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Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
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Wuthering Heights
Chapter I
1801
...
This
is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not
believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely
removed from the stir of society
...
Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to
divide the desolation between us
...
’Mr
...
A nod was the answer
...
Lockwood, your new tenant, sir
...
‘I should not allow any one to inconvenience
me, if I could hinder it - walk in!’
The ‘walk in’ was uttered with closed teeth, and
expressed the sentiment, ‘Go to the Deuce:’ even the gate
over which he leant manifested no sympathising
movement to the words; and I think that circumstance
determined me to accept the invitation: I felt interested in
a man who seemed more exaggeratedly reserved than
myself
...
Lockwood’s horse;
and bring up some wine
...
‘No wonder the grass grows up between the flags,
and cattle are the only hedge- cutters
...
‘The Lord help us!’ he
soliloquised in an undertone of peevish displeasure, while
relieving me of my horse: looking, meantime, in my face
so sourly that I charitably conjectured he must have need
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of divine aid to digest his dinner, and his pious ejaculation
had no reference to my unexpected advent
...
Heathcliff’s
dwelling
...
Pure, bracing
ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed:
one may guess the power of the north wind blowing over
the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the
end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all
stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the
sun
...
Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a
quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and
especially about the principal door; above which, among a
wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I
detected the date ‘1500,’ and the name ‘Hareton
Earnshaw
...
One stop brought us into the family sitting-room,
without any introductory lobby or passage: they call it
here ‘the house’ pre- eminently
...
One end, indeed, reflected splendidly both light and
heat from ranks of immense pewter dishes, interspersed
with silver jugs and tankards, towering row after row, on a
vast oak dresser, to the very roof
...
Above the chimney were sundry villainous
old guns, and a couple of horse-pistols: and, by way of
ornament, three gaudily-painted canisters disposed along
its ledge
...
In an arch
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Wuthering Heights
under the dresser reposed a huge, liver-coloured bitch
pointer, surrounded by a swarm of squealing puppies; and
other dogs haunted other recesses
...
Such an
individual seated in his arm-chair, his mug of ale frothing
on the round table before him, is to be seen in any circuit
of five or six miles among these hills, if you go at the right
time after dinner
...
Heathcliff forms a singular
contrast to his abode and style of living
...
Possibly, some people might suspect
him of a degree of under-bred pride; I have a sympathetic
chord within that tells me it is nothing of the sort: I know,
by instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy
displays of feeling - to manifestations of mutual kindliness
...
No,
I’m running on too fast: I bestow my own attributes over6 of 540
Wuthering Heights
liberally on him
...
Heathcliff may have entirely
dissimilar reasons for keeping his hand out of the way
when he meets a would-be acquaintance, to those which
actuate me
...
While enjoying a month of fine weather at the seacoast, I was thrown into the company of a most fascinating
creature: a real goddess in my eyes, as long as she took no
notice of me
...
And what
did I do? I confess it with shame - shrunk icily into myself,
like a snail; at every glance retired colder and farther; till
finally the poor innocent was led to doubt her own senses,
and, overwhelmed with confusion at her supposed
mistake, persuaded her mamma to decamp
...
I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that
towards which my landlord advanced, and filled up an
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Wuthering Heights
interval of silence by attempting to caress the canine
mother, who had left her nursery, and was sneaking
wolfishly to the back of my legs, her lip curled up, and her
white teeth watering for a snatch
...
’You’d better let the dog alone,’ growled Mr
...
‘She’s not accustomed to be spoiled not kept for a pet
...
Not
anxious to come in contact with their fangs, I sat still; but,
imagining they would scarcely understand tacit insults, I
unfortunately indulged in winking and making faces at the
trio, and some turn of my physiognomy so irritated
madam, that she suddenly broke into a fury and leapt on
my knees
...
This proceeding aroused the whole hive:
half-a-dozen four-footed fiends, of various sizes and ages,
issued from hidden dens to the common centre
...
Mr
...
Happily, an inhabitant of
the kitchen made more despatch: a lusty dame, with
tucked-up gown, bare arms, and fire-flushed cheeks,
rushed into the midst of us flourishing a frying-pan: and
used that weapon, and her tongue, to such purpose, that
the storm subsided magically, and she only remained,
heaving like a sea after a high wind, when her master
entered on the scene
...
’What the devil, indeed!’ I muttered
...
You might as well leave a
stranger with a brood of tigers!’
’They won’t meddle with persons who touch nothing,’
he remarked, putting the bottle before me, and restoring
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the displaced table
...
Take
a glass of wine?’
’No, thank you
...
’
Heathcliff’s countenance relaxed into a grin
...
Lockwood
...
Guests are so
exceedingly rare in this house that I and my dogs, I am
willing to own, hardly know how to receive them
...
He - probably swayed by
prudential consideration of the folly of offending a good
tenant - relaxed a little in the laconic style of chipping off
his pronouns and auxiliary verbs, and introduced what he
supposed would be a subject of interest to me, - a
discourse on the advantages and disadvantages of my
present place of retirement
...
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Wuthering Heights
He evidently wished no repetition of my intrusion
...
It is astonishing how sociable I feel
myself compared with him
...
I had
half a mind to spend it by my study fire, instead of wading
through heath and mud to Wuthering Heights
...
B
...
This spectacle drove me back immediately; I
took my hat, and, after a four-miles’ walk, arrived at
Heathcliff’s garden-gate just in time to escape the first
feathery flakes of a snow-shower
...
Being unable to remove the chain, I jumped over, and,
running up the flagged causeway bordered with straggling
gooseberry-bushes, knocked vainly for admittance, till my
knuckles tingled and the dogs howled
...
At least, I would not keep my doors
barred in the day-time
...
Vinegar-faced Joseph projected his head from a round
window of the barn
...
‘T’ maister’s down i’ t’
fowld
...
’
’Is there nobody inside to open the door?’ I hallooed,
responsively
...
’
’Why? Cannot you tell her whom I am, eh, Joseph?’
’Nor-ne me! I’ll hae no hend wi’t,’ muttered the head,
vanishing
...
I seized the handle to
essay another trial; when a young man without coat, and
shouldering a pitchfork, appeared in the yard behind
...
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It glowed delightfully in the radiance of an immense fire,
compounded of coal, peat, and wood; and near the table,
laid for a plentiful evening meal, I was pleased to observe
the ‘missis,’ an individual whose existence I had never
previously suspected
...
She looked at me, leaning back
in her chair, and remained motionless and mute
...
‘I’m afraid, Mrs
...
’
She never opened her mouth
...
’Sit down,’ said the young man, gruffly
...
’
I obeyed; and hemmed, and called the villain Juno,
who deigned, at this second interview, to move the
extreme tip of her tail, in token of owning my
acquaintance
...
‘Do you
intend parting with the little ones, madam?’
’They are not mine,’ said the amiable hostess, more
repellingly than Heathcliff himself could have replied
...
’A strange choice of favourites!’ she observed
scornfully
...
I hemmed
once more, and drew closer to the hearth, repeating my
comment on the wildness of the evening
...
Her position before was sheltered from the light; now,
I had a distinct view of her whole figure and countenance
...
The canisters
were almost out of her reach; I made a motion to aid her;
she turned upon me as a miser might turn if any one
attempted to assist him in counting his gold
...
’
’I beg your pardon!’ I hastened to reply
...
’I shall be glad to have a cup,’ I answered
...
’No,’ I said, half smiling
...
’
She flung the tea back, spoon and all, and resumed her
chair in a pet; her forehead corrugated, and her red underlip pushed out, like a child’s ready to cry
...
I began to doubt whether he
were a servant or not: his dress and speech were both
rude, entirely devoid of the superiority observable in Mr
...
Heathcliff; his thick brown curls were rough and
uncultivated, his whiskers encroached bearishly over his
cheeks, and his hands were embrowned like those of a
common labourer: still his bearing was free, almost
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haughty, and he showed none of a domestic’s assiduity in
attending on the lady of the house
...
’You see, sir, I am come, according to promise!’ I
exclaimed, assuming the cheerful; ‘and I fear I shall be
weather-bound for half an hour, if you can afford me
shelter during that space
...
Do you know that you
run a risk of being lost in the marshes? People familiar
with these moors often miss their road on such evenings;
and I can tell you there is no chance of a change at
present
...
’
’Oh, indeed! Well, then, I must trust to my own
sagacity
...
’Is HE to have any?’ she asked, appealing to Heathcliff
...
The tone in which the words were
said revealed a genuine bad nature
...
When the
preparations were finished, he invited me with - ‘Now,
sir, bring forward your chair
...
I thought, if I had caused the cloud, it was my duty to
make an effort to dispel it
...
’It is strange,’ I began, in the interval of swallowing one
cup of tea and receiving another - ‘it is strange how
custom can mould our tastes and ideas: many could not
imagine the existence of happiness in a life of such
complete exile from the world as you spend, Mr
...
‘Where is she - my amiable
lady?’
’Mrs
...
’
’Well, yes - oh, you would intimate that her spirit has
taken the post of ministering angel, and guards the
fortunes of Wuthering Heights, even when her body is
gone
...
I might have seen there was too great a disparity
between the ages of the parties to make it likely that they
were man and wife
...
The other did not
look seventeen
...
Here is the consequence of being buried alive:
she has thrown herself away upon that boor from sheer
ignorance that better individuals existed! A sad pity - I
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must beware how I cause her to regret her choice
...
My
neighbour struck me as bordering on repulsive; I knew,
through experience, that I was tolerably attractive
...
Heathcliff is my daughter-in-law,’ said Heathcliff,
corroborating my surmise
...
’Ah, certainly - I see now: you are the favoured
possessor of the beneficent fairy,’ I remarked, turning to
my neighbour
...
But he seemed to recollect himself presently, and
smothered the storm in a brutal curse, muttered on my
behalf: which, however, I took care not to notice
...
I said she was my daughter-in-law:
therefore, she must have married my son
...
’
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Heathcliff smiled again, as if it were rather too bold a
jest to attribute the paternity of that bear to him
...
He fixed his eye on me longer than I cared to return
the stare, for fear I might be tempted either to box his ears
or render my hilarity audible
...
The dismal
spiritual atmosphere overcame, and more than neutralised,
the glowing physical comforts round me; and I resolved to
be cautious how I ventured under those rafters a third
time
...
A sorrowful sight I saw:
dark night coming down prematurely, and sky and hills
mingled in one bitter whirl of wind and suffocating snow
...
‘The roads
will be buried already; and, if they were bare, I could
scarcely distinguish a foot in advance
...
They’ll be covered if left in the fold all night: and put a
plank before them,’ said Heathcliff
...
There was no reply to my question; and on looking
round I saw only Joseph bringing in a pail of porridge for
the dogs, and Mrs
...
The former, when he had deposited
his burden, took a critical survey of the room, and in
cracked tones grated out - ‘Aw wonder how yah can
faishion to stand thear i’ idleness un war, when all on ‘ems
goan out! Bud yah’re a nowt, and it’s no use talking yah’ll niver mend o’yer ill ways, but goa raight to t’ divil,
like yer mother afore ye!’
I imagined, for a moment, that this piece of eloquence
was addressed to me; and, sufficiently enraged, stepped
towards the aged rascal with an intention of kicking him
out of the door
...
Heathcliff, however, checked me by
her answer
...
‘Are you
not afraid of being carried away bodily, whenever you
mention the devil’s name? I warn you to refrain from
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provoking me, or I’ll ask your abduction as a special
favour! Stop! look here, Joseph,’ she continued, taking a
long, dark book from a shelf; ‘I’ll show you how far I’ve
progressed in the Black Art: I shall soon be competent to
make a clear house of it
...
I
thought her conduct must be prompted by a species of
dreary fun; and, now that we were alone, I endeavoured
to interest her in my distress
...
Heathcliff,’ I said earnestly, ‘you must excuse me
for troubling you
...
Do point out
some landmarks by which I may know my way home: I
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have no more idea how to get there than you would have
how to get to London!’
’Take the road you came,’ she answered, ensconcing
herself in a chair, with a candle, and the long book open
before her
...
’
’Then, if you hear of me being discovered dead in a
bog or a pit full of snow, your conscience won’t whisper
that it is partly your fault?’
’How so? I cannot escort you
...
’
’YOU! I should be sorry to ask you to cross the
threshold, for my convenience, on such a night,’ I cried
...
Heathcliff to give me a guide
...
Which would you have?’
’Are there no boys at the farm?’
’No; those are all
...
’
’That you may settle with your host
...
’
’I hope it will be a lesson to you to make no more rash
journeys on these hills,’ cried Heathcliff’s stern voice from
the kitchen entrance
...
’
’I can sleep on a chair in this room,’ I replied
...
With this insult my patience was at an end
...
It was so dark that I
could not see the means of exit; and, as I wandered round,
I heard another specimen of their civil behaviour amongst
each other
...
’I’ll go with him as far as the park,’ he said
...
‘And who is to look after the
horses, eh?’
’A man’s life is of more consequence than one
evening’s neglect of the horses: somebody must go,’
murmured Mrs
...
’Not at your command!’ retorted Hareton
...
’
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’Then I hope his ghost will haunt you; and I hope Mr
...
’Hearken, hearken, shoo’s cursing on ‘em!’ muttered
Joseph, towards whom I had been steering
...
’Maister, maister, he’s staling t’ lanthern!’ shouted the
ancient, pursuing my retreat
...
Fortunately,
the beasts seemed more bent on stretching their paws, and
yawning, and flourishing their tails, than devouring me
alive; but they would suffer no resurrection, and I was
forced to lie till their malignant masters pleased to deliver
me: then, hatless and trembling with wrath, I ordered the
miscreants to let me out - on their peril to keep me one
minute longer - with several incoherent threats of
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retaliation that, in their indefinite depth of virulency,
smacked of King Lear
...
I don’t know what would have concluded the
scene, had there not been one person at hand rather more
rational than myself, and more benevolent than my
entertainer
...
She thought that some of them had been laying
violent hands on me; and, not daring to attack her master,
she turned her vocal artillery against the younger
scoundrel
...
Earnshaw,’ she cried, ‘I wonder what you’ll
have agait next? Are we going to murder folk on our very
door-stones? I see this house will never do for me - look
at t’ poor lad, he’s fair choking! Wisht, wisht; you mun’n’t
go on so
...
’
With these words she suddenly splashed a pint of icy
water down my neck, and pulled me into the kitchen
...
Heathcliff followed, his accidental merriment expiring
quickly in his habitual moroseness
...
He
told Zillah to give me a glass of brandy, and then passed
on to the inner room; while she condoled with me on my
sorry predicament, and having obeyed his orders, whereby
I was somewhat revived, ushered me to bed
...
I asked the reason
...
Too stupefied to be curious myself, I fastened my door
and glanced round for the bed
...
Having approached this structure, I looked
inside, and perceived it to be a singular sort of oldfashioned couch, very conveniently designed to obviate
the necessity for every member of the family having a
room to himself
...
I
slid back the panelled sides, got in with my light, pulled
them together again, and felt secure against the vigilance
of Heathcliff, and every one else
...
This writing,
however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of
characters,
large
and
small
CATHERINE
EARNSHAW, here and there varied to CATHERINE
HEATHCLIFF, and then again to CATHERINE
LINTON
...
I snuffed it off, and, very ill at
ease under the influence of cold and lingering nausea, sat
up and spread open the injured tome on my knee
...
I shut it,
and took up another and another, till I had examined all
...
Some were detached sentences; other parts took the
form of a regular diary, scrawled in an unformed, childish
hand
...
An immediate interest
kindled within me for the unknown Catherine, and I
began forthwith to decipher her faded hieroglyphics
...
‘I wish my father were back again
...
and
I are going to rebel - we took our initiatory step this
evening
...
A vain idea! The service lasted
precisely three hours; and yet my brother had the face to
exclaim, when he saw us descending, ‘What, done
already?’ On Sunday evenings we used to be permitted to
play, if we did not make much noise; now a mere titter is
sufficient to send us into corners
...
‘I’ll demolish the first who puts me out of temper! I insist
on perfect sobriety and silence
...
’ Frances pulled his hair heartily, and then
went and seated herself on her husband’s knee, and there
they were, like two babies, kissing and talking nonsense by
the hour - foolish palaver that we should be ashamed of
...
I had just fastened our pinafores
together, and hung them up for a curtain, when in comes
Joseph, on an errand from the stables
...
I could
not bear the employment
...
Heathcliff kicked his to the same place
...
‘ Maister,
coom hither! Miss Cathy’s riven th’ back off ‘Th’ Helmet
o’ Salvation,’ un’ Heathcliff’s pawsed his fit into t’ first part
o’ ‘T’ Brooad Way to Destruction!’ It’s fair flaysome that
ye let ‘em go on this gait
...
I reached this book, and a pot of ink
from a shelf, and pushed the house-door ajar to give me
light, and I have got the time on with writing for twenty
minutes; but my companion is impatient, and proposes
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that we should appropriate the dairywoman’s cloak, and
have a scamper on the moors, under its shelter
...
’
******
I suppose Catherine fulfilled her project, for the next
sentence took up another subject: she waxed lachrymose
...
‘My head aches, till I cannot keep it
on the pillow; and still I can’t give over
...
He has been blaming our
father (how dared he?) for treating H
...
I saw a red
ornamented title - ‘Seventy Times Seven, and the First of
the Seventy-First
...
’ And while I was, half-consciously,
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worrying my brain to guess what Jabez Branderham would
make of his subject, I sank back in bed, and fell asleep
...
I began to dream, almost before I ceased to be sensible
of my locality
...
The snow lay
yards deep in our road; and, as we floundered on, my
companion wearied me with constant reproaches that I
had not brought a pilgrim’s staff: telling me that I could
never get into the house without one, and boastfully
flourishing a heavy-headed cudgel, which I understood to
be so denominated
...
Then a new idea flashed across me
...
We came to the chapel
...
The roof has been
kept whole hitherto; but as the clergyman’s stipend is only
twenty pounds per annum, and a house with two rooms,
threatening speedily to determine into one, no clergyman
will undertake the duties of pastor: especially as it is
currently reported that his flock would rather let him
starve than increase the living by one penny from their
own pockets
...
He had his private
manner of interpreting the phrase, and it seemed necessary
the brother should sin different sins on every occasion
...
Oh, how weary I grow
...
I was condemned to hear all out:
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finally, he reached the ‘FIRST OF THE SEVENTYFIRST
...
’Sir,’ I exclaimed, ‘sitting here within these four walls,
at one stretch, I have endured and forgiven the four
hundred and ninety heads of your discourse
...
The four
hundred and ninety-first is too much
...
‘Seventy times seven
times didst thou gapingly contort thy visage - seventy
times seven did I take counsel with my soul - Lo, this is
human weakness: this also may be absolved! The First of
the Seventy-First is come
...
Such honour have all His saints!’
With that concluding word, the whole assembly,
exalting their pilgrim’s staves, rushed round me in a body;
and I, having no weapon to raise in self-defence,
commenced grappling with Joseph, my nearest and most
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ferocious assailant, for his
...
Presently the whole chapel resounded
with rappings and counter rappings: every man’s hand was
against his neighbour; and Branderham, unwilling to
remain idle, poured forth his zeal in a shower of loud taps
on the boards of the pulpit, which responded so smartly
that, at last, to my unspeakable relief, they woke me
...
This time, I remembered I was lying in the oak closet,
and I heard distinctly the gusty wind, and the driving of
the snow; I heard, also, the fir bough repeat its teasing
sound, and ascribed it to the right cause: but it annoyed
me so much, that I resolved to silence it, if possible; and, I
thought, I rose and endeavoured to unhasp the casement
...
‘I must stop
it, nevertheless!’ I muttered, knocking my knuckles
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through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the
importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed
on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror
of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm,
but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice
sobbed, ‘Let me in - let me in!’ ‘Who are you?’ I asked,
struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself
...
Terror made me cruel; and, finding
it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its
wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till
the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it
wailed, ‘Let me in!’ and maintained its tenacious gripe,
almost maddening me with fear
...
‘Let ME go, if you want me to let you in!’ The
fingers relaxed, I snatched mine through the hole,
hurriedly piled the books up in a pyramid against it, and
stopped my ears to exclude the lamentable prayer
...
‘I’ll never let you in,
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not if you beg for twenty years
...
I’ve been a waif for
twenty years!’ Thereat began a feeble scratching outside,
and the pile of books moved as if thrust forward
...
To my confusion, I discovered the yell
was not ideal: hasty footsteps approached my chamber
door; somebody pushed it open, with a vigorous hand,
and a light glimmered through the squares at the top of
the bed
...
At last, he said, in a half-whisper,
plainly not expecting an answer, ‘Is any one here?’ I
considered it best to confess my presence; for I knew
Heathcliff’s accents, and feared he might search further, if I
kept quiet
...
I shall not soon forget the effect my action
produced
...
The first creak of the
oak startled him like an electric shock: the light leaped
from his hold to a distance of some feet, and his agitation
was so extreme, that he could hardly pick it up
...
‘I
had the misfortune to scream in my sleep, owing to a
frightful nightmare
...
’
’Oh, God confound you, Mr
...
‘And who showed you up into this room?’ he continued,
crushing his nails into his palms, and grinding his teeth to
subdue the maxillary convulsions
...
‘I should
not care if you did, Mr
...
I
suppose that she wanted to get another proof that the
place was haunted, at my expense
...
No one will thank you for a doze in such a
den!’
’What do you mean?’ asked Heathcliff, ‘and what are
you doing? Lie down and finish out the night, since you
ARE here; but, for heaven’s sake! don’t repeat that horrid
noise: nothing could excuse it, unless you were having
your throat cut!’
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’If the little fiend had got in at the window, she
probably would have strangled me!’ I returned
...
Was not the Reverend Jabez Branderham
akin to you on the mother’s side? And that minx,
Catherine Linton, or Earnshaw, or however she was called
- she must have been a changeling - wicked little soul! She
told me she had been walking the earth these twenty
years: a just punishment for her mortal transgressions, I’ve
no doubt!’
Scarcely were these words uttered when I recollected
the association of Heathcliff’s with Catherine’s name in
the book, which had completely slipped from my
memory, till thus awakened
...
A monotonous
occupation, calculated to set me asleep, like counting, or ‘
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’What CAN you mean by talking in this way to ME!’
thundered Heathcliff with savage vehemence
...
I did not know whether to resent this language or
pursue my explanation; but he seemed so powerfully
affected that I took pity and proceeded with my dreams;
affirming I had never heard the appellation of ‘Catherine
Linton’ before, but reading it often over produced an
impression which personified itself when I had no longer
my imagination under control
...
I guessed, however, by
his irregular and intercepted breathing, that he struggled to
vanquish an excess of violent emotion
...
Time stagnates here: we must
surely have retired to rest at eight!’
’Always at nine in winter, and rise at four,’ said my
host, suppressing a groan: and, as I fancied, by the motion
of his arm’s shadow, dashing a tear from his eyes
...
Lockwood,’ he added, ‘you may go into my room: you’ll
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only be in the way, coming down- stairs so early: and
your childish outcry has sent sleep to the devil for me
...
‘I’ll walk in the yard till
daylight, and then I’ll be off; and you need not dread a
repetition of my intrusion
...
A sensible man
ought to find sufficient company in himself
...
‘Take the
candle, and go where you please
...
Keep out of the yard, though, the dogs are unchained; and
the house - Juno mounts sentinel there, and - nay, you
can only ramble about the steps and passages
...
He
got on to the bed, and wrenched open the lattice,
bursting, as he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion
of tears
...
‘Cathy, do come
...
There was such anguish in the gush of grief that
accompanied this raving, that my compassion made me
overlook its folly, and I drew off, half angry to have
listened at all, and vexed at having related my ridiculous
nightmare, since it produced that agony; though WHY
was beyond my comprehension
...
Nothing was stirring except a
brindled, grey cat, which crept from the ashes, and saluted
me with a querulous mew
...
We were both of us
nodding ere any one invaded our retreat, and then it was
Joseph, shuffling down a wooden ladder that vanished in
the roof, through a trap: the ascent to his garret, I suppose
...
My presence in his sanctum was evidently
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esteemed a piece of impudence too shameful for remark:
he silently applied the tube to his lips, folded his arms, and
puffed away
...
A more elastic footstep entered next; and now I opened
my mouth for a ‘good-morning,’ but closed it again, the
salutation unachieved; for Hareton Earnshaw was
performing his orison SOTTO VOCE, in a series of
curses directed against every object he touched, while he
rummaged a corner for a spade or shovel to dig through
the drifts
...
I guessed, by his
preparations, that egress was allowed, and, leaving my hard
couch, made a movement to follow him
...
It opened into the house, where the females were
already astir; Zillah urging flakes of flame up the chimney
with a colossal bellows; and Mrs
...
She
held her hand interposed between the furnace-heat and
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her eyes, and seemed absorbed in her occupation; desisting
from it only to chide the servant for covering her with
sparks, or to push away a dog, now and then, that
snoozled its nose overforwardly into her face
...
He stood by the fire,
his back towards me, just finishing a stormy scene with
poor Zillah; who ever and anon interrupted her labour to
pluck up the corner of her apron, and heave an indignant
groan
...
‘There you are, at your idle tricks again! The rest
of them do earn their bread - you live on my charity! Put
your trash away, and find something to do
...
‘But I’ll not do anything, though
you should swear your tongue out, except what I please!’
Heathcliff lifted his hand, and the speaker sprang to a
safer distance, obviously acquainted with its weight
...
Each had enough decorum to
suspend further hostilities: Heathcliff placed his fists, out of
temptation, in his pockets; Mrs
...
That was not long
...
My landlord halloed for me to stop ere I reached the
bottom of the garden, and offered to accompany me across
the moor
...
I had remarked on one side of the road, at
intervals of six or seven yards, a line of upright stones,
continued through the whole length of the barren: these
were erected and daubed with lime on purpose to serve as
guides in the dark, and also when a fall, like the present,
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confounded the deep swamps on either hand with the
firmer path: but, excepting a dirty dot pointing up here
and there, all traces of their existence had vanished: and
my companion found it necessary to warn me frequently
to steer to the right or left, when I imagined I was
following, correctly, the windings of the road
...
Our adieux were limited to a hasty bow, and
then I pushed forward, trusting to my own resources; for
the porter’s lodge is untenanted as yet
...
At any rate,
whatever were my wanderings, the clock chimed twelve
as I entered the house; and that gave exactly an hour for
every mile of the usual way from Wuthering Heights
...
