Lonely and unwell after his experiences at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood abandons his wish for isolation and asks Mrs. Dean to sit with him during supper. Hoping for conversation, Lockwood questions Mrs. Dean about Heathcliff, the young Mrs. Heathcliff, Hareton Earnshaw, and the old local families.

Mrs. Dean explains that Heathcliff is wealthy but miserly, that his son is dead, and that the young widow is Catherine Linton, the daughter of Mrs. Dean’s former master. Mrs. Dean also clarifies that Hareton Earnshaw is the last Earnshaw and Catherine Linton’s cousin, while Mrs. Heathcliff’s late husband was also her cousin. Lockwood’s curiosity deepens, and Mrs. Dean agrees to tell the history of the family.

Mrs. Dean begins with her childhood at Wuthering Heights, where her mother had nursed Hindley Earnshaw. One summer morning, old Mr. Earnshaw set off on foot to Liverpool, promising Hindley a fiddle, little Catherine Earnshaw a whip, and Mrs. Dean fruit. After three days, Mr. Earnshaw returned exhausted, carrying a dirty, ragged, dark-haired child he had found starving and homeless in the streets.

Mrs. Earnshaw objected angrily to taking in the child, but Mr. Earnshaw insisted on keeping him. Hindley and Catherine were upset because the promised gifts were ruined or lost, and both rejected the stranger. Mrs. Dean put the child on the stair landing instead of with the children, but after Mr. Earnshaw discovered this, Mrs. Dean was briefly sent away. When she returned, the child had been named Heathcliff, after a dead Earnshaw son.

Catherine soon became close to Heathcliff, but Hindley hated him, and Mrs. Dean initially disliked him too. Heathcliff endured mistreatment silently, which made Mr. Earnshaw defend and favor him, increasing Hindley’s jealousy. After Mrs. Earnshaw died, Hindley came to see Heathcliff as a usurper of his father’s affection and privileges.

During a measles outbreak, Mrs. Dean nursed the children and softened toward Heathcliff because he was quiet and undemanding while dangerously ill. Yet she still saw in him a hard, calculating endurance. She recalls a quarrel over horses in which Heathcliff used Hindley’s violence as leverage to force an exchange, revealing that his patience did not mean he lacked vindictiveness.