Summary Chp. 2

Lockwood arrives at his home to find a servant cleaning up and decides to go to Wuthering Heights again. There, Joseph refuses to open the door, saying his master isn’t even home. The weather is chilly and snow has started to fall. Cold Lockwood can’t afford to walk back four miles to Thrushcross Grange now. Fortunately one young man eventually appears and opens the gate. He curses a lot and looks uneducated, but at the same time he doesn’t seem to be a servant.

Inside sits one young lady who Lockwood thinks is Heathcliff’s wife. He politely greets her but is ignored. Neither the young lady nor the young man makes a good company; Lockwood is glad when Heathcliff finally returns. All three act despicably to one another, making Lockwood wonders if his presence is the cause.

Soon after Heathcliff explains that the young lady is not his wife but his daughter-in-law. Automatically Lockwood assumes the young man to be her husband. Again Heathcliff corrects him, saying that his son is dead and that the young man, Hareton Earnshaw, is not his son. No further explanation is given.

As it gets dark, Lockwood wonders aloud how he should get home, but no one notices him. He then approaches Mrs. Heathcliff personally and asks if she knows the way to get home, which she answers unhelpfully by the same way he gets here. She complains that they won’t even let her pass the garden wall.

Finally Lockwood decides to stay over. He offers to sleep in the chair, but Heathcliff replies he can’t let a stranger sleep unsupervised. Offended, Lockwood grabs a lantern and then the door. He hasn’t walked a step out when two dogs attack him upon Joseph’s command for taking the lantern.

No one offers Lockwood any help. Fortunately there’s Zillah, the female servant from the other day. Clearly she’s the only one in that house who knows how to treat a guest.