I bid them be quiet, now that they
saw me returned, and, benumbed to my very heart, I
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dragged up-stairs; whence, after putting on dry clothes,
and pacing to and fro thirty or forty minutes, to restore
the animal heat, I adjourned to my study, feeble as a
kitten: almost too much so to enjoy the cheerful fire and
smoking coffee which the servant had prepared for my
refreshment
...
Dean, when she brought in supper, to sit down while
I ate it; hoping sincerely she would prove a regular gossip,
and either rouse me to animation or lull me to sleep by
her talk
...
’
’Indeed
...
She was not a gossip, I feared;
unless about her own affairs, and those could hardly
interest me
...
’Oh, I’ll turn the talk on my landlord’s family!’ I
thought to myself
...
’ With this intention I asked Mrs
...
‘Is he not rich
enough to keep the estate in good order?’ I inquired
...
‘He has nobody knows what
money, and every year it increases
...
It is strange people should be so
greedy, when they are alone in the world!’
’He had a son, it seems?’
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’Yes, he had one - he is dead
...
Heathcliff, is his widow?’
’Yes
...
I nursed her, poor thing! I
did wish Mr
...
’
’What! Catherine Linton?’ I exclaimed, astonished
...
Then,’ I continued, ‘my predecessor’s name
was Linton?’
’It was
...
Heathcliff? Are they relations?’
’No; he is the late Mrs
...
’
’The young lady’s cousin, then?’
’Yes; and her husband was her cousin also: one on the
mother’s, the other on the father’s side: Heathcliff married
Mr
...
’
’I see the house at Wuthering Heights has ‘Earnshaw’
carved over the front door
...
Have you
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been to Wuthering Heights? I beg pardon for asking; but I
should like to hear how she is!’
’Mrs
...
’
’Oh dear, I don’t wonder! And how did you like the
master?’
’A rough fellow, rather, Mrs
...
Is not that his
character?
’Rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone! The less
you meddle with him the better
...
Do you know anything of his history?’
’It’s a cuckoo’s, sir - I know all about it: except where
he was born, and who were his parents, and how he got
his money at first
...
’
’Well, Mrs
...
’
’Oh, certainly, sir! I’ll just fetch a little sewing, and then
I’ll sit as long as you please
...
’
The worthy woman bustled off, and I crouched nearer
the fire; my head felt hot, and the rest of me chill:
moreover, I was excited, almost to a pitch of foolishness,
through my nerves and brain
...
She
returned presently, bringing a smoking basin and a basket
of work; and, having placed the former on the hob, drew
in her seat, evidently pleased to find me so
companionable
...
Hindley Earnshaw, that was Hareton’s father, and I got
used to playing with the children: I ran errands too, and
helped to make hay, and hung about the farm ready for
anything that anybody would set me to
...
Earnshaw, the old master, came down-stairs, dressed
for a journey; and, after he had told Joseph what was to be
done during the day, he turned to Hindley, and Cathy,
and me - for I sat eating my porridge with them - and he
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said, speaking to his son, ‘Now, my bonny man, I’m going
to Liverpool to-day, what shall I bring you? You may
choose what you like: only let it be little, for I shall walk
there and back: sixty miles each way, that is a long spell!’
Hindley named a fiddle, and then he asked Miss Cathy;
she was hardly six years old, but she could ride any horse
in the stable, and she chose a whip
...
He promised to bring me a pocketful of apples
and pears, and then he kissed his children, said good-bye,
and set off
...
Mrs
...
Then it grew dark; she would have had them to bed,
but they begged sadly to be allowed to stay up; and, just
about eleven o’clock, the door-latch was raised quietly,
and in stepped the master
...
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’And at the end of it to be flighted to death!’ he said,
opening his great-coat, which he held bundled up in his
arms
...
’
We crowded round, and over Miss Cathy’s head I had
a peep at a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough
both to walk and talk: indeed, its face looked older than
Catherine’s; yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared
round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish
that nobody could understand
...
Earnshaw was ready to fling it out of doors: she did fly up,
asking how he could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into
the house, when they had their own bairns to feed and
fend for? What he meant to do with it, and whether he
were mad? The master tried to explain the matter; but he
was really half dead with fatigue, and all that I could make
out, amongst her scolding, was a tale of his seeing it
starving, and houseless, and as good as dumb, in the streets
of Liverpool, where he picked it up and inquired for its
owner
...
Well, the conclusion was, that
my mistress grumbled herself calm; and Mr
...
Hindley and Cathy contented themselves with looking
and listening till peace was restored: then, both began
searching their father’s pockets for the presents he had
promised them
...
They entirely refused to have it in bed with
them, or even in their room; and I had no more sense, so
I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it might he
gone on the morrow
...
Earnshaw’s door, and
there he found it on quitting his chamber
...
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This was Heathcliff’s first introduction to the family
...
Miss Cathy and he were now
very thick; but Hindley hated him: and to say the truth I
did the same; and we plagued and went on with him
shamefully: for I wasn’t reasonable enough to feel my
injustice, and the mistress never put in a word on his
behalf when she saw him wronged
...
This
endurance made old Earnshaw furious, when he
discovered his son persecuting the poor fatherless child, as
he called him
...
So, from the very beginning, he bred bad feeling in the
house; and at Mrs
...
I sympathised a while; but when the children fell
ill of the measles, and I had to tend them, and take on me
the cares of a woman at once, I changed my idea
...
However, I will
say this, he was the quietest child that ever nurse watched
over
...
Cathy and her brother harassed me
terribly: he was as uncomplaining as a lamb; though
hardness, not gentleness, made him give little trouble
...
I
was vain of his commendations, and softened towards the
being by whose means I earned them, and thus Hindley
lost his last ally: still I couldn’t dote on Heathcliff, and I
wondered often what my master saw to admire so much
in the sullen boy; who never, to my recollection, repaid
his indulgence by any sign of gratitude
...
As an instance, I
remember Mr
...
Heathcliff took
the handsomest, but it soon fell lame, and when he
discovered it, he said to Hindley ’You must exchange horses with me: I don’t like mine;
and if you won’t I shall tell your father of the three
thrashings you’ve given me this week, and show him my
arm, which is black to the shoulder
...
‘You’d better do it
at once,’ he persisted, escaping to the porch (they were in
the stable): ‘you will have to: and if I speak of these blows,
you’ll get them again with interest
...
‘Throw it,’ he replied,
standing still, ‘and then I’ll tell how you boasted that you
would turn me out of doors as soon as he died, and see
whether he will not turn you out directly
...
‘Take my colt,
Gipsy, then!’ said young Earnshaw
...
- And take that, I hope he’ll kick out your brains!’
Heathcliff had gone to loose the beast, and shift it to his
own stall; he was passing behind it, when Hindley finished
his speech by knocking him under its feet, and without
stopping to examine whether his hopes were fulfilled, ran
away as fast as he could
...
I persuaded him easily to let me lay the blame of his
bruises on the horse: he minded little what tale was told
since he had what he wanted
...
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Chapter V
IN the course of time Mr
...
He
had been active and healthy, yet his strength left him
suddenly; and when he was confined to the chimneycorner he grew grievously irritable
...
This was especially to be remarked if any one
attempted to impose upon, or domineer over, his
favourite: he was painfully jealous lest a word should be
spoken amiss to him; seeming to have got into his head
the notion that, because he liked Heathcliff, all hated, and
longed to do him an ill-turn
...
Still it became in a manner necessary; twice, or
thrice, Hindley’s manifestation of scorn, while his father
was near, roused the old man to a fury: he seized his stick
to strike him, and shook with rage that he could not do it
...
Earnshaw agreed,
though with a heavy spirit, for he said - ‘Hindley was
nought, and would never thrive as where he wandered
...
It hurt me
to think the master should be made uncomfortable by his
own good deed
...
We might have got on tolerably, notwithstanding,
but for two people - Miss Cathy, and Joseph, the servant:
you saw him, I daresay, up yonder
...
By his knack of
sermonising and pious discoursing, he contrived to make a
great impression on Mr
...
He was
relentless in worrying him about his soul’s concerns, and
about ruling his children rigidly
...
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Certainly she had ways with her such as I never saw a
child take up before; and she put all of us past our patience
fifty times and oftener in a day: from the hour she came
down-stairs till the hour she went to bed, we had not a
minute’s security that she wouldn’t be in mischief
...
A wild, wicked slip she was - but
she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile, and lightest
foot in the parish: and, after all, I believe she meant no
harm; for when once she made you cry in good earnest, it
seldom happened that she would not keep you company,
and oblige you to be quiet that you might comfort her
...
The greatest
punishment we could invent for her was to keep her
separate from him: yet she got chided more than any of us
on his account
...
Now, Mr
...
His peevish reproofs wakened in
her a naughty delight to provoke him: she was never so
happy as when we were all scolding her at once, and she
defying us with her bold, saucy look, and her ready words;
turning Joseph’s religious curses into ridicule, baiting me,
and doing just what her father hated most - showing how
her pretended insolence, which he thought real, had more
power over Heathcliff than his kindness: how the boy
would do HER bidding in anything, and HIS only when
it suited his own inclination
...
‘Nay, Cathy,’ the old man would say, ‘I
cannot love thee, thou’rt worse than thy brother
...
I doubt thy
mother and I must rue that we ever reared thee!’ That
made her cry, at first; and then being repulsed continually
hardened her, and she laughed if I told her to say she was
sorry for her faults, and beg to be forgiven
...
Earnshaw’s
troubles on earth
...
A high wind
blustered round the house, and roared in the chimney: it
sounded wild and stormy, yet it was not cold, and we
were all together - I, a little removed from the hearth,
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busy at my knitting, and Joseph reading his Bible near the
table (for the servants generally sat in the house then, after
their work was done)
...
I
remember the master, before he fell into a doze, stroking
her bonny hair - it pleased him rarely to see her gentle and saying, ‘Why canst thou not always be a good lass,
Cathy?’ And she turned her face up to his, and laughed,
and answered, ‘Why cannot you always be a good man,
father?’ But as soon as she saw him vexed again, she kissed
his hand, and said she would sing him to sleep
...
Then I told her to hush, and not
stir, for fear she should wake him
...
He
stepped forward, and called him by name, and touched his
shoulder; but he would not move: so he took the candle
and looked at him
...
’
’I shall bid father good-night first,’ said Catherine,
putting her arms round his neck, before we could hinder
her
...
I joined my wail to theirs, loud and bitter; but Joseph
asked what we could be thinking of to roar in that way
over a saint in heaven
...
I could
not guess the use that either would be of, then
...
Leaving Joseph to explain matters, I ran to
the children’s room: their door was ajar, I saw they had
never lain down, though it was past midnight; but they
were calmer, and did not need me to console them
...
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Chapter VI
MR
...
What she was,
and where she was born, he never informed us: probably,
she had neither money nor name to recommend her, or
he would scarcely have kept the union from his father
...
Every object she saw, the
moment she crossed the threshold, appeared to delight
her; and every circumstance that took place about her:
except the preparing for the burial, and the presence of the
mourners
...
She was rather thin, but young, and freshcomplexioned, and her eyes sparkled as bright as
diamonds
...
We don’t in general take to
foreigners here, Mr
...
Young Earnshaw was altered considerably in the three
years of his absence
...
Indeed, he would have carpeted
and papered a small spare room for a parlour; but his wife
expressed such pleasure at the white floor and huge
glowing fireplace, at the pewter dishes and delf-case, and
dog-kennel, and the wide space there was to move about
in where they usually sat, that he thought it unnecessary to
her comfort, and so dropped the intention
...
Her affection tired very
soon, however, and when she grew peevish, Hindley
became tyrannical
...
He drove him from their company
to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the
curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors
instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad
on the farm
...
They both promised fair to
grow up as rude as savages; the young master being
entirely negligent how they behaved, and what they did,
so they kept clear of him
...
But it was one of their chief amusements to run
away to the moors in the morning and remain there all
day, and the after punishment grew a mere thing to laugh
at
...
One Sunday evening, it chanced that
they were banished from the sitting-room, for making a
noise, or a light offence of the kind; and when I went to
call them to supper, I could discover them nowhere
...
The household went to bed; and I,
too, anxious to lie down, opened my lattice and put my
head out to hearken, though it rained: determined to
admit them in spite of the prohibition, should they return
...
I threw
a shawl over my head and ran to prevent them from
waking Mr
...
There was Heathcliff,
by himself: it gave me a start to see him alone
...
‘No
accident, I hope?’ ‘At Thrushcross Grange,’ he answered;
‘and I would have been there too, but they had not the
manners to ask me to stay
...
What in the world led you wandering to
Thrushcross Grange?’ ‘Let me get off my wet clothes, and
I’ll tell you all about it, Nelly,’ he replied
...
Do
you think they do? Or reading sermons, and being
catechised by their manservant, and set to learn a column
of Scripture names, if they don’t answer properly?’
‘Probably not,’ I responded
...
’ ‘Don’t cant, Nelly,’ he said: ‘nonsense!
We ran from the top of the Heights to the park, without
stopping - Catherine completely beaten in the race,
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because she was barefoot
...
We crept through a broken hedge,
groped our way up the path, and planted ourselves on a
flower-plot under the drawing-room window
...
Both of us were able to
look in by standing on the basement, and clinging to the
ledge, and we saw - ah! it was beautiful - a splendid place
carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and
tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a
shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the
centre, and shimmering with little soft tapers
...
and
Mrs
...
Shouldn’t they have been happy?
We should have thought ourselves in heaven! And now,
guess what your good children were doing? Isabella - I
believe she is eleven, a year younger than Cathy - lay
screaming at the farther end of the room, shrieking as if
witches were running red-hot needles into her
...
The idiots! That
was their pleasure! to quarrel who should hold a heap of
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warm hair, and each begin to cry because both, after
struggling to get it, refused to take it
...
‘Still you have not told me,
Heathcliff, how Catherine is left behind?’
’I told you we laughed,’ he answered
...
Oh, papa,
oh!’ They really did howl out something in that way
...
I had Cathy by
the hand, and was urging her on, when all at once she fell
down
...
‘They have
let the bull-dog loose, and he holds me!’ The devil had
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seized her ankle, Nelly: I heard his abominable snorting
...
I did,
though: I vociferated curses enough to annihilate any fiend
in Christendom; and I got a stone and thrust it between
his jaws, and tried with all my might to cram it down his
throat
...
The dog was
throttled off; his huge, purple tongue hanging half a foot
out of his mouth, and his pendent lips streaming with
bloody slaver
...
He carried her in; I
followed, grumbling execrations and vengeance
...
‘Skulker has caught a little girl, sir,’ he replied; ‘and there’s
a lad here,’ he added, making a clutch at me, ‘who looks
an out-and- outer! Very like the robbers were for putting
them through the window to open the doors to the gang
after all were asleep, that they might murder us at their
ease
...
Mr
...
’ ‘No, no, Robert,’ said the old fool
...
Come in; I’ll furnish them a
reception
...
Give Skulker
some water, Jenny
...
Linton placed her spectacles on her nose and raised her
hands in horror
...
He’s exactly like the son of the fortune-teller that
stole my tame pheasant
...
Edgar Linton, after an
inquisitive stare, collected sufficient wit to recognise her
...
‘That’s Miss Earnshaw?’ he
whispered to his mother, ‘and look how Skulker has bitten
her - how her foot bleeds!’
’’Miss Earnshaw? Nonsense!’ cried the dame; ‘Miss
Earnshaw scouring the country with a gipsy! And yet, my
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dear, the child is in mourning - surely it is - and she may
be lamed for life!’
’’What culpable carelessness in her brother!’ exclaimed
Mr
...
‘I’ve
understood from Shielders‘‘ (that was the curate, sir) ‘"that
he lets her grow up in absolute heathenism
...
’
’’A wicked boy, at all events,’ remarked the old lady,
‘and quite unfit for a decent house! Did you notice his
language, Linton? I’m shocked that my children should
have heard it
...
I refused to go
without Cathy; he dragged me into the garden, pushed
the lantern into my hand, assured me that Mr
...
The curtains were
still looped up at one corner, and I resumed my station as
spy; because, if Catherine had wished to return, I intended
shattering their great glass panes to a million of fragments,
unless they let her out
...
Mrs
...
Then the woman-servant brought a basin of warm
water, and washed her feet; and Mr
...
Afterwards, they dried and combed her beautiful hair, and
gave her a pair of enormous slippers, and wheeled her to
the fire; and I left her, as merry as she could be, dividing
her food between the little dog and Skulker, whose nose
she pinched as he ate; and kindling a spark of spirit in the
vacant blue eyes of the Lintons - a dim reflection from her
own enchanting face
...
‘You are incurable, Heathcliff; and
Mr
...
’ My words came truer than I desired
...
And then Mr
...
Heathcliff received no flogging, but he was told
that the first word he spoke to Miss Catherine should
ensure a dismissal; and Mrs
...
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Chapter VII
CATHY stayed at Thrushcross Grange five weeks: till
Christmas
...
The mistress visited her
often in the interval, and commenced her plan of reform
by trying to raise her self-respect with fine clothes and
flattery, which she took readily; so that, instead of a wild,
hatless little savage jumping into the house, and rushing to
squeeze us all breathless, there ‘lighted from a handsome
black pony a very dignified person, with brown ringlets
falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and a long
cloth habit, which she was obliged to hold up with both
hands that she might sail in
...
Isabella Linton is not to be compared with
her, is she, Frances?’ ‘Isabella has not her natural
advantages,’ replied his wife: ‘but she must mind and not
grow wild again here
...
’
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I removed the habit, and there shone forth beneath a
grand plaid silk frock, white trousers, and burnished shoes;
and, while her eyes sparkled joyfully when the dogs came
bounding up to welcome her, she dared hardly touch
them lest they should fawn upon her splendid garments
...
Mr
...
Earnshaw watched anxiously their meeting; thinking it
would enable them to judge, in some measure, what
grounds they had for hoping to succeed in separating the
two friends
...
If he were
careless, and uncared for, before Catherine’s absence, he
had been ten times more so since
...
Therefore, not
to mention his clothes, which had seen three months’
service in mire and dust, and his thick uncombed hair, the
surface of his face and hands was dismally beclouded
...
‘Is
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Heathcliff not here?’ she demanded, pulling off her gloves,
and displaying fingers wonderfully whitened with doing
nothing and staying indoors
...
Hindley, enjoying his discomfiture, and gratified to see
what a forbidding young blackguard he would be
compelled to present himself
...
’
Cathy, catching a glimpse of her friend in his
concealment, flew to embrace him; she bestowed seven or
eight kisses on his cheek within the second, and then
stopped, and drawing back, burst into a laugh, exclaiming,
‘Why, how very black and cross you look! and how - how
funny and grim! But that’s because I’m used to Edgar and
Isabella Linton
...
’Shake hands, Heathcliff,’ said Mr
...
’
’I shall not,’ replied the boy, finding his tongue at last;
‘I shall not stand to be laughed at
...
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’I did not mean to laugh at you,’ she said; ‘I could not
hinder myself: Heathcliff, shake hands at least! What are
you sulky for? It was only that you looked odd
...
’You needn’t have touched me!’ he answered,
following her eye and snatching away his hand
...
’
With that he dashed headforemost out of the room,
amid the merriment of the master and mistress, and to the
serious disturbance of Catherine; who could not
comprehend how her remarks should have produced such
an exhibition of bad temper
...
He had retired to private prayer in his chamber, and Mr
...
Earnshaw were engaging Missy’s attention by
sundry gay trifles bought for her to present to the little
Lintons, as an acknowledgment of their kindness
...
Linton begged that her darlings might be
kept carefully apart from that ‘naughty swearing boy
...
I smelt
the rich scent of the heating spices; and admired the
shining kitchen utensils, the polished clock, decked in
holly, the silver mugs ranged on a tray ready to be filled
with mulled ale for supper; and above all, the speckless
purity of my particular care - the scoured and well-swept
floor
...
It
struck me soon, however, there would be more sense in
endeavouring to repair some of his wrongs than shedding
tears over them: I got up and walked into the court to
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seek him
...
’Make haste, Heathcliff!’ I said, ‘the kitchen is so
comfortable; and Joseph is up-stairs: make haste, and let
me dress you smart before Miss Cathy comes out, and
then you can sit together, with the whole hearth to
yourselves, and have a long chatter till bedtime
...
’Come - are you coming?’ I continued
...
’
I waited five minutes, but getting no answer left him
...
His cake
and cheese remained on the table all night for the fairies
...
Cathy sat up late,
having a world of things to order for the reception of her
new friends: she came into the kitchen once to speak to
her old one; but he was gone, and she only stayed to ask
what was the matter with him, and then went back
...
Fasting and reflection
seemed to have brought him to a better spirit
...
’
’High time, Heathcliff,’ I said; ‘you HAVE grieved
Catherine: she’s sorry she ever came home, I daresay! It
looks as if you envied her, because she is more thought of
than you
...
’Did she say she was grieved?’ he inquired, looking
very serious
...
’
’Well, I cried last night,’ he returned, ‘and I had more
reason to cry than she
...
‘Proud people breed
sad sorrows for themselves
...
You must go up and offer to kiss her, and say - you
know best what to say; only do it heartily, and not as if
you thought her converted into a stranger by her grand
dress
...
You are
younger, and yet, I’ll be bound, you are taller and twice as
broad across the shoulders; you could knock him down in
a twinkling; don’t you feel that you could?’
Heathcliff’s face brightened a moment; then it was
overcast afresh, and he sighed
...
I wish I
had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed and behaved
as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!’
’And cried for mamma at every turn,’ I added, ‘and
trembled if a country lad heaved his fist against you, and
sat at home all day for a shower of rain
...
Do you mark those two
lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that,
instead of rising arched, sink in the middle; and that
couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open
their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like
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devil’s spies? Wish and learn to smooth away the surly
wrinkles, to raise your lids frankly, and change the fiends
to confident, innocent angels, suspecting and doubting
nothing, and always seeing friends where they are not sure
of foes
...
’
’In other words, I must wish for Edgar Linton’s great
blue eyes and even forehead,’ he replied
...
’
’A good heart will help you to a bonny face, my lad,’ I
continued, ‘if you were a regular black; and a bad one will
turn the bonniest into something worse than ugly
...
You’re fit for a prince in disguise
...
Were I in your
place, I would frame high notions of my birth; and the
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thoughts of what I was should give me courage and
dignity to support the oppressions of a little farmer!’
So I chattered on; and Heathcliff gradually lost his
frown and began to look quite pleasant, when all at once
our conversation was interrupted by a rumbling sound
moving up the road and entering the court
...
Catherine
took a hand of each of the children, and brought them
into the house and set them before the fire, which quickly
put colour into their white faces
...
They met, and the master, irritated at seeing him clean and
cheerful, or, perhaps, eager to keep his promise to Mrs
...
He’ll be cramming his
fingers in the tarts and stealing the fruit, if left alone with
them a minute
...
’
’He shall have his share of my hand, if I catch him
downstairs till dark,’ cried Hindley
...
It’s like a colt’s mane over his eyes!’
He ventured this remark without any intention to
insult; but Heathcliff’s violent nature was not prepared to
endure the appearance of impertinence from one whom
he seemed to hate, even then, as a rival
...
Mr
...
I got the dishcloth, and rather spitefully
scrubbed Edgar’s nose and mouth, affirming it served him
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right for meddling
...
’You should not have spoken to him!’ she expostulated
with Master Linton
...
Why did you speak to
him, Edgar?’
’I didn’t,’ sobbed the youth, escaping from my hands,
and finishing the remainder of the purification with his
cambric pocket- handkerchief
...
’
’Well, don’t cry,’ replied Catherine, contemptuously;
‘you’re not killed
...
‘That brute of a lad has warmed me nicely
...
They were hungry after their ride, and easily
consoled, since no real harm had befallen them
...
Earnshaw carved bountiful platefuls, and the mistress made
them merry with lively talk
...
‘An unfeeling child,’ I thought to myself; ‘how
lightly she dismisses her old playmate’s troubles
...
’ She lifted a
mouthful to her lips: then she set it down again: her
cheeks flushed, and the tears gushed over them
...
I did not call her unfeeling
long; for I perceived she was in purgatory throughout the
day, and wearying to find an opportunity of getting by
herself, or paying a visit to Heathcliff, who had been
locked up by the master: as I discovered, on endeavouring
to introduce to him a private mess of victuals
...
Cathy begged that he
might be liberated then, as Isabella Linton had no partner:
her entreaties were vain, and I was appointed to supply the
deficiency
...
They go the rounds of all
the respectable houses, and receive contributions every
Christmas, and we esteemed it a first-rate treat to hear
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them
...
Mrs
...
Catherine loved it too: but she said it sounded sweetest
at the top of the steps, and she went up in the dark: I
followed
...
She made no stay at
the stairs’-head, but mounted farther, to the garret where
Heathcliff was confined, and called him
...
I let the poor things converse unmolested, till I
supposed the songs were going to cease, and the singers to
get some refreshment: then I clambered up the ladder to
warn her
...
The little monkey had crept by the skylight of one
garret, along the roof, into the skylight of the other, and it
was with the utmost difficulty I could coax her out again
...
I told them I intended by no means to encourage
their tricks: but as the prisoner had never broken his fast
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since yesterday’s dinner, I would wink at his cheating Mr
...
He went down: I set him a stool by
the fire, and offered him a quantity of good things: but he
was sick and could eat little, and my attempts to entertain
him were thrown away
...
On my inquiring the subject of his
thoughts, he answered gravely - ‘I’m trying to settle how I
shall pay Hindley back
...
I hope he will not die before I do!’
’For shame, Heathcliff!’ said I
...
’
’No, God won’t have the satisfaction that I shall,’ he
returned
...
’
’But, Mr
...
I’m annoyed how I should dream of chattering on at
such a rate; and your gruel cold, and you nodding for bed!
I could have told Heathcliff’s history, all that you need
hear, in half a dozen words
...
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‘Sit still, Mrs
...
You’ve done just right to tell the story leisurely
...
I am interested in every character you have mentioned,
more or less
...
’
’No matter - I’m not accustomed to go to bed in the
long hours
...
’
’You shouldn’t lie till ten
...
A person who
has not done one-half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs
a chance of leaving the other half undone
...
Dean, resume your chair; because
to-morrow I intend lengthening the night till afternoon
...
’
’I hope not, sir
...
