowing Heathcliff tyrannically drove the dying boy to feign eagerness so the marriage plot would not die with him, redoubling cruelty as death threatened his cruel plans.