"Come in! Come in! ... Cathy, do come. Oh, do - once more! Oh! My heart's darling! Hear me this time, Catherine, at last!" Comment.

Heathcliff comes in, evidently disturbed and confused, unaware that Lockwood is there. Lockwood tells him what happened, mentioning the dream and Catherine Linton's name, which distresses and angers Heathcliff. Lockwood goes to the kitchen, but on his way he hears Heathcliff at the window, despairingly begging 'Cathy' to come in "at last" (29). Lockwood is embarrassed by his host's obvious agony.

It is very important that the ghost of Catherine Linton (who is more than just a figment of Lockwood's imagination) appears as a child. Of course Lockwood thinks of her as a child, since he has just read parts of her childhood diary, but Heathcliff also seems to find it natural that she appeared in the form she had when they were children together. Rather than progressing from childhood on to a maturer age with its different values, Heathcliff and Catherine never really grew up. That is to say, the most emotionally important parts of their lives either took place in childhood or follows directly from commitments made then. They never outgrew their solidarity against the oppressive forces of adult authority and religion that is described in Catherine's diary. Thus the ghost of Catherine Linton (that is her married name) tries to return to her childhood sanctuary, which Heathcliff has kept in its original state. This challenges the dominion of linear time.