Earnshaw - ‘
’No, no, I’ll allow nothing of the sort! Are you
acquainted with the mood of mind in which, if you were
seated alone, and the cat licking its kitten on the rug
before you, you would watch the operation so intently
that puss’s neglect of one ear would put you seriously out
of temper?’
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’A terribly lazy mood, I should say
...
It is mine, at
present; and, therefore, continue minutely
...
They DO live more in earnest, more in
themselves, and less in surface, change, and frivolous
external things
...
One state resembles setting a hungry man
down to a single dish, on which he may concentrate his
entire appetite and do it justice; the other, introducing
him to a table laid out by French cooks: he can perhaps
extract as much enjoyment from the whole; but each part
is a mere atom in his regard and remembrance
...
Dean, somewhat puzzled
at my speech
...
Excepting a few
provincialisms of slight consequence, you have no marks
of the manners which I am habituated to consider as
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peculiar to your class
...
You have
been compelled to cultivate your reflective faculties for
want of occasions for frittering your life away in silly
trifles
...
Dean laughed
...
Lockwood
...
However, if I am to
follow my story in true gossip’s fashion, I had better go
on; and instead of leaping three years, I will be content to
pass to the next summer - the summer of 1778, that is
nearly twenty-three years ago
...
We were busy with the hay in a far-away field,
when the girl that usually brought our breakfasts came
running an hour too soon across the meadow and up the
lane, calling me as she ran
...
‘The finest lad
that ever breathed! But the doctor says missis must go: he
says she’s been in a consumption these many months
...
Hindley: and now she has nothing to
keep her, and she’ll be dead before winter
...
You’re to nurse it, Nelly: to feed it
with sugar and milk, and take care of it day and night
...
’I guess she is; yet she looks bravely,’ replied the girl,
‘and she talks as if she thought of living to see it grow a
man
...
I was fairly mad
at him
...
When she came, I felt convinced we shouldn’t keep her
long; and now, I must tell you, the winter will probably
finish her
...
And besides, you should have known
better than to choose such a rush of a lass!‘‘
’And what did the master answer?’ I inquired
...
I, as zealous as herself, hurried eagerly home
to admire, on my part; though I was very sad for Hindley’s
sake
...
When we got to Wuthering Heights, there he stood at
the front door; and, as I passed in, I asked, ‘how was the
baby?’
’Nearly ready to run about, Nell!’ he replied, putting
on a cheerful smile
...
‘Frances
is quite right: she’ll be perfectly well by this time next
week
...
I left her because she
would not hold her tongue; and she must - tell her Mr
...
’
I delivered this message to Mrs
...
Well, say I promise I won’t speak: but that does not bind
me not to laugh at him!’
Poor soul! Till within a week of her death that gay
heart never failed her; and her husband persisted doggedly,
nay, furiously, in affirming her health improved every day
...
It
was a fever; and it is gone: her pulse is as slow as mine
now, and her cheek as cool
...
As the girl had anticipated, the child Hareton fell
wholly into my hands
...
Earnshaw, provided he saw
him healthy and never heard him cry, was contented, as
far as regarded him
...
He neither
wept nor prayed; he cursed and defied: execrated God and
man, and gave himself up to reckless dissipation
...
I
had not the heart to leave my charge; and besides, you
know, I had been his foster-sister, and excused his
behaviour more readily than a stranger would
...
The master’s bad ways and bad companions formed a
pretty example for Catherine and Heathcliff
...
And,
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truly, it appeared as if the lad WERE possessed of
something diabolical at that period
...
I could not half tell what an infernal house we
had
...
At fifteen she was the queen of the
country-side; she had no peer; and she did turn out a
haughty, headstrong creature! I own I did not like her,
after infancy was past; and I vexed her frequently by trying
to bring down her arrogance: she never took an aversion
to me, though
...
He was my late master: that is his portrait over
the fireplace
...
Can you make that out?
Mrs
...
It formed a sweet picture
...
I did not marvel how
Catherine Earnshaw could forget her first friend for such
an individual
...
’A very agreeable portrait,’ I observed to the housekeeper
...
’
Catherine had kept up her acquaintance with the
Lintons since her five-weeks’ residence among them; and
as she had no temptation to show her rough side in their
company, and had the sense to be ashamed of being rude
where she experienced such invariable courtesy, she
imposed unwittingly on the old lady and gentleman by her
ingenious cordiality; gained the admiration of Isabella, and
the heart and soul of her brother: acquisitions that flattered
her from the first - for she was full of ambition - and led
her to adopt a double character without exactly intending
to deceive any one
...
Mr
...
He had a terror of Earnshaw’s reputation,
and shrunk from encountering him; and yet he was always
received with our best attempts at civility: the master
himself avoided offending him, knowing why he came;
and if he could not be gracious, kept out of the way
...
I’ve had many a laugh at
her perplexities and untold troubles, which she vainly
strove to hide from my mockery
...
She did bring herself, finally, to confess, and to
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confide in me: there was not a soul else that she might
fashion into an adviser
...
Hindley had gone from home one afternoon, and
Heathcliff presumed to give himself a holiday on the
strength of it
...
In the first place, he had by that time
lost the benefit of his early education: continual hard
work, begun soon and concluded late, had extinguished
any curiosity he once possessed in pursuit of knowledge,
and any love for books or learning
...
Earnshaw, was faded away
...
Then personal
appearance sympathised with mental deterioration: he
acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally
reserved disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic
excess of unsociable moroseness; and he took a grim
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pleasure, apparently, in exciting the aversion rather than
the esteem of his few acquaintance
...
On the before-named occasion he came
into the house to announce his intention of doing
nothing, while I was assisting Miss Cathy to arrange her
dress: she had not reckoned on his taking it into his head
to be idle; and imagining she would have the whole place
to herself, she managed, by some means, to inform Mr
...
’Cathy, are you busy this afternoon?’ asked Heathcliff
...
’Why have you that silk frock on, then?’ he said
...
It is an hour past
dinnertime: I thought you were gone
...
‘I’ll not work any more today: I’ll stay with you
...
’
So, saying, he lounged to the fire, and sat down
...
‘Isabella and Edgar Linton talked of calling this afternoon,’
she said, at the conclusion of a minute’s silence
...
’
’Order Ellen to say you are engaged, Cathy,’ he
persisted; ‘don’t turn me out for those pitiful, silly friends
of yours! I’m on the point, sometimes, of complaining that
they - but I’ll not - ‘
’That they what?’ cried Catherine, gazing at him with a
troubled countenance
...
What are you on the point of complaining about,
Heathcliff?’
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’Nothing - only look at the almanack on that wall;’ he
pointed to a framed sheet hanging near the window, and
continued, ‘The crosses are for the evenings you have
spent with the Lintons, the dots for those spent with me
...
’
’Yes - very foolish: as if I took notice!’ replied
Catherine, in a peevish tone
...
’And should I always be sitting with you?’ she
demanded, growing more irritated
...
’It’s no company at all, when people know nothing and
say nothing,’ she muttered
...
Doubtless Catherine marked the
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difference between her friends, as one came in and the
other went out
...
He had a sweet, low manner of speaking, and
pronounced his words as you do: that’s less gruff than we
talk here, and softer
...
’No,’ answered Catherine
...
(Mr
...
)
She stepped behind me and whispered crossly, ‘Take
yourself and your dusters off; when company are in the
house, servants don’t commence scouring and cleaning in
the room where they are!’
’It’s a good opportunity, now that master is away,’ I
answered aloud: ‘he hates me to be fidgeting over these
things in his presence
...
Edgar will excuse me
...
’I’m sorry for it, Miss Catherine,’ was my response; and
I proceeded assiduously with my occupation
...
I’ve said I did not love
her, and rather relished mortifying her vanity now and
then: besides, she hurt me extremely; so I started up from
my knees, and screamed out, ‘Oh, Miss, that’s a nasty
trick! You have no right to nip me, and I’m not going to
bear it
...
She never had power to conceal her passion, it
always set her whole complexion in a blaze
...
She stamped her foot, wavered a moment, and then,
irresistibly impelled by the naughty spirit within her,
slapped me on the cheek: a stinging blow that filled both
eyes with water
...
’Leave the room, Ellen!’ she repeated, trembling all
over
...
In an instant one
was wrung free, and the astonished young man felt it
applied over his own ear in a way that could not be
mistaken for jest
...
I lifted
Hareton in my arms, and walked off to the kitchen with
him, leaving the door of communication open, for I was
curious to watch how they would settle their
disagreement
...
’That’s right!’ I said to myself
...
’
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’Where are you going?’ demanded Catherine,
advancing to the door
...
’You must not go!’ she exclaimed, energetically
...
’No,’ she persisted, grasping the handle; ‘not yet, Edgar
Linton: sit down; you shall not leave me in that temper
...
Catherine was mute
...
’And you told a deliberate untruth!’ he said
...
Well, go, if you please - get away!
And now I’ll cry - I’ll cry myself sick!’
She dropped down on her knees by a chair, and set to
weeping in serious earnest
...
I resolved
to encourage him
...
‘As bad as
any marred child: you’d better be riding home, or else she
will be sick, only to grieve us
...
Ah, I thought, there will be no saving him: he’s doomed,
and flies to his fate! And so it was: he turned abruptly,
hastened into the house again, shut the door behind him;
and when I went in a while after to inform them that
Earnshaw had come home rabid drunk, ready to pull the
whole place about our ears (his ordinary frame of mind in
that condition), I saw the quarrel had merely effected a
closer intimacy - had broken the outworks of youthful
timidity, and enabled them to forsake the disguise of
friendship, and confess themselves lovers
...
Hindley’s arrival drove Linton
speedily to his horse, and Catherine to her chamber
...
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Chapter IX
HE entered, vociferating oaths dreadful to hear; and
caught me in the act of stowing his son sway in the
kitchen cupboard
...
’There, I’ve found it out at last!’ cried Hindley, pulling
me back by the skin of my neck, like a dog
...
But, with the help of Satan, I shall make you swallow the
carving-knife, Nelly! You needn’t laugh; for I’ve just
crammed Kenneth, head-downmost, in the Black- horse
marsh; and two is the same as one - and I want to kill
some of you: I shall have no rest till I do!’
’But I don’t like the carving-knife, Mr
...
I’d rather be
shot, if you please
...
No law in England can hinder a man from keeping his
house decent, and mine’s abominable! Open your mouth
...
I spat out, and affirmed it tasted
detestably - I would not take it on any account
...
If it be, he
deserves flaying alive for not running to welcome me, and
for screaming as if I were a goblin
...
Now, don’t you think the lad would be
handsomer cropped? It makes a dog fiercer, and I love
something fierce - get me a scissors - something fierce and
trim! Besides, it’s infernal affectation - devilish conceit it
is, to cherish our ears - we’re asses enough without them
...
What! it won’t? Kiss me,
Hareton! Damn thee, kiss me! By God, as if I would rear
such a monster! As sure as I’m living, I’ll break the brat’s
neck
...
I
cried out that he would frighten the child into fits, and ran
to rescue him
...
‘Who is that?’ he asked, hearing
some one approaching the stairs’-foot
...
There was scarcely time to experience a thrill of horror
before we saw that the little wretch was safe
...
A
miser who has parted with a lucky lottery ticket for five
shillings, and finds next day he has lost in the bargain five
thousand pounds, could not show a blanker countenance
than he did on beholding the figure of Mr
...
It expressed, plainer than words could do, the
intensest anguish at having made himself the instrument of
thwarting his own revenge
...
Hindley descended more
leisurely, sobered and abashed
...
You’re worse than a
heathen - treating your own flesh and blood in that
manner!’ He attempted to touch the child, who, on
finding himself with me, sobbed off his terror directly
...
’You shall not meddle with him!’ I continued
...
‘At present,
convey yourself and him away
...
I wouldn’t
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murder you to-night; unless, perhaps, I set the house on
fire: but that’s as my fancy goes
...
’Nay, don’t!’ I entreated
...
Hindley, do take
warning
...
’Have mercy on your own soul!’ I said, endeavouring
to snatch the glass from his hand
...
‘Here’s to its hearty damnation!’
He drank the spirits and impatiently bade us go;
terminating his command with a sequel of horrid
imprecations too bad to repeat or remember
...
‘He’s doing his very utmost; but his
constitution defies him
...
Kenneth says he would wager
his mare that he’ll outlive any man on this side
Gimmerton, and go to the grave a hoary sinner; unless
some happy chance out of the common course befall him
...
Heathcliff, as I thought, walked through to
the barn
...
I was rocking Hareton on my knee, and humming a
song that began, It was far in the night, and the bairnies grat, The mither
beneath the mools heard that,
when Miss Cathy, who had listened to the hubbub
from her room, put her head in, and whispered, - ‘Are
you alone, Nelly?’
’Yes, Miss,’ I replied
...
I, supposing
she was going to say something, looked up
...
Her
lips were half asunder, as if she meant to speak, and she
drew a breath; but it escaped in a sigh instead of a
sentence
...
’Where’s Heathcliff?’ she said, interrupting me
...
He did not contradict me; perhaps he had fallen into a
doze
...
Is she sorry for her shameful conduct? - I asked
myself
...
’Oh, dear!’ she cried at last
...
‘You’re hard to please; so many
friends and so few cares, and can’t make yourself content!’
’Nelly, will you keep a secret for me?’ she pursued,
kneeling down by me, and lifting her winsome eyes to my
face with that sort of look which turns off bad temper,
even when one has all the right in the world to indulge it
...
’Yes, and it worries me, and I must let it out! I want to
know what I should do
...
Now,
before I tell you whether it was a consent or denial, you
tell me which it ought to have been
...
‘To be sure, considering the exhibition you performed in
his presence this afternoon, I might say it would be wise to
refuse him: since he asked you after that, he must either be
hopelessly stupid or a venturesome fool
...
‘I accepted him,
Nelly
...
’
’But say whether I should have done so - do!’ she
exclaimed in an irritated tone; chafing her hands together,
and frowning
...
‘First and foremost, do you love Mr
...
Then I put her through the following catechism: for a
girl of twenty-two it was not injudicious
...
’
’By no means; you must say why?’
’Well, because he is handsome, and pleasant to be
with
...
’And because he is young and cheerful
...
’
’And because he loves me
...
’
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’And he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest
woman of the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of
having such a husband
...
And now, say how you love him?’
’As everybody loves - You’re silly, Nelly
...
’
’I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his
head, and everything he touches, and every word he says
...
There now!’
’And why?’
’Nay; you are making a jest of it: it is exceedingly illnatured! It’s no jest to me!’ said the young lady, scowling,
and turning her face to the fire
...
‘You love Mr
...
The last, however,
goes for nothing: you would love him without that,
probably; and with it you wouldn’t, unless he possessed
the four former attractions
...
’
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’But there are several other handsome, rich young men
in the world: handsomer, possibly, and richer than he is
...
’
’You may see some; and he won’t always be handsome,
and young, and may not always be rich
...
I
wish you would speak rationally
...
Linton
...
’
’Perfectly right; if people be right to marry only for the
present
...
Your brother will be pleased; the old lady and
gentleman will not object, I think; you will escape from a
disorderly, comfortless home into a wealthy, respectable
one; and you love Edgar, and Edgar loves you
...
In my soul and in my
heart, I’m convinced I’m wrong!’
’That’s very strange! I cannot make it out
...
But if you will not mock at me, I’ll
explain it: I can’t do it distinctly; but I’ll give you a feeling
of how I feel
...
’Nelly, do you never dream queer dreams?’ she said,
suddenly, after some minutes’ reflection
...
’And so do I
...
And this is one: I’m
going to tell it - but take care not to smile at any part of
it
...
‘We’re dismal
enough without conjuring up ghosts and visions to
perplex us
...
How
sweetly he smiles in his sleep!’
’Yes; and how sweetly his father curses in his solitude!
You remember him, I daresay, when he was just such
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another as that chubby thing: nearly as young and
innocent
...
’
’I won’t hear it, I won’t hear it!’ I repeated, hastily
...
She was vexed,
but she did not proceed
...
’If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely
miserable
...
‘All
sinners would be miserable in heaven
...
I dreamt once that I was there
...
She laughed, and held me down; for I made a motion
to leave my chair
...
That will do to explain my secret, as well
as the other
...
It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff
now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that,
not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more
myself than I am
...
’
Ere this speech ended I became sensible of Heathcliff’s
presence
...
He had listened till he heard Catherine say it
would degrade her to marry him, and then he stayed to
hear no further
...
’Joseph is here,’ I answered, catching opportunely the
roll of his cartwheels up the road; ‘and Heathcliff will
come in with him
...
’
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’Oh, he couldn’t overhear me at the door!’ said she
...
I want to cheat my
uncomfortable conscience, and be convinced that
Heathcliff has no notion of these things
...
Linton, he loses friend, and love, and all!
Have you considered how you’ll bear the separation, and
how he’ll bear to be quite deserted in the world? Because,
Miss Catherine - ‘
’He quite deserted! we separated!’ she exclaimed, with
an accent of indignation
...
Every Linton on the face of the
earth might melt into nothing before I could consent to
forsake Heathcliff
...
Linton were such a price
demanded! He’ll be as much to me as he has been all his
lifetime
...
He will, when he learns my true feelings
towards him
...
’
’With your husband’s money, Miss Catherine?’ I asked
...
’
’It is not,’ retorted she; ‘it is the best! The others were
the satisfaction of my whims: and for Edgar’s sake, too, to
satisfy him
...
I cannot
express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion
that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond
you
...
If all else
perished, and HE remained, I should still continue to be;
and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the
universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not
seem a part of it
...
My love for Heathcliff resembles the
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eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but
necessary
...
So don’t talk of
our separation again: it is impracticable; and - ‘
She paused, and hid her face in the folds of my gown;
but I jerked it forcibly away
...
But trouble me with no more
secrets: I’ll not promise to keep them
...
’No, I’ll not promise,’ I repeated
...
After it was cooked, my fellow-servant and I began to
quarrel who should carry some to Mr
...
Then we came to the
agreement that we would let him ask, if he wanted any;
for we feared particularly to go into his presence when he
had been some time alone
...
’I’ll call him,’ I replied
...
’
I went and called, but got no answer
...
She jumped up in a fine fright, flung
Hareton on to the settle, and ran to seek for her friend
herself; not taking leisure to consider why she was so
flurried, or how her talk would have affected him
...
He cunningly conjectured they were
staying away in order to avoid hearing his protracted
blessing
...
And on their behalf he added that night a special
prayer to the usual quarter-of-an-hour’s supplication
before meat, and would have tacked another to the end of
the grace, had not his young mistress broken in upon him
with a hurried command that he must run down the road,
and, wherever Heathcliff had rambled, find and make him
re-enter directly!
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’I want to speak to him, and I MUST, before I go
upstairs,’ she said
...
’
Joseph objected at first; she was too much in earnest,
however, to suffer contradiction; and at last he placed his
hat on his head, and walked grumbling forth
...
Was he vexed at my bad
humour this afternoon? Dear! tell me what I’ve said to
grieve him? I do wish he’d come
...
‘What a trifle scares you! It’s surely no great
cause of alarm that Heathcliff should take a moonlight
saunter on the moors, or even lie too sulky to speak to us
in the hay-loft
...
See if I don’t
ferret him out!’
I departed to renew my search; its result was
disappointment, and Joseph’s quest ended in the same
...
‘He’s left th’ gate at t’ full swing, and Miss’s pony
has trodden dahn two rigs o’ corn, and plottered through,
raight o’er into t’ meadow! Hahsomdiver, t’ maister ‘ull
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play t’ devil to-morn, and he’ll do weel
...
‘Have you been looking for him, as I ordered?’
’I sud more likker look for th’ horse,’ he replied
...
Bud I can look for norther horse nur
man of a neeght loike this - as black as t’ chimbley! und
Heathcliff’s noan t’ chap to coom at MY whistle - happen
he’ll be less hard o’ hearing wi’ YE!’
It WAS a very dark evening for summer: the clouds
appeared inclined to thunder, and I said we had better all
sit down; the approaching rain would be certain to bring
him home without further trouble
...
She kept
wandering to and fro, from the gate to the door, in a state
of agitation which permitted no repose; and at length took
up a permanent situation on one side of the wall, near the
road: where, heedless of my expostulations and the
growling thunder, and the great drops that began to plash
around her, she remained, calling at intervals, and then
listening, and then crying outright
...
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About midnight, while we still sat up, the storm came
rattling over the Heights in full fury
...
We thought a bolt had fallen in the middle of
us; and Joseph swung on to his knees, beseeching the Lord
to remember the patriarchs Noah and Lot, and, as in
former times, spare the righteous, though he smote the
ungodly
...
The Jonah, in my mind, was Mr
...
He replied audibly enough, in a
fashion which made my companion vociferate, more
clamorously than before, that a wide distinction might be
drawn between saints like himself and sinners like his
master
...
She
came in and lay down on the settle, all soaked as she was,
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turning her face to the back, and putting her hands before
it
...
Come, come to
bed! there’s no use waiting any longer on that foolish boy:
he’ll be gone to Gimmerton, and he’ll stay there now
...
Hindley would be up; and
he’d rather avoid having the door opened by the master
...
‘I’s
niver wonder but he’s at t’ bothom of a bog-hoile
...
Thank Hivin for all! All warks
togither for gooid to them as is chozzen, and piked out
fro’ th’ rubbidge! Yah knaw whet t’ Scripture ses
...
I, having vainly begged the wilful girl to rise and
remove her wet things, left him preaching and her
shivering, and betook myself to bed with little Hareton,
who slept as fast as if everyone had been sleeping round
him
...
Coming down somewhat later than usual, I saw, by the
sunbeams piercing the chinks of the shutters, Miss
Catherine still seated near the fireplace
...
’What ails you, Cathy?’ he was saying when I entered:
‘you look as dismal as a drowned whelp
...
’
’Oh, she is naughty!’ I cried, perceiving the master to
be tolerably sober
...
’
Mr
...
‘The night
through,’ he repeated
...
’
Neither of us wished to mention Heathcliff’s absence,
as long as we could conceal it; so I replied, I didn’t know
how she took it into her head to sit up; and she said
nothing
...
I’m starving!’ And her teeth
chattered as she shrank closer to the almost extinguished
embers
...
Damn it! I
don’t want to be troubled with more sickness here
...
‘If I war yah, maister, I’d just slam t’
boards i’ their faces all on ‘em, gentle and simple! Never a
day ut yah’re off, but yon cat o’ Linton comes sneaking
hither; and Miss Nelly, shoo’s a fine lass! shoo sits
watching for ye i’ t’ kitchen; and as yah’re in at one door,
he’s out at t’other; and, then, wer grand lady goes acourting of her side! It’s bonny behaviour, lurking amang
t’ fields, after twelve o’ t’ night, wi’ that fahl, flaysome
divil of a gipsy, Heathcliff! They think I’M blind; but I’m
noan: nowt ut t’ soart! - I seed young Linton boath
coming and going, and I seed YAH’ (directing his
discourse to me), ‘yah gooid fur nowt, slattenly witch! nip
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up and bolt into th’ house, t’ minute yah heard t’ maister’s
horse-fit clatter up t’ road
...
’
’You lie, Cathy, no doubt,’ answered her brother, ‘and
you are a confounded simpleton! But never mind Linton
at present: tell me, were you not with Heathcliff last
night? Speak the truth, now
...
To prevent it, I
shall send him about his business this very morning; and
after he’s gone, I’d advise you all to look sharp: I shall only
have the more humour for you
...
But, perhaps, you’ll never have an
opportunity: perhaps, he’s gone
...
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Hindley lavished on her a torrent of scornful abuse, and
bade her get to her room immediately, or she shouldn’t
cry for nothing! I obliged her to obey; and I shall never
forget what a scene she acted when we reached her
chamber: it terrified me
...
It proved the
commencement of delirium: Mr
...
He bled her, and he told me to let her live on whey and
water-gruel, and take care she did not throw herself
downstairs or out of the window; and then he left: for he
had enough to do in the parish, where two or three miles
was the ordinary distance between cottage and cottage
...
Old Mrs
...
But the poor
dame had reason to repent of her kindness: she and her
husband both took the fever, and died within a few days
of each other
...
Heathcliff had never
been heard of since the evening of the thunder-storm;
and, one day, I had the misfortune, when she had
provoked me exceedingly, to lay the blame of his
disappearance on her: where indeed it belonged, as she
well knew
...
Joseph fell under a ban also: he
would speak his mind, and lecture her all the same as if she
were a little girl; and she esteemed herself a woman, and
our mistress, and thought that her recent illness gave her a
claim to be treated with consideration
...
From Mr
...
He was rather too
indulgent in humouring her caprices; not from affection,
but from pride: he wished earnestly to see her bring
honour to the family by an alliance with the Lintons, and
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as long as she let him alone she might trample on us like
slaves, for aught he cared! Edgar Linton, as multitudes
have been before and will be after him, was infatuated:
and believed himself the happiest man alive on the day he
led her to Gimmerton Chapel, three years subsequent to
his father’s death
...
We made a sad parting; but
Catherine’s tears were more powerful than ours
...
The former offered me munificent wages; the latter
ordered me to pack up: he wanted no women in the
house, he said, now that there was no mistress; and as to
Hareton, the curate should take him in hand, by-and-by
...
I
told the master he got rid of all decent people only to run
to ruin a little faster; I kissed Hareton, said good-by; and
since then he has been a stranger: and it’s very queer to
think it, but I’ve no doubt he has completely forgotten all
about Ellen Dean, and that he was ever more than all the
world to her and she to him!
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At this point of the housekeeper’s story she chanced to
glance towards the time-piece over the chimney; and was
in amazement on seeing the minute-hand measure halfpast one
...
And now that she is vanished to her rest,
and I have meditated for another hour or two, I shall
summon courage to go also, in spite of aching laziness of
head and limbs
...
Heathcliff has just honoured me with a call
...
Scoundrel! He is not altogether guiltless in this
illness of mine; and that I had a great mind to tell him
...
I am too weak to read; yet I
feel as if I could enjoy something interesting
...
Dean to finish her tale? I can recollect its
chief incidents, as far as she had gone
...
I’ll ring: she’ll be
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delighted to find me capable of talking cheerfully
...
Dean came
...
’Away, away with it!’ I replied; ‘I desire to have - ‘
’The doctor says you must drop the powders
...
Come and take
your seat here
...
Draw your knitting out of your pocket - that will
do - now continue the history of Mr
...
