Edgar reluctantly permits Catherine and Nelly to make their first supervised ride to meet Linton, with the understanding that they are not to leave Grange land. At the guide-stone, however, a herd-boy tells them Linton is nearer Wuthering Heights and asks them to come farther, immediately bending Edgar’s condition.

Catherine and Nelly find Linton close to the Heights, without a horse, lying on the heath. Linton looks alarmingly pale, weak, and wasted. Catherine is shocked by his condition, but Linton insists he is better and blames the heat, the weather, and a morning walk for his exhaustion.

Catherine tries to revive their earlier intimacy by talking cheerfully about their imagined paradises and future meetings, but Linton is listless, inattentive, and morose. When Catherine proposes leaving, Linton becomes frightened and begs her to stay longer, not from affection but because he fears Heathcliff’s anger if the meeting appears unsuccessful.

Linton asks Catherine to tell Edgar that he is in tolerable health and to avoid making Heathcliff think he has been silent or dull. Nelly questions whether Heathcliff is severe with Linton, but Linton does not answer directly; his terror, trembling, and fear of his father’s approach reveal that Heathcliff is coercing him.

After Linton briefly dozes and wakes in panic, imagining he has heard Heathcliff, Catherine decides to leave. By the time Catherine and Nelly return to Thrushcross Grange, Catherine’s disappointment has softened into pity and unease. Edgar asks for an account, but both Catherine and Nelly report cautiously, uncertain how much of Linton’s misery and fear to reveal.