<P> Three years pass . Edgar and Catherine marry and go to live together at Thrushcross Grange, where Catherine enjoys being "lady of the manor". Six months later, Heathcliff returns, now a wealthy gentleman . Catherine is delighted, but Edgar is not . Edgar's sister, Isabella, soon falls in love with Heathcliff, who despises her, but encourages the infatuation as a means of revenge . One day, he embraces Isabella, leading to an argument with Edgar . Upset, Catherine locks herself in her room and begins to make herself ill again . </P> <P> Heathcliff takes up residence at Wuthering Heights and spends his time gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad habits . Hindley dissipates his wealth and mortgages the farmhouse to Heathcliff to pay his debts . Heathcliff elopes with Isabella Linton . Two months after their elopement, Heathcliff and Isabella return to Wuthering Heights, where Heathcliff discovers that Catherine is dying . With Nelly's help, he visits Catherine secretly . However, Catherine is pregnant . The following day, she gives birth to a daughter, Cathy, shortly before dying . During Catherine's wake, Nelly discovers that Heathcliff snuck into Catherine's wake unnoticed and replaced a lock of Edgar's hair from Catherine's necklace with a lock of his own . </P> <P> Immediately following Catherine's funeral, Isabella leaves Heathcliff and asks Edgar if she may live with him at the Grange . Edgar banishes her from his home . Before leaving, Isabella confides in Nelly, laughing as she tells Nelly how glad she is that Catherine died . She also demands that Nelly quiet Catherine's whimpering infant, Cathy, exclaiming, "I don't like to see it!...Listen to that child! It maintains a constant wail - send it out of my hearing, for an hour ..." Isabella eventually finds refuge in the South of England and gives birth to a son, Linton . Hindley dies six months after Catherine, and Heathcliff thus finds himself master of Wuthering Heights . </P> <P> Twelve years pass . Catherine's daughter Cathy has become a beautiful, high - spirited girl . Edgar learns that his sister Isabella is dying, so he leaves to retrieve her son Linton in order to adopt and educate him . Cathy, who has rarely left home, takes advantage of her father's absence to venture further afield . She rides over the moors to Wuthering Heights and discovers that she has not one but two cousins: Hareton, in addition to Linton . She also lets it be known that her father has gone to fetch Linton . When Edgar returns with Linton, a weak and sickly boy, Heathcliff insists that he live at Wuthering Heights . </P>

Historical information about the period of publication of wuthering heights