Did he finish his
education on the Continent, and come back a gentleman?
or did he get a sizar’s place at college, or escape to
America, and earn honours by drawing blood from his
foster-country? or make a fortune more promptly on the
English highways?’
’He may have done a little in all these vocations, Mr
...
I stated
before that I didn’t know how he gained his money;
neither am I aware of the means he took to raise his mind
from the savage ignorance into which it was sunk: but,
with your leave, I’ll proceed in my own fashion, if you
think it will amuse and not weary you
...
’
’That’s good news
...
She seemed almost
over-fond of Mr
...
They were both very attentive to her
comfort, certainly
...
There were no mutual concessions: one stood erect, and
the others yielded: and who can be ill-natured and badtempered when they encounter neither opposition nor
indifference? I observed that Mr
...
He concealed it from her; but
if ever he heard me answer sharply, or saw any other
servant grow cloudy at some imperious order of hers, he
would show his trouble by a frown of displeasure that
never darkened on his own account
...
Not to grieve a kind
master, I learned to be less touchy; and, for the space of
half a year, the gunpowder lay as harmless as sand, because
no fire came near to explode it
...
The return of sunshine was welcomed by
answering sunshine from him
...
It ended
...
On a mellow
evening in September, I was coming from the garden with
a heavy basket of apples which I had been gathering
...
I set my burden on the house-steps by the
kitchen-door, and lingered to rest, and drew in a few
more breaths of the soft, sweet air; my eyes were on the
moon, and my back to the entrance, when I heard a voice
behind me say, - ‘Nelly, is that you?’
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It was a deep voice, and foreign in tone; yet there was
something in the manner of pronouncing my name which
made it sound familiar
...
Something stirred in the
porch; and, moving nearer, I distinguished a tall man
dressed in dark clothes, with dark face and hair
...
‘Who can it be?’ I thought
...
Earnshaw? Oh, no! The voice has no resemblance to
his
...
I dared not enter
...
I remembered the eyes
...
‘What! you come back? Is it really you? Is it?’
’Yes, Heathcliff,’ he replied, glancing from me up to
the windows, which reflected a score of glittering moons,
but showed no lights from within
...
Is she here? Speak! I want to have one word
with her - your mistress
...
’
’How will she take it?’ I exclaimed
...
Have you been for a soldier?’
’Go and carry my message,’ he interrupted, impatiently
...
and Mrs
...
At length I resolved on
making an excuse to ask if they would have the candles
lighted, and I opened the door
...
Wuthering Heights rose
above this silvery vapour; but our old house was invisible;
it rather dips down on the other side
...
I shrank reluctantly from performing
my errand; and was actually going away leaving it unsaid,
after having put my question about the candles, when a
sense of my folly compelled me to return, and mutter, ‘A
person from Gimmerton wishes to see you ma’am
...
Linton
...
’Well, close the curtains, Nelly,’ she said; ‘and bring up
tea
...
’
She quitted the apartment; Mr
...
’Some one mistress does not expect,’ I replied
...
Earnshaw’s
...
‘Why did
you not say so to Catherine?’
’Hush! you must not call him by those names, master,’
I said
...
She was nearly
heartbroken when he ran off
...
’
Mr
...
He unfastened it, and
leant out
...
’ Ere long, I heard the click of the
latch, and Catherine flew up-stairs, breathless and wild;
too excited to show gladness: indeed, by her face, you
would rather have surmised an awful calamity
...
‘Oh, Edgar darling! Heathcliff’s come back - he
is!’ And she tightened her embrace to a squeeze
...
There is no need to be frantic!’
’I know you didn’t like him,’ she answered, repressing
a little the intensity of her delight
...
Shall I tell him to come up?’
’Here,’ he said, ‘into the parlour?’
’Where else?’ she asked
...
Mrs
...
’No,’ she added, after a while; ‘I cannot sit in the
kitchen
...
Will that please
you, dear? Or must I have a fire lighted elsewhere? If so,
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give directions
...
I’m
afraid the joy is too great to be real!’
She was about to dart off again; but Edgar arrested her
...
The
whole household need not witness the sight of your
welcoming a runaway servant as a brother
...
He
followed my guidance without waste of words, and I
ushered him into the presence of the master and mistress,
whose flushed cheeks betrayed signs of warm talking
...
Now, fully
revealed by the fire and candlelight, I was amazed, more
than ever, to behold the transformation of Heathcliff
...
His
upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been in
the army
...
Linton’s; it looked
intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation
...
My master’s surprise equalled or
exceeded mine: he remained for a minute at a loss how to
address the ploughboy, as he had called him
...
’Sit down, sir,’ he said, at length
...
Linton, recalling
old times, would have me give you a cordial reception;
and, of course, I am gratified when anything occurs to
please her
...
I shall stay an hour or two
willingly
...
He did not raise his to her often: a quick glance
now and then sufficed; but it flashed back, each time more
confidently, the undisguised delight he drank from hers
...
Not so Mr
...
’I shall think it a dream to-morrow!’ she cried
...
And yet, cruel Heathcliff! you
don’t deserve this welcome
...
‘I heard of your marriage, Cathy, not long
since; and, while waiting in the yard below, I meditated
this plan - just to have one glimpse of your face, a stare of
surprise, perhaps, and pretended pleasure; afterwards settle
my score with Hindley; and then prevent the law by
doing execution on myself
...
You were really sorry for me, were you? Well,
there was cause
...
‘Mr
...
’
She took her post before the urn; and Miss Isabella
came, summoned by the bell; then, having handed their
chairs forward, I left the room
...
Catherine’s cup was never filled: she could
neither eat nor drink
...
Their guest did not
protract his stay that evening above an hour longer
...
Earnshaw invited me, when I called this morning
...
Earnshaw invited HIM! and HE called on Mr
...
Is he turning out a bit of a hypocrite, and coming
into the country to work mischief under a cloak? I mused:
I had a presentiment in the bottom of my heart that he
had better have remained away
...
Linton gliding into my chamber, taking a
seat on my bedside, and pulling me by the hair to rouse
me
...
‘And
I want some living creature to keep me company in my
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happiness! Edgar is sulky, because I’m glad of a thing that
does not interest him: he refuses to open his mouth,
except to utter pettish, silly speeches; and he affirmed I
was cruel and selfish for wishing to talk when he was so
sick and sleepy
...
’
’What use is it praising Heathcliff to him?’ I answered
...
Let Mr
...
’
’But does it not show great weakness?’ pursued she
...
Even you, Nelly, if we have a dispute sometimes, you
back Isabella at once; and I yield like a foolish mother: I
call her a darling, and flatter her into a good temper
...
But they are very much alike: they are spoiled children,
and fancy the world was made for their accommodation;
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and though I humour both, I think a smart chastisement
might improve them all the same
...
Linton,’ said I
...
You can well afford to indulge their passing whims as long
as their business is to anticipate all your desires
...
’
’And then we shall fight to the death, sha’n’t we,
Nelly?’ she returned, laughing
...
’
I advised her to value him the more for his affection
...
It is childish and, instead of melting into tears
because I said that Heathcliff was now worthy of anyone’s
regard, and it would honour the first gentleman in the
country to be his friend, he ought to have said it for me,
and been delighted from sympathy
...
‘He is reformed in every respect,
apparently: quite a Christian: offering the right hand of
fellowship to his enemies all around!’
’He explained it,’ she replied
...
He said he called to gather information concerning
me from you, supposing you resided there still; and Joseph
told Hindley, who came out and fell to questioning him of
what he had been doing, and how he had been living; and
finally, desired him to walk in
...
Hindley is too reckless to select his
acquaintance prudently: he doesn’t trouble himself to
reflect on the causes he might have for mistrusting one
whom he has basely injured
...
He means to
offer liberal payment for permission to lodge at the
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Heights; and doubtless my brother’s covetousness will
prompt him to accept the terms: he was always greedy;
though what he grasps with one hand he flings away with
the other
...
‘Have you no fear of the consequences, Mrs
...
The event of this evening has reconciled
me to God and humanity! I had risen in angry rebellion
against Providence
...
It was
kindness for him which induced me to bear it alone: had I
expressed the agony I frequently felt, he would have been
taught to long for its alleviation as ardently as I
...
Good- night! I’m an
angel!’
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In this self-complacent conviction she departed; and the
success of her fulfilled resolution was obvious on the
morrow: Mr
...
Heathcliff - Mr
...
Catherine, also, deemed it judicious to
moderate her expressions of pleasure in receiving him; and
he gradually established his right to be expected
...
My master’s uneasiness
experienced a lull, and further circumstances diverted it
into another channel for a space
...
She
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was at that time a charming young lady of eighteen;
infantile in manners, though possessed of keen wit, keen
feelings, and a keen temper, too, if irritated
...
Leaving aside the degradation of an alliance
with a nameless man, and the possible fact that his
property, in default of heirs male, might pass into such a
one’s power, he had sense to comprehend Heathcliff’s
disposition: to know that, though his exterior was altered,
his mind was unchangeable and unchanged
...
He
would have recoiled still more had he been aware that her
attachment rose unsolicited, and was bestowed where it
awakened no reciprocation of sentiment; for the minute
he discovered its existence he laid the blame on
Heathcliff’s deliberate designing
...
She grew cross
and wearisome; snapping at and teasing Catherine
continually, at the imminent risk of exhausting her limited
patience
...
But one day, when she had been peculiarly
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wayward, rejecting her breakfast, complaining that the
servants did not do what she told them; that the mistress
would allow her to be nothing in the house, and Edgar
neglected her; that she had caught a cold with the doors
being left open, and we let the parlour fire go out on
purpose to vex her, with a hundred yet more frivolous
accusations, Mrs
...
Mention of Kenneth
caused her to exclaim, instantly, that her health was
perfect, and it was only Catherine’s harshness which made
her unhappy
...
‘You are surely losing your reason
...
‘On what occasion?’
’In our walk along the moor: you told me to ramble
where I pleased, while you sauntered on with Mr
...
‘It was no hint that your company was
superfluous? We didn’t care whether you kept with us or
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not; I merely thought Heathcliff’s talk would have nothing
entertaining for your ears
...
Linton, appealing to me
...
’
’I don’t mind the conversation,’ she answered: ‘I
wanted to be with - ‘
‘Well?’ said Catherine, perceiving her hesitate to
complete the sentence
...
‘You are a dog in the manger,
Cathy, and desire no one to be loved but yourself!’
’You are an impertinent little monkey!’ exclaimed Mrs
...
‘But I’ll not believe this idiotcy! It is
impossible that you can covet the admiration of Heathcliff
- that you consider him an agreeable person! I hope I have
misunderstood you, Isabella?’
’No, you have not,’ said the infatuated girl
...
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‘Nelly, help me to convince her of her madness
...
I’d as soon put that little canary into the
park on a winter’s day, as recommend you to bestow your
heart on him! It is deplorable ignorance of his character,
child, and nothing else, which makes that dream enter
your head
...
I never say to
him, ‘Let this or that enemy alone, because it would be
ungenerous or cruel to harm them;’ I say, ‘Let them alone,
because I should hate them to be wronged:’ and he’d
crush you like a sparrow’s egg, Isabella, if he found you a
troublesome charge
...
There’s my picture: and I’m his friend - so much so,
that had he thought seriously to catch you, I should,
perhaps, have held my tongue, and let you fall into his
trap
...
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’For shame! for shame!’ she repeated, angrily
...
‘You
think I speak from wicked selfishness?’
’I’m certain you do,’ retorted Isabella; ‘and I shudder at
you!’
’Good!’ cried the other
...
’ ’And I must suffer for her egotism!’ she sobbed, as Mrs
...
‘All, all is against me: she has
blighted my single consolation
...
Heathcliff is not a fiend: he has an
honourable soul, and a true one, or how could he
remember her?’
’Banish him from your thoughts, Miss,’ I said
...
Mrs
...
She is better
acquainted with his heart than I, or any one besides; and
she never would represent him as worse than he is
...
How has he been living?
how has he got rich? why is he staying at Wuthering
Heights, the house of a man whom he abhors? They say
Mr
...
They sit
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up all night together continually, and Hindley has been
borrowing money on his land, and does nothing but play
and drink: I heard only a week ago - it was Joseph who
told me - I met him at Gimmerton: ‘Nelly,’ he said, ‘we’s
hae a crowner’s ‘quest enow, at ahr folks’
...
That’s maister, yeah knaw, ‘at
‘s soa up o’ going tuh t’ grand ‘sizes
...
He can girn a laugh
as well ‘s onybody at a raight divil’s jest
...
I’ course, he tells Dame Catherine how her
fathur’s goold runs into his pocket, and her fathur’s son
gallops down t’ broad road, while he flees afore to oppen
t’ pikes!’ Now, Miss Linton, Joseph is an old rascal, but no
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liar; and, if his account of Heathcliff’s conduct be true,
you would never think of desiring such a husband, would
you?’
’You are leagued with the rest, Ellen!’ she replied
...
What malevolence you must
have to wish to convince me that there is no happiness in
the world!’
Whether she would have got over this fancy if left to
herself, or persevered in nursing it perpetually, I cannot
say: she had little time to reflect
...
Heathcliff, aware of his absence, called
rather earlier than usual
...
She did
laugh as she saw Heathcliff pass the window
...
Isabella, absorbed in her meditations, or a book,
remained till the door opened; and it was too late to
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attempt an escape, which she would gladly have done had
it been practicable
...
‘Here are two people sadly in
need of a third to thaw the ice between them; and you are
the very one we should both of us choose
...
I expect you to feel flattered
...
It lies in your own power to be Edgar’s
brother! No, no, Isabella, you sha’n’t run off,’ she
continued, arresting, with feigned playfulness, the
confounded girl, who had risen indignantly
...
Heathcliff, be kind enough to bid this
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friend of yours release me: she forgets that you and I are
not intimate acquaintances; and what amuses her is painful
to me beyond expression
...
’By no means!’ cried Mrs
...
‘I won’t
be named a dog in the manger again
...
I’m sure
she made some speech of the kind; did she not, Ellen?
And she has fasted ever since the day before yesterday’s
walk, from sorrow and rage that I despatched her out of
your society under the idea of its being unacceptable
...
‘She wishes to be out of my society now, at
any rate!’
And he stared hard at the object of discourse, as one
might do at a strange repulsive animal: a centipede from
the Indies, for instance, which curiosity leads one to
examine in spite of the aversion it raises
...
’There’s a tigress!’ exclaimed Mrs
...
‘Begone, for God’s
sake, and hide your vixen face! How foolish to reveal
those talons to him
...
’
’I’d wrench them off her fingers, if they ever menaced
me,’ he answered, brutally, when the door had closed after
her
...
‘She has been dying
for your sake several weeks, and raving about you this
morning, and pouring forth a deluge of abuse, because I
represented your failings in a plain light, for the purpose of
mitigating her adoration
...
I like her too
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well, my dear Heathcliff, to let you absolutely seize and
devour her up
...
You’d hear of odd things if I lived
alone with that mawkish, waxen face: the most ordinary
would be painting on its white the colours of the rainbow,
and turning the blue eyes black, every day or two: they
detestably resemble Linton’s
...
‘They are dove’s eyes
- angel’s!’
’She’s her brother’s heir, is she not?’ he asked, after a
brief silence
...
‘Half a dozen nephews shall erase her title, please heaven!
Abstract your mind from the subject at present: you are
too prone to covet your neighbour’s goods; remember
THIS neighbour’s goods are mine
...
’
From their tongues they did dismiss it; and Catherine,
probably, from her thoughts
...
I saw him
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smile to himself - grin rather - and lapse into ominous
musing whenever Mrs
...
I determined to watch his movements
...
I wanted something to
happen which might have the effect of freeing both
Wuthering Heights and the Grange of Mr
...
His
visits were a continual nightmare to me; and, I suspected,
to my master also
...
I felt that God had forsaken the
stray sheep there to its own wicked wanderings, and an
evil beast prowled between it and the fold, waiting his
time to spring and destroy
...
I’ve persuaded
my conscience that it was a duty to warn him how people
talked regarding his ways; and then I’ve recollected his
confirmed bad habits, and, hopeless of benefiting him,
have flinched from re-entering the dismal house, doubting
if I could bear to be taken at my word
...
It was about the period that
my narrative has reached: a bright frosty afternoon; the
ground bare, and the road hard and dry
...
H
...
, and on the south-west,
T
...
It serves as a guide-post to the Grange, the Heights,
and village
...
Hindley and I held it a favourite spot twenty years before
...
‘Poor Hindley!’ I exclaimed, involuntarily
...
Superstition
urged me to comply with this impulse: supposing he
should be dead! I thought - or should die soon! supposing it were a sign of death! The nearer I got to the
house the more agitated I grew; and on catching sight of it
I trembled in every limb
...
That was my first
idea on observing an elf-locked, brown-eyed boy setting
his ruddy countenance against the bars
...
’God bless thee, darling!’ I cried, forgetting
instantaneously my foolish fears
...
’
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He retreated out of arm’s length, and picked up a large
flint
...
He raised his missile to hurl it; I commenced a soothing
speech, but could not stay his hand: the stone struck my
bonnet; and then ensued, from the stammering lips of the
little fellow, a string of curses, which, whether he
comprehended them or not, were delivered with practised
emphasis, and distorted his baby features into a shocking
expression of malignity
...
Fit to cry, I took an orange from
my pocket, and offered it to propitiate him
...
I showed another,
keeping it out of his reach
...
‘The curate?’
’Damn the curate, and thee! Gie me that,’ he replied
...
‘Who’s your master?’
’Devil daddy,’ was his answer
...
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He jumped at the fruit; I raised it higher
...
’Naught,’ said he, ‘but to keep out of his gait
...
’
’Ah! and the devil teaches you to swear at daddy?’ I
observed
...
’Who, then?’
’Heathcliff
...
Heathcliff
...
Desiring to have his reasons for liking him, I could only
gather the sentences - ‘I known’t: he pays dad back what
he gies to me - he curses daddy for cursing me
...
’
’And the curate does not teach you to read and write,
then?’ I pursued
...
He went up the walk,
and entered the house; but, instead of Hindley, Heathcliff
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appeared on the door-stones; and I turned directly and ran
down the road as hard as ever I could race, making no halt
till I gained the guide-post, and feeling as scared as if I had
raised a goblin
...
Linton’s pleasure
...
She had never
spoken a word to her sister-in-law for three days; but she
had likewise dropped her fretful complaining, and we
found it a great comfort
...
Now, as soon as he beheld her, his first precaution
was to take a sweeping survey of the house-front
...
He then stepped across the pavement to her, and said
something: she seemed embarrassed, and desirous of
getting away; to prevent it, he laid his hand on her arm
...
There was another
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rapid glance at the house, and supposing himself unseen,
the scoundrel had the impudence to embrace her
...
‘You are a hypocrite, too,
are you? A deliberate deceiver
...
’Your worthless friend!’ I answered, warmly: ‘the
sneaking rascal yonder
...
Linton saw Isabella tear herself free, and run into
the garden; and a minute after, Heathcliff opened the
door
...
’To hear you, people might think you were the
mistress!’ she cried
...
I detested him just then
...
Why have you disregarded my request? Did she
come across you on purpose?’
’What is it to you?’ he growled
...
I am
not YOUR husband: YOU needn’t be jealous of me!’
’I’m not jealous of you,’ replied the mistress; ‘I’m
jealous for you
...
But do you like
her? Tell the truth, Heathcliff! There, you won’t answer
...
’
’And would Mr
...
’Mr
...
’He might spare himself the trouble,’ said Heathcliff: ‘I
could do as well without his approbation
...
I want you to be aware that I KNOW you
have treated me infernally - infernally! Do you hear? And
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if you flatter yourself that I don’t perceive it, you are a
fool; and if you think I can be consoled by sweet words,
you are an idiot: and if you fancy I’ll suffer unrevenged,
I’ll convince you of the contrary, in a very little while!
Meantime, thank you for telling me your sister-in-law’s
secret: I swear I’ll make the most of it
...
Linton, in amazement
...
‘That’s not the plan
...
You are welcome to torture me to death
for your amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a
little in the same style, and refrain from insult as much as
you are able
...
If I imagined you really wished me to
marry Isabel, I’d cut my throat!’
’Oh, the evil is that I am NOT jealous, is it?’ cried
Catherine
...
Your bliss lies, like his, in
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inflicting misery
...
Edgar is restored from the
ill-temper he gave way to at your coming; I begin to be
secure and tranquil; and you, restless to know us at peace,
appear resolved on exciting a quarrel
...
’
The conversation ceased
...
Linton sat down by the
fire, flushed and gloomy
...
He stood on the hearth with folded arms, brooding on his
evil thoughts; and in this position I left them to seek the
master, who was wondering what kept Catherine below
so long
...
‘She’s sadly
put out by Mr
...
There’s harm in being too soft, and now it’s come to this
...
I fancied it could not
be very prejudicial to Mrs
...
Edgar
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Linton had difficulty in hearing me to the close
...
’This is insufferable!’ he exclaimed
...
Catherine
shall linger no longer to argue with the low ruffian - I
have humoured her enough
...
Its
occupants had recommenced their angry discussion: Mrs
...
He saw
the master first, and made a hasty motion that she should
be silent; which she obeyed, abruptly, on discovering the
reason of his intimation
...
Heathcliff, who had raised his eyes at the former
speech, gave a sneering laugh at the latter; on purpose, it
seemed, to draw Mr
...
He
succeeded; but Edgar did not mean to entertain him with
any high flights of passion
...
Your presence
is a moral poison that would contaminate the most
virtuous: for that cause, and to prevent worse
consequences, I shall deny you hereafter admission into
this house, and give notice now that I require your instant
departure
...
Heathcliff measured the height and breadth of the
speaker with an eye full of derision
...
‘It is in danger of splitting its skull against my knuckles
...
Linton, I’m mortally sorry that you are not
worth knocking down!’
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My master glanced towards the passage, and signed me
to fetch the men: he had no intention of hazarding a
personal encounter
...
Linton,
suspecting something, followed; and when I attempted to
call them, she pulled me back, slammed the door to, and
locked it
...
‘If you have not courage to attack him,
make an apology, or allow yourself to be beaten
...
No,
I’ll swallow the key before you shall get it! I’m delightfully
rewarded for my kindness to each! After constant
indulgence of one’s weak nature, and the other’s bad one,
I earn for thanks two samples of blind ingratitude, stupid
to absurdity! Edgar, I was defending you and yours; and I
wish Heathcliff may flog you sick, for daring to think an
evil thought of me!’
It did not need the medium of a flogging to produce
that effect on the master
...
Edgar was taken
with a nervous trembling, and his countenance grew
deadly pale
...
He leant on the back of a chair, and covered
his face
...
Linton
...
Cheer up! you sha’n’t be hurt! Your type is not a
lamb, it’s a sucking leveret
...
‘I compliment you on your taste
...
Is he
weeping, or is he going to faint for fear?’
The fellow approached and gave the chair on which
Linton rested a push
...
It
took his breath for a minute; and while he choked, Mr
...
’There! you’ve done with coming here,’ cried
Catherine
...
If he did overhear us, of
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course he’d never forgive you
...
’
’Do you suppose I’m going with that blow burning in
my gullet?’ he thundered
...
‘There’s the coachman and the two gardeners; you’ll
surely not wait to be thrust into the road by them! Each
has a bludgeon; and master will, very likely, be watching
from the parlour-windows to see that they fulfil his
orders
...
They had already entered the court
...
Mrs
...
She did not know my share in
contributing to the disturbance, and I was anxious to keep
her in ignorance
...
‘A thousand smiths’ hammers are
beating in my head! Tell Isabella to shun me; this uproar is
owing to her; and should she or any one else aggravate my
anger at present, I shall get wild
...
I wish it may prove true
...
Besides,
he might come and begin a string of abuse or
complainings; I’m certain I should recriminate, and God
knows where we should end! Will you do so, my good
Nelly? You are aware that I am no way blamable in this
matter
...
Now all is dashed wrong; by the fool’s craving to
hear evil of self, that haunts some people like a demon!
Had Edgar never gathered our conversation, he would
never have been the worse for it
...
That will be a prompt way of finishing all, when I am
pushed to extremity! But it’s a deed to be reserved for a
forlorn hope; I’d not take Linton by surprise with it
...
I wish you could dismiss that apathy
out of that countenance, and look rather more anxious
about me
...
Therefore I said nothing when I met the
master coming towards the parlour; but I took the liberty
of turning back to listen whether they would resume their
quarrel together
...
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’Remain where you are, Catherine,’ he said; without
any anger in his voice, but with much sorrowful
despondency
...
I am neither come to
wrangle nor be reconciled; but I wish just to learn
whether, after this evening’s events, you intend to
continue your intimacy with - ‘
’Oh, for mercy’s sake,’ interrupted the mistress,
stamping her foot, ‘for mercy’s sake, let us hear no more
of it now! Your cold blood cannot be worked into a fever:
your veins are full of ice- water; but mine are boiling, and
the sight of such chillness makes them dance
...
Linton
...
I have found that you can be as stoical as
anyone, when you please
...
’
’I require to be let alone?’ exclaimed Catherine,
furiously
...
It was enough to try the temper of a saint, such
senseless, wicked rages! There she lay dashing her head
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against the arm of the sofa, and grinding her teeth, so that
you might fancy she would crash them to splinters! Mr
...
He told me to fetch some water
...
I brought a glass full; and as she would not
drink, I sprinkled it on her face
...
Linton looked terrified
...
I did not want him to yield, though I could not help being
afraid in my heart
...
’Never mind!’ I answered, tartly
...
I incautiously gave the account aloud, and
she heard me; for she started up - her hair flying over her
shoulders, her eyes flashing, the muscles of her neck and
arms standing out preternaturally
...
The master
directed me to follow; I did, to her chamber-door: she
hindered me from going further by securing it against me
...
‘No!’ she replied, peremptorily
...
Mr
...
Isabella and he
had had an hour’s interview, during which he tried to
elicit from her some sentiment of proper horror for
Heathcliff’s advances: but he could make nothing of her
evasive replies, and was obliged to close the examination
unsatisfactorily; adding, however, a solemn warning, that if
she were so insane as to encourage that worthless suitor, it
would dissolve all bonds of relationship between herself
and him
...
I
wasted no condolences on Miss, nor any expostulations on
my mistress; nor did I pay much attention to the sighs of
my master, who yearned to hear his lady’s name, since he
might not hear her voice
...
Mrs
...
That I set down as a speech meant
for Edgar’s ears; I believed no such thing, so I kept it to
myself and brought her some tea and dry toast
...
‘Oh, I will die,’ she
exclaimed, ‘since no one cares anything about me
...
’ Then a good while after I heard her
murmur, ‘No, I’ll not die - he’d be glad - he does not
love me at all - he would never miss me!’
’Did you want anything, ma’am?’ I inquired, still
preserving my external composure, in spite of her ghastly
countenance and strange, exaggerated manner
...
‘Has he fallen into a lethargy, or is he dead?’
’Neither,’ replied I; ‘if you mean Mr
...
He’s
tolerably well, I think, though his studies occupy him
rather more than they ought: he is continually among his
books, since he has no other society
...
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’Among his books!’ she cried, confounded
...
‘Is that
Catherine Linton? He imagines me in a pet - in play,
perhaps
...
Are you speaking the truth
about him now? Take care
...
’
’You think not? Cannot you tell him I will?’ she
returned
...
Linton,’ I suggested, ‘that you
have eaten some food with a relish this evening, and tomorrow you will perceive its good effects
...
How strange! I thought, though everybody hated and
despised each other, they could not avoid loving me
...
How dreary to meet death,
surrounded by their cold faces! Isabella, terrified and
repelled, afraid to enter the room, it would be so dreadful
to watch Catherine go
...
Linton’s philosophical resignation
...
We were in the middle of winter, the wind blew
strong from the north-east, and I objected
...
A minute previously she
was violent; now, supported on one arm, and not noticing
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my refusal to obey her, she seemed to find childish
diversion in pulling the feathers from the rents she had just
made, and ranging them on the sheet according to their
different species: her mind had strayed to other
associations
...
Ah, they put pigeons’
feathers in the pillows - no wonder I couldn’t die! Let me
take care to throw it on the floor when I lie down
...
Bonny bird; wheeling over our
heads in the middle of the moor
...
This feather was picked up from the heath, the
bird was not shot: we saw its nest in the winter, full of
little skeletons
...
I made him promise he’d never
shoot a lapwing after that, and he didn’t
...
’
’Give over with that baby-work!’ I interrupted,
dragging the pillow away, and turning the holes towards
the mattress, for she was removing its contents by
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handfuls
...
There’s a mess! The down is flying about like snow
...
’I see in you, Nelly,’ she continued dreamily, ‘an aged
woman: you have grey hair and bent shoulders
...
That’s what
you’ll come to fifty years hence: I know you are not so
now
...
’
’The black press? where is that?’ I asked
...
‘It
DOES appear odd - I see a face in it!’
’There’s no press in the room, and never was,’ said I,
resuming my seat, and looping up the curtain that I might
watch her
...
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And say what I could, I was incapable of making her
comprehend it to be her own; so I rose and covered it
with a shawl
...
‘And it
stirred
...
’There’s nobody here!’ I insisted
...
Linton: you knew it a while since
...
I attempted to steal to the door with an
intention of calling her husband; but I was summoned
back by a piercing shriek - the shawl had dropped from
the frame
...
‘Who is coward
now? Wake up! That is the glass - the mirror, Mrs
...
’
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Trembling and bewildered, she held me fast, but the
horror gradually passed from her countenance; its paleness
gave place to a glow of shame
...
‘I
thought I was lying in my chamber at Wuthering Heights
...
Don’t say anything; but stay with me
...
’
’A sound sleep would do you good, ma’am,’ I
answered: ‘and I hope this suffering will prevent your
trying starving again
...
‘And that wind
sounding in the firs by the lattice
...
A cold blast rushed through; I closed it, and
returned to my post
...
Exhaustion of body had entirely subdued her spirit:
our fiery Catherine was no better than a wailing child
...
’It was Monday evening,’ I replied, ‘and this is
Thursday night, or rather Friday morning, at present
...
‘Only that
brief time?’
’Long enough to live on nothing but cold water and
ill-temper,’ observed I
...
I remember being in the
parlour after they had quarrelled, and Edgar being cruelly
provoking, and me running into this room desperate
...
I couldn’t
explain to Edgar how certain I felt of having a fit, or going
raging mad, if he persisted in teasing me! I had no
command of tongue, or brain, and he did not guess my
agony, perhaps: it barely left me sense to try to escape
from him and his voice
...
I thought as I lay there, with
my head against that table leg, and my eyes dimly
discerning the grey square of the window, that I was
enclosed in the oak-panelled bed at home; and my heart
ached with some great grief which, just waking, I could
not recollect
...
I was a child; my father was just buried, and
my misery arose from the separation that Hindley had
ordered between me and Heathcliff
...
I cannot say why I felt so wildly
wretched: it must have been temporary derangement; for
there is scarcely cause
...
Linton, the lady
of Thrushcross Grange, and the wife of a stranger: an
exile, and outcast, thenceforth, from what had been my
world
...
Open the window
again wide: fasten it open! Quick, why don’t you move?’
’Because I won’t give you your death of cold,’ I
answered
...
‘However, I’m not helpless yet; I’ll open it
myself
...
I entreated, and finally
attempted to force her to retire
...
There was no moon, and everything beneath lay
in misty darkness: not a light gleamed from any house, far
or near all had been extinguished long ago: and those at
Wuthering Heights were never visible - still she asserted
she caught their shining
...
Joseph sits up late, doesn’t he?
He’s waiting till I come home that he may lock the gate
...
It’s a rough journey, and a sad
heart to travel it; and we must pass by Gimmerton Kirk to
go that journey! We’ve braved its ghosts often together,
and dared each other to stand among the graves and ask
them to come
...
I’ll not lie there by
myself: they may bury me twelve feet deep, and throw the
church down over me, but I won’t rest till you are with
me
...
‘He’s
considering - he’d rather I’d come to him! Find a way,
then! not through that kirkyard
...
Linton entered
...
’Oh, sir!’ I cried, checking the exclamation risen to his
lips at the sight which met him, and the bleak atmosphere
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of the chamber
...
Forget your anger, for she’s
hard to guide any way but her own
...
‘Shut the
window, Ellen! Catherine! why - ‘
He was silent
...
Linton’s
appearance smote him speechless, and he could only
glance from her to me in horrified astonishment
...
’
I felt I uttered my explanations awkwardly; the master
frowned
...
‘You shall account more clearly for keeping me ignorant
of this!’ And he took his wife in his arms, and looked at
her with anguish
...
The delirium was not
fixed, however; having weaned her eyes from
contemplating the outer darkness, by degrees she centred
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her attention on him, and discovered who it was that held
her
...
‘You are one of those things that
are ever found when least wanted, and when you are
wanted, never! I suppose we shall have plenty of
lamentations now - I see we shall - but they can’t keep me
from my narrow home out yonder: my resting-place,
where I’m bound before spring is over! There it is: not
among the Lintons, mind, under the chapel-roof, but in
the open air, with a head-stone; and you may please
yourself whether you go to them or come to me!’
’Catherine, what have you done?’ commenced the
master
...
Linton
...
I don’t want you, Edgar: I’m past
wanting you
...
I’m glad you possess
a consolation, for all you had in me is gone
...
‘She has been
talking nonsense the whole evening; but let her have
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quiet, and proper attendance, and she’ll rally
...
’
’I desire no further advice from you,’ answered Mr
...
‘You knew your mistress’s nature, and you
encouraged me to harass her
...
‘I knew Mrs
...
Heathcliff
...
Next time
you may gather intelligence for yourself!’
’The next time you bring a tale to me you shall quit my
service, Ellen Dean,’ he replied
...
Linton?’ said I
...
’Ah! Nelly has played traitor,’ she exclaimed,
passionately
...
You witch! So
you do seek elf-bolts to hurt us! Let me go, and I’ll make
her rue! I’ll make her howl a recantation!’
A maniac’s fury kindled under her brows; she struggled
desperately to disengage herself from Linton’s arms
...
In passing the garden to reach the road, at a place
where a bridle hook is driven into the wall, I saw
something white moved irregularly, evidently by another
agent than the wind
...
My surprise and perplexity were great on
discovering, by touch more than vision, Miss Isabella’s
springer, Fanny, suspended by a handkerchief, and nearly
at its last gasp
...
I had seen it follow its mistress up-stairs
when she went to bed; and wondered much how it could
have got out there, and what mischievous person had
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treated it so
...
Mr
...
He was a plain rough
man; and he made no scruple to speak his doubts of her
surviving this second attack; unless she were more
submissive to his directions than she had shown herself
before
...
What has there been to do at the
Grange? We’ve odd reports up here
...
It’s hard work bringing them
through fevers, and such things
...
Linton caps them all
...
She was struck during a tempest of passion with
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a kind of fit
...
Afterwards, she
refused to eat, and now she alternately raves and remains
in a half dream; knowing those about her, but having her
mind filled with all sorts of strange ideas and illusions
...
Linton will be sorry?’ observed Kenneth,
interrogatively
...
‘Don’t alarm him more than necessary
...
Heathcliff lately?’
’Heathcliff frequently visits at the Grange,’ answered I,
‘though more on the strength of the mistress having
known him when a boy, than because the master likes his
company
...
I hardly think he’ll be taken
in again
...
’I’m not in her confidence,’ returned I, reluctant to
continue the subject
...
‘She keeps her own counsel! But she’s a real little fool
...
Linton to look sharp!’
This news filled me with fresh fears; I outstripped
Kenneth, and ran most of the way back
...
I spared a minute to open the
gate for it, but instead of going to the house door, it
coursed up and down snuffing the grass, and would have
escaped to the road, had I not seized it and conveyed it in
with me
...
Had I been a few hours
sooner Mrs
...
But what could be done now? There was a bare
possibility of overtaking them if pursued instantly
...
Catherine lay in a troubled sleep: her
husband had succeeded in soothing the excess of frenzy;
he now hung over her pillow, watching every shade and
every change of her painfully expressive features
...
To me, he signified the threatening danger
was not so much death, as permanent alienation of
intellect
...
Linton:
indeed, we never went to bed; and the servants were all
up long before the usual hour, moving through the house
with stealthy tread, and exchanging whispers as they
encountered each other in their vocations
...
I trembled
lest he should send me to call her; but I was spared the
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pain of being the first proclaimant of her flight
...
’Speak lower, Mary - What is the matter?’ said Mr
...
‘What ails your young lady?’
’She’s gone, she’s gone! Yon’ Heathcliff’s run off wi’
her!’ gasped the girl
...
‘It cannot be: how has the idea entered your head? Ellen
Dean, go and seek her
...
’
As he spoke he took the servant to the door, and then
repeated his demand to know her reasons for such an
assertion
...
I thought he meant for missis’s
sickness, so I answered, yes
...
He saw I
knew nought about it, and he told how a gentleman and
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lady had stopped to have a horse’s shoe fastened at a
blacksmith’s shop, two miles out of Gimmerton, not very
long after midnight! and how the blacksmith’s lass had got
up to spy who they were: she knew them both directly
...
The lady had a
cloak about her face; but having desired a sup of water,
while she drank it fell back, and she saw her very plain
...
The lass said nothing to her father,
but she told it all over Gimmerton this morning
...
Mr
...
’Are we to try any measures for overtaking and
bringing her back,’ I inquired
...
Trouble me no more
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about her
...
’
And that was all he said on the subject: he did not
make single inquiry further, or mention her in any way,
except directing me to send what property she had in the
house to her fresh home, wherever it was, when I knew it
...
Linton encountered and
conquered the worst shock of what was denominated a
brain fever
...
Day and night he
was watching, and patiently enduring all the annoyances
that irritable nerves and a shaken reason could inflict; and,
though Kenneth remarked that what he saved from the
grave would only recompense his care by forming the
source of constant future anxiety - in fact, that his health
and strength were being sacrificed to preserve a mere ruin
of humanity - he knew no limits in gratitude and joy
when Catherine’s life was declared out of danger; and
hour after hour he would sit beside her, tracing the
gradual return to bodily health, and flattering his too
sanguine hopes with the illusion that her mind would
settle back to its right balance also, and she would soon be
entirely her former self
...
Mr
...
’These are the earliest flowers at the Heights,’ she
exclaimed
...
Edgar, is there
not a south wind, and is not the snow almost gone?’
’The snow is quite gone down here, darling,’ replied
her husband; ‘and I only see two white spots on the whole
range of moors: the sky is blue, and the larks are singing,
and the becks and brooks are all brim full
...
’
’I shall never be there but once more,’ said the invalid;
‘and then you’ll leave me, and I shall remain for ever
...
’
Linton lavished on her the kindest caresses, and tried to
cheer her by the fondest words; but, vaguely regarding the
flowers, she let the tears collect on her lashes and stream
down her cheeks unheeding
...
The
master told me to light a fire in the many-weeks’ deserted
parlour, and to set an easy-chair in the sunshine by the
window; and then he brought her down, and she sat a
long while enjoying the genial heat, and, as we expected,
revived by the objects round her: which, though familiar,
were free from the dreary associations investing her hated
sick chamber
...
To obviate the
fatigue of mounting and descending the stairs, we fitted up
this, where you lie at present - on the same floor with the
parlour; and she was soon strong enough to move from
one to the other, leaning on Edgar’s arm
...
And
there was double cause to desire it, for on her existence
depended that of another: we cherished the hope that in a
little while Mr
...
I should mention that Isabella sent to her brother, some
six weeks from her departure, a short note, announcing
her marriage with Heathcliff
...
Linton did not reply to
this, I believe; and, in a fortnight more, I got a long letter,
which I considered odd, coming from the pen of a bride
just out of the honeymoon
...
Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued
living
...
I must not write to
her, I suppose, and my brother is either too angry or too
distressed to answer what I sent him
...
Inform Edgar that I’d give the world to see his face
again - that my heart returned to Thrushcross Grange in
twenty-four hours after I left it, and is there at this
moment, full of warm feelings for him, and Catherine! I
CAN’T FOLLOW IT THOUGH - (these words are
underlined) - they need not expect me, and they may
draw what conclusions they please; taking care, however,
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to lay nothing at the door of my weak will or deficient
affection
...
I want
to ask you two questions: the first is, - How did you
contrive to preserve the common sympathies of human
nature when you resided here? I cannot recognise any
sentiment which those around share with me
...
Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he
a devil? I sha’n’t tell my reasons for making this inquiry;
but I beseech you to explain, if you can, what I have
married: that is, when you call to see me; and you must
call, Ellen, very soon
...
Now, you shall hear how I have been received in my
new home, as I am led to imagine the Heights will be
...
I should laugh and
dance for joy, if I found their absence was the total of my
miseries, and the rest was an unnatural dream!
The sun set behind the Grange as we turned on to the
moors; by that, I judged it to be six o’clock; and my
companion halted half an hour, to inspect the park, and
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the gardens, and, probably, the place itself, as well as he
could; so it was dark when we dismounted in the paved
yard of the farm-house, and your old fellow-servant,
Joseph, issued out to receive us by the light of a dip
candle
...
His first act was to elevate his torch to a level with
my face, squint malignantly, project his under-lip, and
turn away
...
Heathcliff stayed to speak to him, and I entered the
kitchen - a dingy, untidy hole; I daresay you would not
know it, it is so changed since it was in your charge
...
’This is Edgar’s legal nephew,’ I reflected - ‘mine in a
manner; I must shake hands, and - yes - I must kiss him
...
’
I approached, and, attempting to take his chubby fist,
said - ‘How do you do, my dear?’
He replied in a jargon I did not comprehend
...
An oath, and a threat to set Throttler on me if I did not
‘frame off’ rewarded my perseverance
...
‘Now, wilt thou be ganging?’ he asked authoritatively
...
Mr
...
’None o’ me! I getten summut else to do,’ he
answered, and continued his work; moving his lantern
jaws meanwhile, and surveying my dress and countenance
(the former a great deal too fine, but the latter, I’m sure, as
sad as he could desire) with sovereign contempt
...
After a
short suspense, it was opened by a tall, gaunt man, without
neckerchief, and otherwise extremely slovenly; his features
were lost in masses of shaggy hair that hung on his
shoulders; and HIS eyes, too, were like a ghostly
Catherine’s with all their beauty annihilated
...
‘Who are you?’
’My name was Isabella Linton,’ I replied
...
I’m lately married to Mr
...
’
’Is he come back, then?’ asked the hermit, glaring like a
hungry wolf
...
’
’It’s well the hellish villain has kept his word!’ growled
my future host, searching the darkness beyond me in
expectation of discovering Heathcliff; and then he
indulged in a soliloquy of execrations, and threats of what
he would have done had the ‘fiend’ deceived him
...
There was a great fire, and
that was all the light in the huge apartment, whose floor
had grown a uniform grey; and the once brilliant pewterdishes, which used to attract my gaze when I was a girl,
partook of a similar obscurity, created by tarnish and dust
...
Earnshaw vouchsafed no
answer
...
You’ll not be surprised, Ellen, at my feeling particularly
cheerless, seated in worse than solitude on that
inhospitable hearth, and remembering that four miles
distant lay my delightful home, containing the only people
I loved on earth; and there might as well be the Atlantic to
part us, instead of those four miles: I could not overpass
them! I questioned with myself - where must I turn for
comfort? and - mind you don’t tell Edgar, or Catherine above every sorrow beside, this rose pre-eminent: despair
at finding nobody who could or would be my ally against
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Heathcliff! I had sought shelter at Wuthering Heights,
almost gladly, because I was secured by that arrangement
from living alone with him; but he knew the people we
were coming amongst, and he did not fear their
intermeddling
...
I
listened to detect a woman’s voice in the house, and filled
the interim with wild regrets and dismal anticipations,
which, at last, spoke audibly in irrepressible sighing and
weeping
...
Taking advantage
of his recovered attention, I exclaimed - ‘I’m tired with
my journey, and I want to go to bed! Where is the maidservant? Direct me to her, as she won’t come to me!’
’We have none,’ he answered; ‘you must wait on
yourself!’
’Where must I sleep, then?’ I sobbed; I was beyond
regarding self- respect, weighed down by fatigue and
wretchedness
...
’
I was going to obey, but he suddenly arrested me, and
added in the strangest tone - ‘Be so good as to turn your
lock, and draw your bolt - don’t omit it!’
’Well!’ I said
...
Earnshaw?’ I did not relish
the notion of deliberately fastening myself in with
Heathcliff
...
‘That’s a great tempter
to a desperate man, is it not? I cannot resist going up with
this every night, and trying his door
...
You fight against that
devil for love as long as you may; when the time comes,
not all the angels in heaven shall save him!’
I surveyed the weapon inquisitively
...
He looked astonished at the expression my face
assumed during a brief second: it was not horror, it was
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covetousness
...
’I don’t care if you tell him,’ said he
...
You know the terms we are on,
I see: his danger does not shock you
...
‘In what
has he wronged you, to warrant this appalling hatred?
Wouldn’t it be wiser to bid him quit the house?’
’No!’ thundered Earnshaw; ‘should he offer to leave
me, he’s a dead man: persuade him to attempt it, and you
are a murderess! Am I to lose ALL, without a chance of
retrieval? Is Hareton to be a beggar? Oh, damnation! I
WILL have it back; and I’ll have HIS gold too; and then
his blood; and hell shall have his soul! It will be ten times
blacker with that guest than ever it was before!’
You’ve acquainted me, Ellen, with your old master’s
habits
...
I shuddered to be near him, and thought
on the servant’s ill-bred moroseness as comparatively
agreeable
...
Joseph was
bending over the fire, peering into a large pan that swung
above it; and a wooden bowl of oatmeal stood on the
settle close by
...
‘Mr
...
I’m not going to act the lady among
you, for fear I should starve
...
‘If there’s
to be fresh ortherings - just when I getten used to two
maisters, if I mun hev’ a MISTRESS set o’er my heead,
it’s like time to be flitting
...
It racked me to recall past
happiness and the greater peril there was of conjuring up
its apparition, the quicker the thible ran round, and the
faster the handfuls of meal fell into the water
...
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’Thear!’ he ejaculated
...
Thear, agean! I’d fling in bowl un’ all, if I wer
ye! There, pale t’ guilp off, un’ then ye’ll hae done wi’ ‘t
...
It’s a mercy t’ bothom isn’t deaved out!’
It WAS rather a rough mess, I own, when poured into
the basins; four had been provided, and a gallon pitcher of
new milk was brought from the dairy, which Hareton
seized and commenced drinking and spilling from the
expansive lip
...
The old cynic chose to be vastly
offended at this nicety; assuring me, repeatedly, that ‘the
barn was every bit as good’ as I, ‘and every bit as
wollsome,’ and wondering how I could fashion to be so
conceited
...
’I shall have my supper in another room,’ I said
...
If yah dunnut loike wer
company, there’s maister’s; un’ if yah dunnut loike
maister, there’s us
...
’
I put my basin on a tray, and went myself to fetch some
more milk
...
’Here’s a rahm,’ he said, at last, flinging back a cranky
board on hinges
...
There’s a pack o’ corn i’ t’ corner, thear, meeterly
clane; if ye’re feared o’ muckying yer grand silk cloes,
spread yer hankerchir o’ t’ top on’t
...
’Why, man,’ I exclaimed, facing him angrily, ‘this is
not a place to sleep in
...
’
’BED-RUME!’ he repeated, in a tone of mockery
...
’
He pointed into the second garret, only differing from
the first in being more naked about the walls, and having a
large, low, curtainless bed, with an indigo-coloured quilt,
at one end
...
‘I suppose Mr
...
‘Couldn’t ye ha’
said soa, at onst? un’ then, I mud ha’ telled ye, baht all this
wark, that that’s just one ye cannut see - he allas keeps it
locked, un’ nob’dy iver mells on’t but hisseln
...
For heaven’s sake be quick, and let me
settle somewhere!’
He made no reply to this adjuration; only plodding
doggedly down the wooden steps, and halting, before an
apartment which, from that halt and the superior quality
of its furniture, I conjectured to be the best one
...
The chairs
were also damaged, many of them severely; and deep
indentations deformed the panels of the walls
...
’ My supper by this time was cold, my
appetite gone, and my patience exhausted
...
’Whear the divil?’ began the religious elder
...
There’s not another hoile to lig
down in i’ th’ hahse!’
I was so vexed, I flung my tray and its contents on the
ground; and then seated myself at the stairs’-head, hid my
face in my hands, and cried
...
‘Weel done, Miss Cathy!
weel done, Miss Cathy! Howsiver, t’ maister sall just
tum’le o’er them brooken pots; un’ then we’s hear
summut; we’s hear how it’s to be
...
Will
Hathecliff bide sich bonny ways, think ye? I nobbut wish
he may catch ye i’ that plisky
...
’
And so he went on scolding to his den beneath, taking
the candle with him; and I remained in the dark
...
An unexpected aid presently appeared in the shape
of Throttler, whom I now recognised as a son of our old
Skulker: it had spent its whelphood at the Grange, and was
given by my father to Mr
...
I fancy it knew me: it
pushed its nose against mine by way of salute, and then
hastened to devour the porridge; while I groped from step
to step, collecting the shattered earthenware, and drying
the spatters of milk from the banister with my pockethandkerchief
...
The dog’s endeavour to avoid him was
unsuccessful; as I guessed by a scutter down-stairs, and a
prolonged, piteous yelping
...
Directly after
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Joseph came up with Hareton, to put him to bed
...
It’s empty; ye may hev’ it all
to yerseln, un’ Him as allus maks a third, i’ sich ill
company!’
Gladly did I take advantage of this intimation; and the
minute I flung myself into a chair, by the fire, I nodded,
and slept
...
Mr
...
The adjective
OUR gave mortal offence
...
He told me of Catherine’s illness, and accused my
brother of causing it promising that I should be Edgar’s
proxy in suffering, till he could get hold of him
...
I shall expect you every day - don’t disappoint
me! - ISABELLA
...
Linton’s situation, and her ardent desire to see him;
with a wish that he would transmit to her, as early as
possible, some token of forgiveness by me
...
‘I have nothing to forgive
her, Ellen
...
It is out of the question my going to see her,
however: we are eternally divided; and should she really
wish to oblige me, let her persuade the villain she has
married to leave the country
...
’No,’ he answered
...
My communication
with Heathcliff’s family shall be as sparing as his with
mine
...
Edgar’s coldness depressed me exceedingly; and all
the way from the Grange I puzzled my brains how to put
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more heart into what he said, when I repeated it; and how
to soften his refusal of even a few lines to console Isabella
...
I entered
without knocking
...
But she already partook of the
pervading spirit of neglect which encompassed her
...
Probably she had not touched her dress
since yester evening
...
Mr
...
He was the
only thing there that seemed decent; and I thought he
never looked better
...
I
shook my head
...
Heathcliff guessed the
meaning of her manoeuvres, and said - ‘If you have got
anything for Isabella (as no doubt you have, Nelly), give it
to her
...
’
’Oh, I have nothing,’ I replied, thinking it best to speak
the truth at once
...
He sends his love, ma’am, and his wishes for your
happiness, and his pardon for the grief you have
occasioned; but he thinks that after this time his household
and the household here should drop intercommunication,
as nothing could come of keeping it up
...
Heathcliff’s lip quivered slightly, and she returned
to her seat in the window
...
I told him as much as I thought
proper of her illness, and he extorted from me, by crossexamination, most of the facts connected with its origin
...
Linton’s
example and avoid future interference with his family, for
good or evil
...
Linton is now just recovering,’ I said; ‘she’ll
never be like she was, but her life is spared; and if you
really have a regard for her, you’ll shun crossing her way
again: nay, you’ll move out of this country entirely; and
that you may not regret it, I’ll inform you Catherine
Linton is as different now from your old friend Catherine
Earnshaw, as that young lady is different from me
...
But do you imagine that I shall
leave Catherine to his DUTY and HUMANITY? and can
you compare my feelings respecting Catherine to his?
Before you leave this house, I must exact a promise from
you that you’ll get me an interview with her: consent, or
refuse, I WILL see her! What do you say?’
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’I say, Mr
...
Another encounter
between you and the master would kill her altogether
...
And there you see the
distinction between our feelings: had he been in my place,
and I in his, though I hated him with a hatred that turned
my life to gall, I never would have raised a hand against
him
...
The moment her regard ceased, I would have
torn his heart out, and drunk his blood! But, till then - if
you don’t believe me, you don’t know me - till then, I
would have died by inches before I touched a single hair
of his head!’
’And yet,’ I interrupted, ‘you have no scruples in
completely ruining all hopes of her perfect restoration, by
thrusting yourself into her remembrance now, when she
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has nearly forgotten you, and involving her in a new
tumult of discord and distress
...
‘Oh, Nelly! you know she has not! You know as well as I
do, that for every thought she spends on Linton she spends
a thousand on me! At a most miserable period of my life, I
had a notion of the kind: it haunted me on my return to
the neighbourhood last summer; but only her own
assurance could make me admit the horrible idea again
...
Two words would
comprehend my future - DEATH and HELL: existence,
after losing her, would be hell
...
If he loved with all the powers of his
puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I
could in a day
...
Tush! He is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog,
or her horse
...
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‘No one has a right to talk in that manner, and I won’t
hear my brother depreciated in silence!’
’Your brother is wondrous fond of you too, isn’t he?’
observed Heathcliff, scornfully
...
’
’He is not aware of what I suffer,’ she replied
...
’
’You have been telling him something, then: you have
written, have you?’
’To say that I was married, I did write - you saw the
note
...
’
’My young lady is looking sadly the worse for her
change of condition,’ I remarked
...
’
’I should guess it was her own,’ said Heathcliff
...
You’d hardly credit it, but the
very morrow of our wedding she was weeping to go
home
...
’
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’Well, sir,’ returned I, ‘I hope you’ll consider that Mrs
...
You must let her
have a maid to keep things tidy about her, and you must
treat her kindly
...
Edgar,
you cannot doubt that she has a capacity for strong
attachments, or she wouldn’t have abandoned the
elegancies, and comforts, and friends of her former home,
to fix contentedly, in such a wilderness as this, with you
...
I can
hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature, so
obstinately has she persisted in forming a fabulous notion
of my character and acting on the false impressions she
cherished
...
It was a marvellous effort of
perspicacity to discover that I did not love her
...
Can I trust your assertion, Isabella? Are you sure you hate
me? If I let you alone for half a day, won’t you come
sighing and wheedling to me again? I daresay she would
rather I had seemed all tenderness before you: it wounds
her vanity to have the truth exposed
...
She cannot accuse me of
showing one bit of deceitful softness
...
But no brutality disgusted her: I
suppose she has an innate admiration of it, if only her
precious person were secure from injury! Now, was it not
the depth of absurdity - of genuine idiotcy, for that pitiful,
slavish, mean-minded brach to dream that I could love
her? Tell your master, Nelly, that I never, in all my life,
met with such an abject thing as she is
...
I have
avoided, up to this period, giving her the slightest right to
claim a separation; and, what’s more, she’d thank nobody
for dividing us
...
Heathcliff,’ said I, ‘this is the talk of a madman;
your wife, most likely, is convinced you are mad; and, for
that reason, she has borne with you hitherto: but now that
you say she may go, she’ll doubtless avail herself of the
permission
...
‘Don’t put faith in a single word he speaks
...
Whatever he may pretend, he
wishes to provoke Edgar to desperation: he says he has
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married me on purpose to obtain power over him; and he
sha’n’t obtain it - I’ll die first! I just hope, I pray, that he
may forget his diabolical prudence and kill me! The single
pleasure I can imagine is to die, or to see him dead!’
’There - that will do for the present!’ said Heathcliff
...
No; you’re not fit to be your own guardian, Isabella, now;
and I, being your legal protector, must retain you in my
custody, however distasteful the obligation may be
...
That’s not the way: up-stairs, I tell you! Why, this is the
road upstairs, child!’
He seized, and thrust her from the room; and returned
muttering - ‘I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the
worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails!
It is a moral teething; and I grind with greater energy in
proportion to the increase of pain
...
‘Did you ever feel a
touch of it in your life?’
’Put that down!’ he interrupted, perceiving my
intention to depart
...
Come here
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now, Nelly: I must either persuade or compel you to aid
me in fulfilling my determination to see Catherine, and
that without delay
...
Linton; I only wish to hear from herself how
she is, and why she has been ill; and to ask if anything that
I could do would be of use to her
...
If Edgar Linton meets me,
I shall not hesitate to knock him down, and give him
enough to insure his quiescence while I stay
...
But
wouldn’t it be better to prevent my coming in contact
with them, or their master? And you could do it so easily
...
’
I protested against playing that treacherous part in my
employer’s house: and, besides, I urged the cruelty and
selfishness of his destroying Mrs
...
‘The commonest occurrence startles her
painfully,’ I said
...
Don’t persist, sir! or else I shall
be obliged to inform my master of your designs; and he’ll
take measures to secure his house and its inmates from any
such unwarrantable intrusions!’
’In that case I’ll take measures to secure you, woman!’
exclaimed Heathcliff; ‘you shall not leave Wuthering
Heights till to-morrow morning
...
You say she never mentions my name,
and that I am never mentioned to her
...
Oh, I’ve no
doubt she’s in hell among you! I guess by her silence, as
much as anything, what she feels
...
How
the devil could it be otherwise in her frightful isolation?
And that insipid, paltry creature attending her from
DUTY and HUMANITY! From PITY and CHARITY!
He might as well plant an oak in a flower-pot, and expect
it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigour in the
soil of his shallow cares? Let us settle it at once: will you
stay here, and am I to fight my way to Catherine over
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Linton and his footman? Or will you be my friend, as you
have been hitherto, and do what I request? Decide!
because there is no reason for my lingering another
minute, if you persist in your stubborn ill-nature!’
Well, Mr
...
I engaged to carry a letter from him
to my mistress; and should she consent, I promised to let
him have intelligence of Linton’s next absence from
home, when he might come, and get in as he was able: I
wouldn’t be there, and my fellow-servants should be
equally out of the way
...
I thought I prevented another
explosion by my compliance; and I thought, too, it might
create a favourable crisis in Catherine’s mental illness: and
then I remembered Mr
...
Notwithstanding, my journey
homeward was sadder than my journey thither; and many
misgivings I had, ere I could prevail on myself to put the
missive into Mrs
...
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But here is Kenneth; I’ll go down, and tell him how
much better you are
...
Dree, and dreary! I reflected as the good woman
descended to receive the doctor: and not exactly of the
kind which I should have chosen to amuse me
...
Dean’s
bitter herbs; and firstly, let me beware of the fascination
that lurks in Catherine Heathcliff’s brilliant eyes
...
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Chapter XV
ANOTHER week over - and I am so many days
nearer health, and spring! I have now heard all my
neighbour’s history, at different sittings, as the
housekeeper could spare time from more important
occupations
...
She is, on the whole, a very fair narrator, and I
don’t think I could improve her style
...
Heathcliff was about the place; and I shunned going out,
because I still carried his letter in my pocket, and didn’t
want to be threatened or teased any more
...
The consequence was, that it did not reach her before the
lapse of three days
...
There was a manservant left to keep the house with me,
and we generally made a practice of locking the doors
during the hours of service; but on that occasion the
weather was so warm and pleasant that I set them wide
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open, and, to fulfil my engagement, as I knew who would
be coming, I told my companion that the mistress wished
very much for some oranges, and he must run over to the
village and get a few, to be paid for on the morrow
...
Mrs
...
Her thick, long hair had been partly
removed at the beginning of her illness, and now she wore
it simply combed in its natural tresses over her temples and
neck
...
The flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a
dreamy and melancholy softness; they no longer gave the
impression of looking at the objects around her: they
appeared always to gaze beyond, and far beyond - you
would have said out of this world
...
A book lay spread on the sill before her, and the
scarcely perceptible wind fluttered its leaves at intervals
...
She was conscious of his aim, and in her
better moods endured his efforts placidly, only showing
their uselessness by now and then suppressing a wearied
sigh, and checking him at last with the saddest of smiles
and kisses
...
Gimmerton chapel bells were still ringing; and the full,
mellow flow of the beck in the valley came soothingly on
the ear
...
At
Wuthering Heights it always sounded on quiet days
following a great thaw or a season of steady rain
...
’There’s a letter for you, Mrs
...
‘You
must read it immediately, because it wants an answer
...
I opened it - it was very short
...
’ She drew away her hand,
and let it fall
...
Heathcliff
...
She lifted the letter,
and seemed to peruse it; and when she came to the
signature she sighed: yet still I found she had not gathered
its import, for, upon my desiring to hear her reply, she
merely pointed to the name, and gazed at me with
mournful and questioning eagerness
...
‘He’s in the garden by this time, and
impatient to know what answer I shall bring
...
Mrs
...
The
minute after a step traversed the hall; the open house was
too tempting for Heathcliff to resist walking in: most likely
he supposed that I was inclined to shirk my promise, and
so resolved to trust to his own audacity
...
He did not hit the right room directly: she
motioned me to admit him, but he found it out ere I
could reach the door, and in a stride or two was at her
side, and had her grasped in his arms
...
’Oh, Cathy! Oh, my life! how can I bear it?’ was the
first sentence he uttered, in a tone that did not seek to
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disguise his despair
...
’What now?’ said Catherine, leaning back, and
returning his look with a suddenly clouded brow: her
humour was a mere vane for constantly varying caprices
...
You
have killed me - and thriven on it, I think
...
’I wish I could hold you,’ she continued, bitterly, ‘till
we were both dead! I shouldn’t care what you suffered
...
Why shouldn’t you
suffer? I do! Will you forget me? Will you be happy when
I am in the earth? Will you say twenty years hence, ‘That’s
the grave of Catherine Earnshaw? I loved her long ago,
and was wretched to lose her; but it is past
...
The two, to a cool spectator, made a strange and fearful
picture
...
Her present countenance
had a wild vindictiveness in its white cheek, and a
bloodless lip and scintillating eye; and she retained in her
closed fingers a portion of the locks she had been grasping
...
’Are you possessed with a devil,’ he pursued, savagely,
‘to talk in that manner to me when you are dying? Do
you reflect that all those words will be branded in my
memory, and eating deeper eternally after you have left
me? You know you lie to say I have killed you: and,
Catherine, you know that I could as soon forget you as
my existence! Is it not sufficient for your infernal
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selfishness, that while you are at peace I shall writhe in the
torments of hell?’
’I shall not be at peace,’ moaned Catherine, recalled to
a sense of physical weakness by the violent, unequal
throbbing of her heart, which beat visibly and audibly
under this excess of agitation
...
I only wish us never to be parted: and should a
word of mine distress you hereafter, think I feel the same
distress underground, and for my own sake, forgive me!
Come here and kneel down again! You never harmed me
in your life
...
She bent round to look at him; he would
not permit it: turning abruptly, he walked to the fireplace,
where he stood, silent, with his back towards us
...
Linton’s glance followed him suspiciously: every
movement woke a new sentiment in her
...
THAT is how I’m loved! Well,
never mind
...
I shall love mine
yet; and take him with me: he’s in my soul
...
I’m tired of being enclosed here
...
Nelly, you think you are better
and more fortunate than I; in full health and strength: you
are sorry for me - very soon that will be altered
...
I shall be incomparably beyond and above
you all
...
‘I thought he wished it
...
Do come to me, Heathcliff
...
At that earnest appeal he turned to her,
looking absolutely desperate
...
An instant they held asunder, and then how they met I
hardly saw, but Catherine made a spring, and he caught
her, and they were locked in an embrace from which I
thought my mistress would never be released alive: in fact,
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to my eyes, she seemed directly insensible
...
I did not feel as if I were in the company
of a creature of my own species: it appeared that he would
not understand, though I spoke to him; so I stood off, and
held my tongue, in great perplexity
...
WHY did you despise me? WHY did you betray
your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort
...
You have killed yourself
...
You loved me - then what
RIGHT had you to leave me? What right - answer me for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and
degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan
could inflict would have parted us, YOU, of your own
will, did it
...
So
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much the worse for me that I am strong
...
Let me alone,’ sobbed Catherine
...
It is enough! You left me
too: but I won’t upbraid you! I forgive you
...
‘Kiss me again; and
don’t let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done
to me
...
At least, I suppose the
weeping was on both sides; as it seemed Heathcliff could
weep on a great occasion like this
...
’Service is over,’ I announced
...
’
Heathcliff groaned a curse, and strained Catherine
closer: she never moved
...
Mr
...
’Now he is here,’ I exclaimed
...
Do be quick; and stay among the trees till he is fairly in
...
‘But if I live, I’ll see
you again before you are asleep
...
’
’You must not go!’ she answered, holding him as firmly
as her strength allowed
...
’
’For one hour,’ he pleaded earnestly
...
’I MUST - Linton will be up immediately,’ persisted
the alarmed intruder
...
’No!’ she shrieked
...
It is the last
time! Edgar will not hurt us
...
‘Hush, my darling! Hush, hush,
Catherine! I’ll stay
...
’
And there they were fast again
...
’Are you going to listen to her ravings?’ I said,
passionately
...
Will you
ruin her, because she has not wit to help herself? Get up!
You could be free instantly
...
We are all done for - master,
mistress, and servant
...
Linton
hastened his step at the noise
...
’She’s fainted, or dead,’ I thought: ‘so much the better
...
’
Edgar sprang to his unbidden guest, blanched with
astonishment and rage
...
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’Look there!’ he said
...
Mr
...
Edgar, in his anxiety for her,
forgot her hated friend
...
I went, at the earliest
opportunity, and besought him to depart; affirming that
Catherine was better, and he should hear from me in the
morning how she passed the night
...
I shall be under those larch-trees
...
’
He sent a rapid glance through the half-open door of
the chamber, and, ascertaining that what I stated was
apparently true, delivered the house of his luckless
presence
...
The latter’s distraction at his
bereavement is a subject too painful to be dwelt on; its
after-effects showed how deep the sorrow sunk
...
I
bemoaned that, as I gazed on the feeble orphan; and I
mentally abused old Linton for (what was only natural
partiality) the securing his estate to his own daughter,
instead of his son’s
...
We
redeemed the neglect afterwards; but its beginning was as
friendless as its end is likely to be
...
Edgar Linton had his head laid on the pillow, and
his eyes shut
...
Her brow smooth, her lids closed,
her lips wearing the expression of a smile; no angel in
heaven could be more beautiful than she appeared
...
I instinctively echoed the
words she had uttered a few hours before: ‘Incomparably
beyond and above us all! Whether still on earth or now in
heaven, her spirit is at home with God!’
I don’t know if it be a peculiarity in me, but I am
seldom otherwise than happy while watching in the
chamber of death, should no frenzied or despairing
mourner share the duty with me
...
I noticed on
that occasion how much selfishness there is even in a love
like Mr
...
One might doubt in
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seasons of cold reflection; but not then, in the presence of
her corpse
...
Do you believe such people are happy in the other
world, sir? I’d give a great deal to know
...
Dean’s question, which
struck me as something heterodox
...
The master looked asleep, and I ventured soon after
sunrise to quit the room and steal out to the pure
refreshing air
...
Heathcliff
...
If he
had come nearer, he would probably be aware, from the
lights flitting to and fro, and the opening and shutting of
the outer doors, that all was not right within
...
I felt the terrible news must be told,
and I longed to get it over; but how to do it I did not
know
...
He had been
standing a long time in that position, for I saw a pair of
ousels passing and repassing scarcely three feet from him,
busy in building their nest, and regarding his proximity no
more than that of a piece of timber
...
Put your
handkerchief away - don’t snivel before me
...
When I first looked into
his face, I perceived that he had got intelligence of the
catastrophe; and a foolish notion struck me that his heart
was quelled and he prayed, because his lips moved and his
gaze was bent on the ground
...
‘Gone to heaven, I hope; where we
may, every one, join her, if we take due warning and
leave our evil ways to follow good!’
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’Did SHE take due warning, then?’ asked Heathcliff,
attempting a sneer
...
How did - ?’
He endeavoured to pronounce the name, but could not
manage it; and compressing his mouth he held a silent
combat with his inward agony, defying, meanwhile, my
sympathy with an unflinching, ferocious stare
...
’Poor wretch!’ I thought; ‘you have a heart and nerves
the same as your brother men! Why should you be
anxious to conceal them? Your pride cannot blind God!
You tempt him to wring them, till he forces a cry of
humiliation
...
‘She drew a
sigh, and stretched herself, like a child reviving, and
sinking again to sleep; and five minutes after I felt one
little pulse at her heart, and nothing more!’
’And - did she ever mention me?’ he asked, hesitating,
as if he dreaded the answer to his question would
introduce details that he could not bear to hear
...
‘She lies with a sweet
smile on her face; and her latest ideas wandered back to
pleasant early days
...
‘Why, she’s a liar to
the end! Where is she? Not THERE - not in heaven - not
perished - where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my
sufferings! And I pray one prayer - I repeat it till my
tongue stiffens - Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as
long as I am living; you said I killed you - haunt me, then!
The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe
...
Be with me
always - take any form - drive me mad! only DO not
leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God!
it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I
CANNOT live without my soul!’
He dashed his head against the knotted trunk; and,
lifting up his eyes, howled, not like a man, but like a
savage beast being goaded to death with knives and spears
...
It hardly moved my compassion it appalled me: still, I felt reluctant to quit him so
...
He was beyond my skill to quiet or console!
Mrs
...
Linton spent his days
and nights there, a sleepless guardian; and - a circumstance
concealed from all but me - Heathcliff spent his nights, at
least, outside, equally a stranger to repose
...
He did not omit to avail himself of the
opportunity, cautiously and briefly; too cautiously to
betray his presence by the slightest noise
...
Heathcliff had opened the trinket and
cast out its contents, replacing them by a black lock of his
own
...
Mr
...
Isabella
was not asked
...
It was dug on a green slope in a
corner of the kirk-yard, where the wall is so low that
heath and bilberry-plants have climbed over it from the
moor; and peat-mould almost buries it
...
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Chapter XVII
THAT Friday made the last of our fine days for a
month
...
On the morrow one could
hardly imagine that there had been three weeks of
summer: the primroses and crocuses were hidden under
wintry drifts; the larks were silent, the young leaves of the
early trees smitten and blackened
...
I
supposed it one of the maids, and I cried - ‘Have done!
How dare you show your giddiness here; What would
Mr
...
’
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With that the speaker came forward to the fire, panting
and holding her hand to her side
...
I
couldn’t count the number of falls I’ve had
...
’
The intruder was Mrs
...
She certainly seemed
in no laughing predicament: her hair streamed on her
shoulders, dripping with snow and water; she was dressed
in the girlish dress she commonly wore, befitting her age
more than her position: a low frock with short sleeves, and
nothing on either head or neck
...
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’My dear young lady,’ I exclaimed, ‘I’ll stir nowhere,
and hear nothing, till you have removed every article of
your clothes, and put on dry things; and certainly you shall
not go to Gimmerton to- night, so it is needless to order
the carriage
...
And - ah, see how it
flows down my neck now! The fire does make it smart
...
’Now, Ellen,’ she said, when my task was finished and
she was seated in an easy-chair on the hearth, with a cup
of tea before her, ‘you sit down opposite me, and put poor
Catherine’s baby away: I don’t like to see it! You mustn’t
think I care little for Catherine, because I behaved so
foolishly on entering: I’ve cried, too, bitterly - yes, more
than any one else has reason to cry
...
But, for all that, I was not going to sympathise with him the brute beast! Oh, give me the poker! This is the last
thing of his I have about me:’ she slipped the gold ring
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from her third finger, and threw it on the floor
...
‘There! he shall buy another, if he gets
me back again
...
I dare not stay, lest that notion should possess
his wicked head! And besides, Edgar has not been kind,
has he? And I won’t come suing for his assistance; nor will
I bring him into more trouble
...
Drink your tea, and take breath,
and give over laughing: laughter is sadly out of place under
this roof, and in your condition!’
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’An undeniable truth,’ she replied
...
’
I rang the bell, and committed it to a servant’s care; and
then I inquired what had urged her to escape from
Wuthering Heights in such an unlikely plight, and where
she meant to go, as she refused remaining with us
...
But I tell you he
wouldn’t let me! Do you think he could bear to see me
grow fat and merry - could bear to think that we were
tranquil, and not resolve on poisoning our comfort? Now,
I have the satisfaction of being sure that he detests me, to
the point of its annoying him seriously to have me within
ear-shot or eyesight: I notice, when I enter his presence,
the muscles of his countenance are involuntarily distorted
into an expression of hatred; partly arising from his
knowledge of the good causes I have to feel that sentiment
for him, and partly from original aversion
...
I’ve recovered
from my first desire to be killed by him: I’d rather he’d kill
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himself! He has extinguished my love effectually, and so
I’m at my ease
...
Catherine had an
awfully perverted taste to esteem him so dearly, knowing
him so well
...
‘Be more
charitable: there are worse men than he is yet!’
’He’s not a human being,’ she retorted; ‘and he has no
claim on my charity
...
People
feel with their hearts, Ellen: and since he has destroyed
mine, I have not power to feel for him: and I would not,
though he groaned from this to his dying day, and wept
tears of blood for Catherine! No, indeed, indeed, I
wouldn’t!’ And here Isabella began to cry; but,
immediately dashing the water from her lashes, she
recommenced
...
Pulling out the nerves with red hot pincers requires more
coolness than knocking on the head
...
I experienced pleasure
in being able to exasperate him: the sense of pleasure
woke my instinct of self- preservation, so I fairly broke
free; and if ever I come into his hands again he is welcome
to a signal revenge
...
Earnshaw should have been
at the funeral
...
Consequently, he rose, in
suicidal low spirits, as fit for the church as for a dance; and
instead, he sat down by the fire and swallowed gin or
brandy by tumblerfuls
...
Whether the
angels have fed him, or his kin beneath, I cannot tell; but
he has not eaten a meal with us for nearly a week
...
’I recovered spirits sufficient to bear Joseph’s eternal
lectures without weeping, and to move up and down the
house less with the foot of a frightened thief than
formerly
...
I’d rather sit with Hindley, and
hear his awful talk, than with ‘t’ little maister’ and his
staunch supporter, that odious old man! When Heathcliff
is in, I’m often obliged to seek the kitchen and their
society, or starve among the damp uninhabited chambers;
when he is not, as was the case this week, I establish a
table and chair at one corner of the house fire, and never
mind how Mr
...
He is quieter
now than he used to be, if no one provokes him: more
sullen and depressed, and less furious
...
’ I’m puzzled to detect
signs of the favourable change: but it is not my business
...
It seemed so dismal to
go up-stairs, with the wild snow blowing outside, and my
thoughts continually reverting to the kirk-yard and the
new-made grave! I dared hardly lift my eyes from the page
before me, that melancholy scene so instantly usurped its
place
...
He had ceased
drinking at a point below irrationality, and had neither
stirred nor spoken during two or three hours
...
Hareton
and Joseph were probably fast asleep in bed
...
’The doleful silence was broken at length by the sound
of the kitchen latch: Heathcliff had returned from his
watch earlier than usual; owing, I suppose, to the sudden
storm
...
I rose with an
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irrepressible expression of what I felt on my lips, which
induced my companion, who had been staring towards the
door, to turn and look at me
...
‘You
won’t object?’
’’No, you may keep him out the whole night for me,’ I
answered
...
’
’Earnshaw accomplished this ere his guest reached the
front; he then came and brought his chair to the other side
of my table, leaning over it, and searching in my eyes for a
sympathy with the burning hate that gleamed from his: as
he both looked and felt like an assassin, he couldn’t exactly
find that; but he discovered enough to encourage him to
speak
...
Are you as
soft as your brother? Are you willing to endure to the last,
and not once attempt a repayment?’
’’I’m weary of enduring now,’ I replied; ‘and I’d be
glad of a retaliation that wouldn’t recoil on myself; but
treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends;
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they wound those who resort to them worse than their
enemies
...
‘Mrs
...
Tell me now, can
you? I’m sure you would have as much pleasure as I in
witnessing the conclusion of the fiend’s existence; he’ll be
YOUR death unless you overreach him; and he’ll be MY
ruin
...
I snatched it away, however, and seized his
arm
...
Let the door remain shut, and be quiet!’
’’No! I’ve formed my resolution, and by God I’ll
execute it!’ cried the desperate being
...
Nobody alive would regret me, or be ashamed,
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though I cut my throat this minute - and it’s time to make
an end!’
’I might as well have struggled with a bear, or reasoned
with a lunatic
...
’’You’d better seek shelter somewhere else to-night!’ I
exclaimed, in rather a triumphant tone
...
Earnshaw has
a mind to shoot you, if you persist in endeavouring to
enter
...
’’I shall not meddle in the matter,’ I retorted again
...
I’ve done my duty
...
Earnshaw swore passionately at me:
affirming that I loved the villain yet; and calling me all
sorts of names for the base spirit I evinced
...
The stanchions stood too close to suffer his
shoulders to follow, and I smiled, exulting in my fancied
security
...
’’Isabella, let me in, or I’ll make you repent!’ he
‘girned,’ as Joseph calls it
...
‘Mr
...
’
’’Let me in by the kitchen door,’ he said
...
The world is surely not worth living in now, is it?
You had distinctly impressed on me the idea that
Catherine was the whole joy of your life: I can’t imagine
how you think of surviving her loss
...
‘If I can get my arm out I can hit him!’
’I’m afraid, Ellen, you’ll set me down as really wicked;
but you don’t know all, so don’t judge
...
Wish that he were dead, I must; and therefore I was
fearfully disappointed, and unnerved by terror for the
consequences of my taunting speech, when he flung
himself on Earnshaw’s weapon and wrenched it from his
grasp
...
Heathcliff pulled it away by
main force, slitting up the flesh as it passed on, and thrust
it dripping into his pocket
...
His adversary had fallen senseless with excessive pain and
the flow of blood, that gushed from an artery or a large
vein
...
He
exerted preterhuman self-denial in abstaining from
finishing him completely; but getting out of breath, he
finally desisted, and dragged the apparently inanimate body
on to the settle
...
Being at liberty, I lost no time in
seeking the old servant; who, having gathered by degrees
the purport of my hasty tale, hurried below, gasping, as he
descended the steps two at once
...
And how the devil did you come to
fasten me out, you toothless hound? Don’t stand
muttering and mumbling there
...
Wash that stuff away; and mind the sparks of
your candle - it is more than half brandy!’
’’And so ye’ve been murthering on him?’ exclaimed
Joseph, lifting his hands and eyes in horror
...
I was in the condition of mind to be shocked
at nothing: in fact, I was as reckless as some malefactors
show themselves at the foot of the gallows
...
‘You shall do that
...
And you conspire with him against me,
do you, viper? There, that is work fit for you!’
’He shook me till my teeth rattled, and pitched me
beside Joseph, who steadily concluded his supplications,
and then rose, vowing he would set off for the Grange
directly
...
Linton was a magistrate, and though he had
fifty wives dead, he should inquire into this
...
It required a great deal of labour
to satisfy the old man that Heathcliff was not the aggressor;
especially with my hardly-wrung replies
...
Earnshaw soon convinced him that he was alive still;
Joseph hastened to administer a dose of spirits, and by their
succour his master presently regained motion and
consciousness
...
To my joy, he left us, after giving this judicious
counsel, and Hindley stretched himself on the hearthstone
...
’This morning, when I came down, about half an hour
before noon, Mr
...
Neither appeared inclined to dine,
and, having waited till all was cold on the table, I
commenced alone
...
After I had done, I ventured on the
unusual liberty of drawing near the fire, going round
Earnshaw’s seat, and kneeling in the corner beside him
...
His forehead, that I once
thought so manly, and that I now think so diabolical, was
shaded with a heavy cloud; his basilisk eyes were nearly
quenched by sleeplessness, and weeping, perhaps, for the
lashes were wet then: his lips devoid of their ferocious
sneer, and sealed in an expression of unspeakable sadness
...
In HIS case, I was gratified; and,
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ignoble as it seems to insult a fallen enemy, I couldn’t miss
this chance of sticking in a dart: his weakness was the only
time when I could taste the delight of paying wrong for
wrong
...
‘One might suppose you
had never opened a Bible in your life
...
It is both mean
and presumptuous to add your torture to his!’
’In general I’ll allow that it would be, Ellen,’ she
continued; ‘but what misery laid on Heathcliff could
content me, unless I have a hand in it? I’d rather he
suffered less, if I might cause his sufferings and he might
KNOW that I was the cause
...
On only one condition can I hope to forgive him
...
As he was the first to injure, make him the first to
implore pardon; and then - why then, Ellen, I might show
you some generosity
...
Hindley
wanted some water, and I handed him a glass, and asked
him how he was
...
‘But leaving out my
arm, every inch of me is as sore as if I had been fighting
with a legion of imps!’
’’Yes, no wonder,’ was my next remark
...
It’s well people don’t REALLY rise from
their grave, or, last night, she might have witnessed a
repulsive scene! Are not you bruised, and cut over your
chest and shoulders?’
’’I can’t say,’ he answered, ‘but what do you mean? Did
he dare to strike me when I was down?’
’’He trampled on and kicked you, and dashed you on
the ground,’ I whispered
...
’
’Mr
...
’’Oh, if God would but give me strength to strangle
him in my last agony, I’d go to hell with joy,’ groaned the
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impatient man, writhing to rise, and sinking back in
despair, convinced of his inadequacy for the struggle
...
‘At the Grange, every one knows your
sister would have been living now had it not been for Mr
...
After all, it is preferable to be hated than loved
by him
...
’
’Most likely, Heathcliff noticed more the truth of what
was said, than the spirit of the person who said it
...
I stared full at him, and laughed scornfully
...
’’Get up, and begone out of my sight,’ said the
mourner
...
’’I beg your pardon,’ I replied
...
Now, that she’s dead, I see her in
Hindley: Hindley has exactly her eyes, if you had not tried
to gouge them out, and made them black and red; and her
-‘
’’Get up, wretched idiot, before I stamp you to death!’
he cried, making a movement that caused me to make one
also
...
Heathcliff, she would soon have presented a similar
picture! SHE wouldn’t have borne your abominable
behaviour quietly: her detestation and disgust must have
found voice
...
It struck beneath
my ear, and stopped the sentence I was uttering; but,
pulling it out, I sprang to the door and delivered another;
which I hope went a little deeper than his missile
...
In my flight through the kitchen I
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bid Joseph speed to his master; I knocked over Hareton,
who was hanging a litter of puppies from a chair-back in
the doorway; and, blessed as a soul escaped from
purgatory, I bounded, leaped, and flew down the steep
road; then, quitting its windings, shot direct across the
moor, rolling over banks, and wading through marshes:
precipitating myself, in fact, towards the beacon-light of
the Grange
...
’
Isabella ceased speaking, and took a drink of tea; then
she rose, and bidding me put on her bonnet, and a great
shawl I had brought, and turning a deaf ear to my
entreaties for her to remain another hour, she stepped on
to a chair, kissed Edgar’s and Catherine’s portraits,
bestowed a similar salute on me, and descended to the
carriage, accompanied by Fanny, who yelped wild with
joy at recovering her mistress
...
I believe her new
abode was in the south, near London; there she had a son
born a few months subsequent to her escape
...
Mr
...
I refused to tell
...
Though I would give no
information, he discovered, through some of the other
servants, both her place of residence and the existence of
the child
...
He often asked
about the infant, when he saw me; and on hearing its
name, smiled grimly, and observed: ‘They wish me to hate
it too, do they?’
’I don’t think they wish you to know anything about
it,’ I answered
...
They may
reckon on that!’
Fortunately its mother died before the time arrived;
some thirteen years after the decease of Catherine, when
Linton was twelve, or a little more
...
When I
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could get him to listen, I saw it pleased him that his sister
had left her husband; whom he abhorred with an intensity
which the mildness of his nature would scarcely seem to
allow
...
Grief, and that together, transformed
him into a complete hermit: he threw up his office of
magistrate, ceased even to attend church, avoided the
village on all occasions, and spent a life of entire seclusion
within the limits of his park and grounds; only varied by
solitary rambles on the moors, and visits to the grave of his
wife, mostly at evening, or early morning before other
wanderers were abroad
...
HE didn’t pray for Catherine’s
soul to haunt him
...
He recalled her
memory with ardent, tender love, and hopeful aspiring to
the better world; where he doubted not she was gone
...
For
a few days, I said, he seemed regardless of the puny
successor to the departed: that coldness melted as fast as
snow in April, and ere the tiny thing could stammer a
word or totter a step it wielded a despot’s sceptre in his
heart
...
The little one was always Cathy: it formed to him a
distinction from the mother, and yet a connection with
her; and his attachment sprang from its relation to her, far
more than from its being his own
...
They had both been fond husbands, and were both
attached to their children; and I could not see how they
shouldn’t both have taken the same road, for good or evil
...
When his ship struck, the captain abandoned
his post; and the crew, instead of trying to save her, rushed
into riot and confusion, leaving no hope for their luckless
vessel
...
One hoped, and the other despaired: they
chose their own lots, and were righteously doomed to
endure them
...
Lockwood; you’ll judge, as well as I can, all these
things: at least, you’ll think you will, and that’s the same
...
We, at the Grange,
never got a very succinct account of his state preceding it;
all that I did learn was on occasion of going to aid in the
preparations for the funeral
...
Kenneth came to
announce the event to my master
...
Who’s given us the slip now, do
you think?’
’Who?’ I asked in a flurry
...
‘And nip up the corner
of your apron: I’m certain you’ll need it
...
Heathcliff, surely?’ I exclaimed
...
‘No, Heathcliff’s a tough young fellow: he looks blooming
to-day
...
He’s rapidly regaining flesh
since he lost his better half
...
Kenneth?’ I repeated impatiently
...
There! I said we should draw
water
...
Poor lad! I’m sorry, too
...
He’s barely twenty-seven, it seems; that’s
your own age: who would have thought you were born in
one year?’
I confess this blow was greater to me than the shock of
Mrs
...
Kenneth to get another servant to
introduce him to the master
...
Mr
...
Besides, I
reminded him that the child Hareton was his wife’s
nephew, and, in the absence of nearer kin, he ought to act
as its guardian; and he ought to and must inquire how the
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property was left, and look over the concerns of his
brother-in- law
...
His lawyer had been
Earnshaw’s also: I called at the village, and asked him to
accompany me
...
’His father died in debt,’ he said; ‘the whole property is
mortgaged, and the sole chance for the natural heir is to
allow him an opportunity of creating some interest in the
creditor’s heart, that he may be inclined to deal leniently
towards him
...
Mr
...
’Correctly,’ he remarked, ‘that fool’s body should he
buried at the cross-roads, without ceremony of any kind
...
I sent for Kenneth, and he came; but not
till the beast had changed into carrion: he was both dead
and cold, and stark; and so you’ll allow it was useless
making more stir about him!’
The old servant confirmed this statement, but
muttered:
’I’d rayther he’d goan hisseln for t’ doctor! I sud ha,’
taen tent o’ t’ maister better nor him - and he warn’t
deead when I left, naught o’ t’ soart!’
I insisted on the funeral being respectable
...
Heathcliff said I might have my own way there too: only,
he desired me to remember that the money for the whole
affair came out of his pocket
...
I observed once,
indeed, something like exultation in his aspect: it was just
when the people were bearing the coffin from the house
...
There is nothing in the world less
yours than he is!’
’Does Linton say so?’ he demanded
...
’Well,’ said the scoundrel, ‘we’ll not argue the subject
now: but I have a fancy to try my hand at rearing a young
one; so intimate to your master that I must supply the
place of this with my own, if he attempt to remove it
...
’
This hint was enough to bind our hands
...
I’m
not aware that he could have done it to any purpose, had
he been ever so willing
...
Linton - that Earnshaw had
mortgaged every yard of land he owned for cash to supply
his mania for gaming; and he, Heathcliff, was the
mortgagee
...
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Chapter XVIII
THE twelve years, continued Mrs
...
For the rest, after the first
six months, she grew like a larch, and could walk and talk
too, in her own way, before the heath blossomed a second
time over Mrs
...
She was the most winning
thing that ever brought sunshine into a desolate house: a
real beauty in face, with the Earnshaws’ handsome dark
eyes, but the Lintons’ fair skin and small features, and
yellow curling hair
...
That capacity for intense
attachments reminded me of her mother: still she did not
resemble her: for she could be soft and mild as a dove, and
she had a gentle voice and pensive expression: her anger
was never furious; her love never fierce: it was deep and
tender
...
A propensity to be saucy was one; and a
perverse will, that indulged children invariably acquire,
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whether they be good tempered or cross
...
He took her education
entirely on himself, and made it an amusement
...
Till she reached the age of thirteen she had not once
been beyond the range of the park by herself
...
Linton
would take her with him a mile or so outside, on rare
occasions; but he trusted her to no one else
...
Wuthering Heights and Mr
...
Sometimes, indeed, while surveying the
country from her nursery window, she would observe ’Ellen, how long will it be before I can walk to the top
of those hills? I wonder what lies on the other side - is it
the sea?’
’No, Miss Cathy,’ I would answer; ‘it is hills again, just
like these
...
The abrupt descent of Penistone Crags particularly
attracted her notice; especially when the setting sun shone
on it and the topmost heights, and the whole extent of
landscape besides lay in shadow
...
’And why are they bright so long after it is evening
here?’ she pursued
...
In winter the frost is always there before it
comes to us; and deep into summer I have found snow
under that black hollow on the north-east side!’
’Oh, you have been on them!’ she cried gleefully
...
Has papa been,
Ellen?’
’Papa would tell you, Miss,’ I answered, hastily, ‘that
they are not worth the trouble of visiting
...
’
’But I know the park, and I don’t know those,’ she
murmured to herself
...
’
One of the maids mentioning the Fairy Cave, quite
turned her head with a desire to fulfil this project: she
teased Mr
...
But Miss Catherine
measured her age by months, and, ‘Now, am I old enough
to go to Penistone Crags?’ was the constant question in
her mouth
...
Edgar had not the heart to pass it; so she received
as constantly the answer, ‘Not yet, love: not yet
...
Heathcliff lived above a dozen years after
quitting her husband
...
What her last
illness was, I am not certain: I conjecture, they died of the
same thing, a kind of fever, slow at its commencement,
but incurable, and rapidly consuming life towards the
close
...
Her
hope was that Linton might be left with him, as he had
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been with her: his father, she would fain convince herself,
had no desire to assume the burden of his maintenance or
education
...
He was away three weeks
...
I used to send her on
her travels round the grounds - now on foot, and now on
a pony; indulging her with a patient audience of all her
real and imaginary adventures when she returned
...
I did not fear
her breaking bounds; because the gates were generally
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looked, and I thought she would scarcely venture forth
alone, if they had stood wide open
...
Catherine came to me, one
morning, at eight o’clock, and said she was that day an
Arabian merchant, going to cross the Desert with his
caravan; and I must give her plenty of provision for herself
and beasts: a horse, and three camels, personated by a large
hound and a couple of pointers
...
The
naughty thing never made her appearance at tea
...
There was a labourer
working at a fence round a plantation, on the borders of
the grounds
...
’I saw her at morn,’ he replied: ‘she would have me to
cut her a hazel switch, and then she leapt her Galloway
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over the hedge yonder, where it is lowest, and galloped
out of sight
...
It struck
me directly she must have started for Penistone Crags
...
I walked as if for a wager, mile after mile,
till a turn brought me in view of the Heights; but no
Catherine could I detect, far or near
...
Heathcliff’s place, and that is
four from the Grange, so I began to fear night would fall
ere I could reach them
...
I opened the wicket and
ran to the door, knocking vehemently for admittance
...
Earnshaw
...
She’s here safe: but I’m glad
it isn’t the master
...
’No, no,’ she replied: ‘both he and Joseph are off, and I
think they won’t return this hour or more
...
’
I entered, and beheld my stray lamb seated on the
hearth, rocking herself in a little chair that had been her
mother’s when a child
...
’Very well, Miss!’ I exclaimed, concealing my joy
under an angry countenance
...
I’ll not trust you over the threshold
again, you naughty, naughty girl!’
’Aha, Ellen!’ she cried, gaily, jumping up and running
to my side
...
Have you ever been here in your
life before?’
’Put that hat on, and home at once,’ said I
...
To think how Mr
...
’
’What have I done?’ sobbed she, instantly checked
...
‘I’ll tie the riband
...
Oh, for shame! You thirteen years
old, and such a baby!’
This exclamation was caused by her pushing the hat
from her head, and retreating to the chimney out of my
reach
...
Dean
...
Hareton offered to
go with her, and I thought he should: it’s a wild road over
the hills
...
’How long am I to wait?’ I continued, disregarding the
woman’s interference
...
Where is the pony, Miss Cathy? And where is Phoenix? I
shall leave you, unless you be quick; so please yourself
...
He’s bitten - and so is Charlie
...
’
I picked up her hat, and approached to reinstate it; but
perceiving that the people of the house took her part, she
commenced capering round the room; and on my giving
chase, ran like a mouse over and under and behind the
furniture, rendering it ridiculous for me to pursue
...
’
’It’s YOUR father’s, isn’t it?’ said she, turning to
Hareton
...
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He could not stand a steady gaze from her eyes, though
they were just his own
...
He coloured deeper, with a different feeling, muttered
an oath, and turned away
...
‘He talked about ‘our house,’ and ‘our
folk
...
And he
never said Miss: he should have done, shouldn’t he, if he’s
a servant?’
Hareton grew black as a thunder-cloud at this childish
speech
...
’Now, get my horse,’ she said, addressing her unknown
kinsman as she would one of the stable-boys at the
Grange
...
I want to see
where the goblin-hunter rises in the marsh, and to hear
about the FAIRISHES, as you call them: but make haste!
What’s the matter? Get my horse, I say
...
‘You’ll see me WHAT!’ asked Catherine in surprise
...
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’There, Miss Cathy! you see you have got into pretty
company,’ I interposed
...
Come,
let us seek for Minny ourselves, and begone
...
- Now, then!’
Hareton did not appear to feel this threat; so the tears
sprang into her eyes with indignation
...
Though Mr
...
’
’HE my cousin!’ cried Cathy, with a scornful laugh
...
’Oh, Ellen! don’t let them say such things,’ she pursued
in great trouble
...
That my - ‘ she
stopped, and wept outright; upset at the bare notion of
relationship with such a clown
...
’
’He’s not - he’s not my cousin, Ellen!’ she went on,
gathering fresh grief from reflection, and flinging herself
into my arms for refuge from the idea
...
Heathcliff; and feeling as confident that
Catherine’s first thought on her father’s return would be
to seek an explanation of the latter’s assertion concerning
her rude-bred kindred
...
Pausing in her
lamentations, she surveyed him with a glance of awe and
horror, then burst forth anew
...
Still, I thought I could detect in his
physiognomy a mind owning better qualities than his
father ever possessed
...
Mr
...
He appeared to have bent his malevolence on
making him a brute: he was never taught to read or write;
never rebuked for any bad habit which did not annoy his
keeper; never led a single step towards virtue, or guarded
by a single precept against vice
...
And as he had been in the habit of accusing
Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, when children, of
putting the master past his patience, and compelling him
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to seek solace in drink by what he termed their ‘offald
ways,’ so at present he laid the whole burden of Hareton’s
faults on the shoulders of the usurper of his property
...
It gave Joseph satisfaction,
apparently, to watch him go the worst lengths: he allowed
that the lad was ruined: that his soul was abandoned to
perdition; but then he reflected that Heathcliff must
answer for it
...
Joseph had instilled into him a pride of name, and of his
lineage; he would, had he dared, have fostered hate
between him and the present owner of the Heights: but
his dread of that owner amounted to superstition; and he
confined his feelings regarding him to muttered
innuendoes and private comminations
...
The villagers affirmed
Mr
...
The master was too gloomy to
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seek companionship with any people, good or bad; and he
is yet
...
Miss Cathy rejected the peace-offering of the terrier, and
demanded her own dogs, Charlie and Phoenix
...
I could not
wring from my little lady how she had spent the day;
except that, as I supposed, the goal of her pilgrimage was
Penistone Crags; and she arrived without adventure to the
gate of the farm-house, when Hareton happened to issue
forth, attended by some canine followers, who attacked
her train
...
Catherine told Hareton who she was, and where she was
going; and asked him to show her the way: finally,
beguiling him to accompany her
...
But,
being in disgrace, I was not favoured with a description of
the interesting objects she saw
...
Then the
language he had held to her rankled in her heart; she who
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was always ‘love,’ and ‘darling,’ and ‘queen,’ and ‘angel,’
with everybody at the Grange, to be insulted so
shockingly by a stranger! She did not comprehend it; and
hard work I had to obtain a promise that she would not
lay the grievance before her father
...
After all, she was a sweet little girl
...
Catherine ran wild with joy at the idea of welcoming her
father back; and indulged most sanguine anticipations of
the innumerable excellencies of her ‘real’ cousin
...
Since early
morning she had been busy ordering her own small affairs;
and now attired in her new black frock - poor thing! her
aunt’s death impressed her with no definite sorrow - she
obliged me, by constant worrying, to walk with her down
through the grounds to meet them
...
‘How
delightful it will be to have him for a playfellow! Aunt
Isabella sent papa a beautiful lock of his hair; it was lighter
than mine - more flaxen, and quite as fine
...
Oh!
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I am happy - and papa, dear, dear papa! Come, Ellen, let
us run! come, run
...
’How long they are!’ she exclaimed
...
At length her suspense was ended:
the travelling carriage rolled in sight
...
He descended,
nearly as eager as herself; and a considerable interval
elapsed ere they had a thought to spare for any but
themselves
...
He was asleep in a corner, wrapped
in a warm, fur-lined cloak, as if it had been winter
...
The latter saw me
looking; and having shaken hands, advised me to close the
door, and leave him undisturbed; for the journey had
fatigued him
...
’Now, darling,’ said Mr
...
And don’t harass him much by talking: let
him be quiet this evening, at least, will you?’
’Yes, yes, papa,’ answered Catherine: ‘but I do want to
see him; and he hasn’t once looked out
...
’This is your cousin Cathy, Linton,’ he said, putting
their little hands together
...
Try to be
cheerful now; the travelling is at an end, and you have
nothing to do but rest and amuse yourself as you please
...
’Come, come, there’s a good child,’ I whispered,
leading him in
...
All three entered, and mounted to
the library, where tea was laid ready
...
My master inquired what was the
matter
...
’Go to the sofa, then, and Ellen shall bring you some
tea,’ answered his uncle patiently
...
Linton slowly
trailed himself off, and lay down
...
At first she sat silent; but that
could not last: she had resolved to make a pet of her little
cousin, as she would have him to be; and she commenced
stroking his curls, and kissing his cheek, and offering him
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tea in her saucer, like a baby
...
’Oh, he’ll do very well,’ said the master to me, after
watching them a minute
...
The company of a child of his own age will instil
new spirit into him soon, and by wishing for strength he’ll
gain it
...
And then, I thought, how ever will that weakling
live at Wuthering Heights? Between his father and
Hareton, what playmates and instructors they’ll be
...
I had just taken the children up-stairs, after tea
was finished, and seen Linton asleep - he would not suffer
me to leave him till that was the case - I had come down,
and was standing by the table in the hall, lighting a
bedroom candle for Mr
...
Heathcliff’s
servant Joseph was at the door, and wished to speak with
the master
...
‘A very unlikely hour to be
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troubling people, and the instant they have returned from
a long journey
...
’
Joseph had advanced through the kitchen as I uttered
these words, and now presented himself in the hall
...
’Good-evening, Joseph,’ I said, coldly
...
’Mr
...
‘You had better sit down in there, and entrust
your message to me
...
I perceived he was bent on refusing my mediation, so
very reluctantly I went up to the library, and announced
the unseasonable visitor, advising that he should be
dismissed till next day
...
Linton had no time to
empower me to do so, for Joseph mounted close at my
heels, and, pushing into the apartment, planted himself at
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the far side of the table, with his two fists clapped on the
head of his stick, and began in an elevated tone, as if
anticipating opposition ’Hathecliff has sent me for his lad, and I munn’t goa
back ‘bout him
...
No plan offered itself:
the very exhibition of any desire to keep him would have
rendered the claimant more peremptory: there was
nothing left but to resign him
...
’Tell Mr
...
He is in
bed, and too tired to go the distance now
...
’
’Noa!’ said Joseph, giving a thud with his prop on the
floor, and assuming an authoritative air
...
Hathecliff maks noa ‘count o’ t’ mother, nor ye
norther; but he’ll heu’ his lad; und I mun tak’ him - soa
now ye knaw!’
’You shall not to-night!’ answered Linton decisively
...
Ellen, show him down
...
’Varrah weell!’ shouted Joseph, as he slowly drew off
...
Linton commissioned me to take the boy home early, on
Catherine’s pony; and, said he - ‘As we shall now have no
influence over his destiny, good or bad, you must say
nothing of where he is gone to my daughter: she cannot
associate with him hereafter, and it is better for her to
remain in ignorance of his proximity; lest she should be
restless, and anxious to visit the Heights
...
’
Linton was very reluctant to be roused from his bed at
five o’clock, and astonished to be informed that he must
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prepare for further travelling; but I softened off the matter
by stating that he was going to spend some time with his
father, Mr
...
’My father!’ he cried, in strange perplexity
...
Where does he live? I’d
rather stay with uncle
...
And you should be glad to go
home, and to see him
...
’
’But why have I not heard of him before?’ asked
Linton
...
’
’And why didn’t mamma speak to me about him?’
persevered the child
...
How am I to love papa? I
don’t know him
...
‘Your
mother, perhaps, thought you would want to be with him
if she mentioned him often to you
...
An
early ride on such a beautiful morning is much preferable
to an hour’s more sleep
...
’Is uncle?’ he continued
...
Linton sank back on his pillow and fell into a brown
study
...
’
I attempted to persuade him of the naughtiness of
showing reluctance to meet his father; still he obstinately
resisted any progress towards dressing, and I had to call for
my master’s assistance in coaxing him out of bed
...
Edgar
and Cathy would visit him, and other promises, equally
ill-founded, which I invented and reiterated at intervals
throughout the way
...
He began to put questions
concerning his new home, and its inhabitants, with greater
interest and liveliness
...
’It is not so buried in trees,’ I replied, ‘and it is not
quite so large, but you can see the country beautifully all
round; and the air is healthier for you - fresher and drier
...
And you will have such nice rambles on
the moors
...
’
’And what is my father like?’ he asked
...
He’ll not seem to you so gentle and kind at first, perhaps,
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because it is not his way: still, mind you, be frank and
cordial with him; and naturally he’ll be fonder of you than
any uncle, for you are his own
...
‘I can’t fancy him
...
’How strange that he should never come to see mamma
and me!’ he murmured
...
I remember not a single thing
about him!’
’Why, Master Linton,’ said I, ‘three hundred miles is a
great distance; and ten years seem very different in length
to a grown-up person compared with what they do to
you
...
Heathcliff proposed going from
summer to summer, but never found a convenient
opportunity; and now it is too late
...
’
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The boy was fully occupied with his own cogitations
for the remainder of the ride, till we halted before the
farmhouse garden- gate
...
He surveyed the carved front and
low-browed lattices, the straggling gooseberry-bushes and
crooked firs, with solemn intentness, and then shook his
head: his private feelings entirely disapproved of the
exterior of his new abode
...
Before
he dismounted, I went and opened the door
...
Joseph stood by
his master’s chair telling some tale concerning a lame
horse; and Hareton was preparing for the hayfield
...
Heathcliff, when he saw me
...
You’ve brought it, have you? Let us see what we
can make of it
...
Poor Linton ran a frightened
eye over the faces of the three
...
’God! what a beauty! what a lovely, charming thing!’
he exclaimed
...
He did not thoroughly comprehend the meaning of
his father’s speech, or whether it were intended for him:
indeed, he was not yet certain that the grim, sneering
stranger was his father
...
Heathcliff’s taking a seat and
bidding him ‘come hither’ he hid his face on my shoulder
and wept
...
‘None of that nonsense!
We’re not going to hurt thee, Linton - isn’t that thy
name? Thou art thy mother’s child, entirely! Where is my
share in thee, puling chicken?’
He took off the boy’s cap and pushed back his thick
flaxen curls, felt his slender arms and his small fingers;
during which examination Linton ceased crying, and lifted
his great blue eyes to inspect the inspector
...
’No,’ said Linton, with a gaze of vacant fear
...
’No! What a shame of your mother, never to waken
your filial regard for me! You are my son, then, I’ll tell
you; and your mother was a wicked slut to leave you in
ignorance of the sort of father you possessed
...
Be a good lad; and I’ll do for you
...
I guess you’ll report what you hear and see to the
cipher at the Grange; and this thing won’t be settled while
you linger about it
...
Heathcliff, or you’ll not keep him long; and he’s all you
have akin in the wide world, that you will ever know remember
...
‘Only nobody else must be kind to him: I’m
jealous of monopolising his affection
...
Hareton,
you infernal calf, begone to your work
...
Besides, he’s MINE,
and I want the triumph of seeing MY descendant fairly
lord of their estates; my child hiring their children to till
their fathers’ lands for wages
...
I
have a room up-stairs, furnished for him in handsome
style; I’ve engaged a tutor, also, to come three times a
week, from twenty miles’ distance, to teach him what he
pleases to learn
...
I
do regret, however, that he so little deserves the trouble: if
I wished any blessing in the world, it was to find him a
worthy object of pride; and I’m bitterly disappointed with
the whey-faced, whining wretch!’
While he was speaking, Joseph returned bearing a basin
of milk- porridge, and placed it before Linton: who stirred
round the homely mess with a look of aversion, and
affirmed he could not eat it
...
’Cannot ate it?’ repeated he, peering in Linton’s face,
and subduing his voice to a whisper, for fear of being
overheard
...
‘Take
it away
...
’Is there aught ails th’ victuals?’ he asked, thrusting the
tray under Heathcliff’s nose
...
’Wah!’ answered Joseph, ‘yon dainty chap says he
cannut ate ‘em
...
’
’Don’t mention his mother to me,’ said the master,
angrily
...
What is his usual food, Nelly?’
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I suggested boiled milk or tea; and the housekeeper
received instructions to prepare some
...
He
perceives his delicate constitution, and the necessity of
treating him tolerably
...
Edgar by
acquainting him with the turn Heathcliff’s humour has
taken
...
But he was too much on
the alert to be cheated: as I closed the door, I heard a cry,
and a frantic repetition of the words ’Don’t leave me! I’ll not stay here! I’ll not stay here!’
Then the latch was raised and fell: they did not suffer
him to come forth
...
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Chapter XXI
WE had sad work with little Cathy that day: she rose in
high glee, eager to join her cousin, and such passionate
tears and lamentations followed the news of his departure
that Edgar himself was obliged to soothe her, by affirming
he should come back soon: he added, however, ‘if I can
get him’; and there were no hopes of that
...
When I chanced to encounter the housekeeper of
Wuthering Heights, in paying business visits to
Gimmerton, I used to ask how the young master got on;
for he lived almost as secluded as Catherine herself, and
was never to be seen
...
She
said Mr
...
There seldom passed much talk between
them: Linton learnt his lessons and spent his evenings in a
small apartment they called the parlour: or else lay in bed
all day: for he was constantly getting coughs, and colds,
and aches, and pains of some sort
...
He WILL go
on, if I leave the window open a bit late in the evening
...
I believe the master would
relish Earnshaw’s thrashing him to a mummy, if he were
not his son; and I’m certain he would be fit to turn him
out of doors, if he knew half the nursing he gives hisseln
...
’
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I divined, from this account, that utter lack of sympathy
had rendered young Heathcliff selfish and disagreeable, if
he were not so originally; and my interest in him,
consequently, decayed: though still I was moved with a
sense of grief at his lot, and a wish that he had been left
with us
...
Edgar encouraged me to gain information: he
thought a great deal about him, I fancy, and would have
run some risk to see him; and he told me once to ask the
housekeeper whether he ever came into the village? She
said he had only been twice, on horseback, accompanying
his father; and both times he pretended to be quite
knocked up for three or four days afterwards
...
Time wore on at the Grange in its former pleasant way
till Miss Cathy reached sixteen
...
Her
father invariably spent that day alone in the library; and
walked, at dusk, as far as Gimmerton kirkyard, where he
would frequently prolong his stay beyond midnight
...
This twentieth of March was a beautiful
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spring day, and when her father had retired, my young
lady came down dressed for going out, and said she asked
to have a ramble on the edge of the moor with me: Mr
...
’So make haste, Ellen!’ she cried
...
’
’That must be a good distance up,’ I answered; ‘they
don’t breed on the edge of the moor
...
‘I’ve gone very near with papa
...
She bounded before me, and returned
to my side, and was off again like a young greyhound;
and, at first, I found plenty of entertainment in listening to
the larks singing far and near, and enjoying the sweet,
warm sunshine; and watching her, my pet and my delight,
with her golden ringlets flying loose behind, and her
bright cheek, as soft and pure in its bloom as a wild rose,
and her eyes radiant with cloudless pleasure
...
It’s a pity she
could not be content
...
’
’Oh, a little further - only a little further, Ellen,’ was
her answer, continually
...
’
But there were so many hillocks and banks to climb
and pass, that, at length, I began to be weary, and told her
we must halt, and retrace our steps
...
Finally, she dived into a hollow; and
before I came in sight of her again, she was two miles
nearer Wuthering Heights than her own home; and I
beheld a couple of persons arrest her, one of whom I felt
convinced was Mr
...
Cathy had been caught in the fact of plundering, or, at
least, hunting out the nests of the grouse
...
’I’ve neither taken any nor found any,’ she said, as I
toiled to them, expanding her hands in corroboration of
the statement
...
’
Heathcliff glanced at me with an ill-meaning smile,
expressing his acquaintance with the party, and,
consequently, his malevolence towards it, and demanded
who ‘papa’ was?
’Mr
...
‘I
thought you did not know me, or you wouldn’t have
spoken in that way
...
’And what are you?’ inquired Catherine, gazing
curiously on the speaker
...
Is he
your son?’
She pointed to Hareton, the other individual, who had
gained nothing but increased bulk and strength by the
addition of two years to his age: he seemed as awkward
and rough as ever
...
We really must
go back
...
‘But I have one, and you have
seen him before too; and, though your nurse is in a hurry,
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I think both you and she would be the better for a little
rest
...
’
I whispered Catherine that she mustn’t, on any
account, accede to the proposal: it was entirely out of the
question
...
‘I’m tired of running, and the
ground is dewy: I can’t sit here
...
Besides,
he says I have seen his son
...
Don’t you?’
’I do
...
Hareton, get forwards with
the lass
...
’
’No, she’s not going to any such place,’ I cried,
struggling to release my arm, which he had seized: but she
was almost at the door-stones already, scampering round
the brow at full speed
...
’Mr
...
And there she’ll see Linton, and
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all will be told as soon as ever we return; and I shall have
the blame
...
And
we’ll soon persuade her to keep the visit secret: where is
the harm of it?’
’The harm of it is, that her father would hate me if he
found I suffered her to enter your house; and I am
convinced you have a bad design in encouraging her to do
so,’ I replied
...
I’ll inform you of its
whole scope,’ he said
...
I’m acting generously to your
master: his young chit has no expectations, and should she
second my wishes she’ll be provided for at once as joint
successor with Linton
...
’
’No, she would not,’ he said
...
’
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’And I’m resolved she shall never approach your house
with me again,’ I returned, as we reached the gate, where
Miss Cathy waited our coming
...
My young lady gave him
several looks, as if she could not exactly make up her mind
what to think of him; but now he smiled when he met her
eye, and softened his voice in addressing her; and I was
foolish enough to imagine the memory of her mother
might disarm him from desiring her injury
...
He had been out walking in the fields, for
his cap was on, and he was calling to Joseph to bring him
dry shoes
...
His features were pretty yet, and his
eye and complexion brighter than I remembered them,
though with merely temporary lustre borrowed from the
salubrious air and genial sun
...
Heathcliff, turning to
Cathy
...
’Yes, yes,’ answered he: ‘but is this the only time you
have beheld him? Think! Ah! you have a short memory
...
‘Is that little Linton? He’s taller than I
am! Are you Linton?’
The youth stepped forward, and acknowledged himself:
she kissed him fervently, and they gazed with wonder at
the change time had wrought in the appearance of each
...
Linton’s looks and
movements were very languid, and his form extremely
slight; but there was a grace in his manner that mitigated
these defects, and rendered him not unpleasing
...
Heathcliff, who lingered by the door,
dividing his attention between the objects inside and those
that lay without: pretending, that is, to observe the latter,
and really noting the former alone
...
‘I thought I liked you, though you were cross
at first
...
‘There - damn it! If you have any
kisses to spare, give them to Linton: they are thrown away
on me
...
‘Wicked Ellen! to try to
hinder me from entering
...
Won’t you be glad to see us?’
’Of course,’ replied the uncle, with a hardly suppressed
grimace, resulting from his deep aversion to both the
proposed visitors
...
‘Now I think of it, I’d better tell
you
...
Linton has a prejudice against me: we quarrelled
at one time of our lives, with unchristian ferocity; and, if
you mention coming here to him, he’ll put a veto on your
visits altogether
...
’
’Why did you quarrel?’ asked Catherine, considerably
crestfallen
...
’
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’That’s wrong!’ said the young lady: ‘some time I’ll tell
him so
...
I’ll not come here, then; he shall come to the Grange
...
No, come here, Miss
Catherine, now and then: not every morning, but once or
twice a week
...
’I am afraid, Nelly, I shall lose my labour,’ he muttered
to me
...
Now, if it
had been Hareton! - Do you know that, twenty times a
day, I covet Hareton, with all his degradation? I’d have
loved the lad had he been some one else
...
I’ll pit him against that paltry
creature, unless it bestir itself briskly
...
Oh, confound the vapid
thing! He’s absorbed in drying his feet, and never looks at
her
...
’Have you nothing to show your cousin anywhere
about, not even a rabbit or a weasel’s nest? Take her into
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the garden, before you change your shoes; and into the
stable to see your horse
...
’I don’t know,’ she replied, casting a longing look to
the door, and evidently eager to be active
...
Heathcliff rose, and went into the kitchen, and from
thence to the yard, calling out for Hareton
...
The young
man had been washing himself, as was visible by the glow
on his cheeks and his wetted hair
...
‘That is not my
cousin, is he?’
’Yes,’ he, replied, ‘your mother’s nephew
...
’Is he not a handsome lad?’ he continued
...
He laughed; Hareton
darkened: I perceived he was very sensitive to suspected
slights, and had obviously a dim notion of his inferiority
...
Here! you go with her round the farm
...
Be off, and entertain her as nicely as you can
...
Earnshaw had his countenance completely averted from
his companion
...
Catherine took a
sly look at him, expressing small admiration
...
’I’ve tied his tongue,’ observed Heathcliff
...
Did I ever look so
stupid: so ‘gaumless,’ as Joseph calls it?’
’Worse,’ I replied, ‘because more sullen with it
...
‘He has satisfied my expectations
...
But he’s no fool; and I
can sympathise with all his feelings, having felt them
myself
...
And he’ll never be able to emerge from his bathos of
coarseness and ignorance
...
I’ve taught him to scorn
everything extra- animal as silly and weak
...
But there’s this
difference; one is gold put to the use of paving- stones,
and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver
...
HIS
had first-rate qualities, and they are lost: rendered worse
than unavailing
...
And the best of it is,
Hareton is damnably fond of me! You’ll own that I’ve
outmatched Hindley there
...
I made
no reply, because I saw that he expected none
...
His father remarked the restless glances wandering to the
window, and the hand irresolutely extended towards his
cap
...
’Away after them! they are just at the corner, by the
stand of hives
...
The
lattice was open, and, as he stepped out, I heard Cathy
inquiring of her unsociable attendant what was that
inscription over the door? Hareton stared up, and
scratched his head like a true clown
...
‘I cannot
read it
...
But I want to know why it is there
...
’He does not know his letters,’ he said to his cousin
...
I can hardly understand him, I’m sure!’
Linton repeated his laugh, and glanced at Hareton
tauntingly; who certainly did not seem quite clear of
comprehension at that moment
...
‘My cousin fancies you are an idiot
...
Have you noticed, Catherine,
his frightful Yorkshire pronunciation?’
’Why, where the devil is the use on’t?’ growled
Hareton, more ready in answering his daily companion
...
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’Where is the use of the devil in that sentence?’ tittered
Linton
...
Do try to behave
like a gentleman, now do!’
’If thou weren’t more a lass than a lad, I’d fell thee this
minute, I would; pitiful lath of a crater!’ retorted the angry
boor, retreating, while his face burnt with mingled rage
and mortification! for he was conscious of being insulted,
and embarrassed how to resent it
...
Heathcliff having overheard the conversation, as
well as I, smiled when he saw him go; but immediately
afterwards cast a look of singular aversion on the flippant
pair, who remained chattering in the door-way: the boy
finding animation enough while discussing Hareton’s faults
and deficiencies, and relating anecdotes of his goings on;
and the girl relishing his pert and spiteful sayings, without
considering the ill-nature they evinced
...
We stayed till afternoon: I could not tear Miss Cathy
away sooner; but happily my master had not quitted his
apartment, and remained ignorant of our prolonged
absence
...
’Aha!’ she cried, ‘you take papa’s side, Ellen: you are
partial I know; or else you wouldn’t have cheated me so
many years into the notion that Linton lived a long way
from here
...
’
And so she ran on, till I relinquished the endeavour to
convince her of her mistake
...
Linton
...
But he was too timid in giving satisfactory reasons for his
wish that she should shun connection with the household
of the Heights, and Catherine liked good reasons for every
restraint that harassed her petted will
...
Ah, papa, you started! you’ve not done right, have you,
now? I saw - but listen, and you shall hear how I found
you out; and Ellen, who is in league with you, and yet
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pretended to pity me so, when I kept hoping, and was
always disappointed about Linton’s coming back!’
She gave a faithful account of her excursion and its
consequences; and my master, though he cast more than
one reproachful look at me, said nothing till she had
concluded
...
Heathcliff,’ she
answered
...
‘No, it was not because I
disliked Mr
...
Heathcliff dislikes
me; and is a most diabolical man, delighting to wrong and
ruin those he hates, if they give him the slightest
opportunity
...
I meant
to explain this some time as you grew older, and I’m sorry
I delayed it
...
Heathcliff was quite cordial, papa,’ observed
Catherine, not at all convinced; ‘and he didn’t object to
our seeing each other: he said I might come to his house
when I pleased; only I must not tell you, because you had
quarrelled with him, and would not forgive him for
marrying aunt Isabella
...
YOU are the one
to be blamed: he is willing to let us be friends, at least;
Linton and I; and you are not
...
He could not
bear to discourse long upon the topic; for though he spoke
little of it, he still felt the same horror and detestation of
his ancient enemy that had occupied his heart ever since
Mrs
...
‘She might have been living yet, if it
had not been for him!’ was his constant bitter reflection;
and, in his eyes, Heathcliff seemed a murderer
...
She appeared so deeply impressed and shocked at
this new view of human nature - excluded from all her
studies and all her ideas till now - that Mr
...
He merely added:
‘You will know hereafter, darling, why I wish you to
avoid his house and family; now return to your old
employments and amusements, and think no more about
them
...
’Oh, fie, silly child!’ I exclaimed
...
You never had one shadow of substantial
sorrow, Miss Catherine
...
’
’I’m not crying for myself, Ellen,’ she answered, ‘it’s for
him
...
Linton will conjecture how it is, and trouble himself no
further about you
...
‘And just send those
books I promised to lend him? His books are not as nice as
mine, and he wanted to have them extremely, when I told
him how interesting they were
...
‘Then he would write to you, and there’d never be an end
of it
...
’
’But how can one little note - ?’ she recommenced,
putting on an imploring countenance
...
‘We’ll not begin with your
little notes
...
’
She threw at me a very naughty look, so naughty that I
would not kiss her good-night at first: I covered her up,
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and shut her door, in great displeasure; but, repenting halfway, I returned softly, and lo! there was Miss standing at
the table with a bit of blank paper before her and a pencil
in her hand, which she guiltily slipped out of sight on my
entrance
...
’
I set the extinguisher on the flame, receiving as I did so
a slap on my hand and a petulant ‘cross thing!’ I then
quitted her again, and she drew the bolt in one of her
worst, most peevish humours
...
Weeks passed on, and Cathy recovered her
temper; though she grew wondrous fond of stealing off to
corners by herself and often, if I came near her suddenly
while reading, she would start and bend over the book,
evidently desirous to hide it; and I detected edges of loose
paper sticking out beyond the leaves
...
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One day, as she inspected this drawer, I observed that
the playthings and trinkets which recently formed its
contents were transmuted into bits of folded paper
...
Having opened, I emptied the whole contents into
my apron, and took them with me to examine at leisure in
my own chamber
...
The earlier dated were embarrassed and short;
gradually, however, they expanded into copious loveletters, foolish, as the age of the writer rendered natural,
yet with touches here and there which I thought were
borrowed from a more experienced source
...
Whether they satisfied
Cathy I don’t know; but they appeared very worthless
trash to me
...
Following her habit, my young lady descended early,
and visited the kitchen: I watched her go to the door, on
the arrival of a certain little boy; and, while the dairymaid
filled his can, she tucked something into his jacket pocket,
and plucked something out
...
It was more simple and more
eloquent than her cousin’s: very pretty and very silly
...
The
day being wet, she could not divert herself with rambling
about the park; so, at the conclusion of her morning
studies, she resorted to the solace of the drawer
...
Never
did any bird flying back to a plundered nest, which it had
left brimful of chirping young ones, express more
complete despair, in its anguished cries and flutterings,
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than she by her single ‘Oh!’ and the change that
transfigured her late happy countenance
...
Linton
looked up
...
His tone and look assured her HE had not been the
discoverer of the hoard
...
‘Ellen! Ellen! come up-stairs I’m sick!’
I obeyed her summons, and accompanied her out
...
‘Oh, give them to me, and I’ll never,
never do so again! Don’t tell papa
...
’So,’ I exclaimed, ‘Miss Catherine, you are tolerably far
on, it seems: you may well be ashamed of them! A fine
bundle of trash you study in your leisure hours, to be sure:
why, it’s good enough to be printed! And what do you
suppose the master will think when I display it before
him? I hav’n’t shown it yet, but you needn’t imagine I
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shall keep your ridiculous secrets
...
’
’I didn’t! I didn’t!’ sobbed Cathy, fit to break her heart
...
‘LOVING! Did anybody ever hear the like! I might
just as well talk of loving the miller who comes once a
year to buy our corn
...
I’m going with it
to the library; and we’ll see what your father says to such
LOVING
...
And being really fully as much inclined
to laugh as scold - for I esteemed it all girlish vanity - I at
length relented in a measure, and asked, - ‘If I consent to
burn them, will you promise faithfully neither to send nor
receive a letter again, nor a book (for I perceive you have
sent him books), nor locks of hair, nor rings, nor
playthings?’
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’We don’t send playthings,’ cried Catherine, her pride
overcoming her shame
...
‘Unless you
will, here I go
...
‘Oh,
put them in the fire, do, do!’
But when I proceeded to open a place with the poker
the sacrifice was too painful to be borne
...
’One or two, Ellen, to keep for Linton’s sake!’
I unknotted the handkerchief, and commenced
dropping them in from an angle, and the flame curled up
the chimney
...
’Very well - and I will have some to exhibit to papa!’ I
answered, shaking back the rest into the bundle, and
turning anew to the door
...
It was done; I
stirred up the ashes, and interred them under a shovelful of
coals; and she mutely, and with a sense of intense injury,
retired to her private apartment
...
She
wouldn’t dine; but she reappeared at tea, pale, and red
about the eyes, and marvellously subdued in outward
aspect
...
’
And, henceforth, the little boy came with vacant pockets
...
Mr
...
Poor Cathy, frightened from her little romance, had
been considerably sadder and duller since its abandonment;
and her father insisted on her reading less, and taking more
exercise
...
On an afternoon in October, or the beginning of
November - a fresh watery afternoon, when the turf and
paths were rustling with moist, withered leaves, and the
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cold blue sky was half hidden by clouds - dark grey
streamers, rapidly mounting from the west, and boding
abundant rain - I requested my young lady to forego her
ramble, because I was certain of showers
...
Edgar had been
worse than ordinary, a thing never known from his
confession, but guessed both by her and me from his
increased silence and the melancholy of his countenance
...
And often, from the side of my eye, I could detect
her raising a hand, and brushing something off her cheek
...
On
one side of the road rose a high, rough bank, where hazels
and stunted oaks, with their roots half exposed, held
uncertain tenure: the soil was too loose for the latter; and
strong winds had blown some nearly horizontal
...
From dinner to tea
she would lie in her breeze-rocked cradle, doing nothing
except singing old songs - my nursery lore - to herself, or
watching the birds, joint tenants, feed and entice their
young ones to fly: or nestling with closed lids, half
thinking, half dreaming, happier than words can express
...
‘Winter is not here yet
...
Will you clamber up, and pluck it to show to papa?’
Cathy stared a long time at the lonely blossom trembling
in its earthy shelter, and replied, at length - ‘No, I’ll not
touch it: but it looks melancholy, does it not, Ellen?’
’Yes,’ I observed, ‘about as starved and suckless as you
your cheeks are bloodless; let us take hold of hands and
run
...
’
’No,’ she repeated, and continued sauntering on,
pausing at intervals to muse over a bit of moss, or a tuft of
blanched grass, or a fungus spreading its bright orange
among the heaps of brown foliage; and, ever and anon,
her hand was lifted to her averted face
...
‘You
mustn’t cry because papa has a cold; be thankful it is
nothing worse
...
’Oh, it will be something worse,’ she said
...
How life will be changed, how dreary the world
will be, when papa and you are dead
...
‘It’s wrong to anticipate evil
...
My mother
lived till eighty, a canty dame to the last
...
Linton I were spared till he saw sixty, that would be more
years than you have counted, Miss
...
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’Aunt Isabella had not you and me to nurse her,’ I
replied
...
All you need do, is to wait well on your father,
and cheer him by letting him see you cheerful; and avoid
giving him anxiety on any subject: mind that, Cathy! I’ll
not disguise but you might kill him if you were wild and
reckless, and cherished a foolish, fanciful affection for the
son of a person who would be glad to have him in his
grave; and allowed him to discover that you fretted over
the separation he has judged it expedient to make
...
‘I care for nothing in
comparison with papa
...
I love him better than myself, Ellen; and I know it by
this: I pray every night that I may live after him; because I
would rather be miserable than that he should be: that
proves I love him better than myself
...
‘But deeds must prove it also;
and after he is well, remember you don’t forget resolutions
formed in the hour of fear
...
In stretching to pull them, her hat fell off; and as
the door was locked, she proposed scrambling down to
recover it
...
But the return was no such easy
matter: the stones were smooth and neatly cemented, and
the rose-bushes and black-berry stragglers could yield no
assistance in re-ascending
...
I can’t scale the ramparts on this side!’
’Stay where you are,’ I answered; ‘I have my bundle of
keys in my pocket: perhaps I may manage to open it; if
not, I’ll go
...
I had applied the last, and found that none
would do; so, repeating my desire that she would remain
there, I was about to hurry home as fast as I could, when
an approaching sound arrested me
...
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’Who is that?’ I whispered
...
’Ho, Miss Linton!’ cried a deep voice (the rider’s), ‘I’m
glad to meet you
...
’
’I sha’n’t speak to you, Mr
...
‘Papa says you are a wicked man, and you hate
both him and me; and Ellen says the same
...
(He it
was
...
Yes; you have cause to
blush
...
I’ve got your
letters, and if you give me any pertness I’ll send them to
your father
...
He was in earnest: in
love, really
...
Though Hareton has made him a standing jest for six
weeks, and I have used more serious measures, and
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attempted to frighten him out of his idiotcy, he gets worse
daily; and he’ll be under the sod before summer, unless
you restore him!’
’How can you lie so glaringly to the poor child?’ I
called from the inside
...
You can feel in yourself it is impossible that
a person should die for love of a stranger
...
‘Worthy Mrs
...
‘How
could YOU lie so glaringly as to affirm I hated the ‘poor
child’? and invent bugbear stories to terrify her from my
door-stones? Catherine Linton (the very name warms me),
my bonny lass, I shall be from home all this week; go and
see if have not spoken truth: do, there’s a darling! Just
imagine your father in my place, and Linton in yours; then
think how you would value your careless lover if he
refused to stir a step to comfort you, when your father
himself entreated him; and don’t, from pure stupidity, fall
into the same error
...
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’I swear Linton is dying,’ repeated Heathcliff, looking
hard at me
...
Nelly, if you won’t let her go, you can walk
over yourself
...
’
’Come in,’ said I, taking Cathy by the arm and half
forcing her to re-enter; for she lingered, viewing with
troubled eyes the features of the speaker, too stern to
express his inward deceit
...
I’ll own that he’s with a harsh set
...
Don’t mind Mrs
...
He
dreams of you day and night, and cannot be persuaded
that you don’t hate him, since you neither write nor call
...
Our hurry prevented any comment on the
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encounter with Heathcliff, as we stretched towards home;
but I divined instinctively that Catherine’s heart was
clouded now in double darkness
...
The master had retired to rest before we came in
...
She returned, and asked me to sit with her in
the library
...
I got a book, and pretended to read
...
I suffered her to enjoy it a while;
then I expostulated: deriding and ridiculing all Mr
...
Alas! I hadn’t skill to counteract the effect
his account had produced: it was just what he intended
...
And I must tell Linton it is
not my fault that I don’t write, and convince him that I
shall not change
...
I couldn’t bear to
witness her sorrow: to see her pale, dejected countenance,
and heavy eyes: and I yielded, in the faint hope that
Linton himself might prove, by his reception of us, how
little of the tale was founded on fact
...
My feet were thoroughly
wetted; I was cross and low; exactly the humour suited for
making the most of these disagreeable things
...
Heathcliff were really absent: because I put slight faith
in his own affirmation
...
Catherine ran to the hearth to warm
herself
...
’Na - ay!’ he snarled, or rather screamed through his
nose
...
’
’Joseph!’ cried a peevish voice, simultaneously with me,
from the inner room
...
Joseph! come this moment
...
The housekeeper
and Hareton were invisible; one gone on an errand, and
the other at his work, probably
...
’Oh, I hope you’ll die in a garret, starved to death!’ said
the boy, mistaking our approach for that of his negligent
attendant
...
’Is that you, Miss Linton?’ he said, raising his head from
the arm of the great chair, in which he reclined
...
Dear me! Papa said you
would call,’ continued he, after recovering a little from
Catherine’s embrace; while she stood by looking very
contrite
...
It’s so cold!’
I stirred up the cinders, and fetched a scuttleful myself
...
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’Well, Linton,’ murmured Catherine, when his
corrugated brow relaxed, ‘are you glad to see me? Can I
do you any good?’
’Why didn’t you come before?’ he asked
...
It tired me dreadfully
writing those long letters
...
Now, I can neither bear to talk, nor anything else
...
’
’I want to drink,’ he exclaimed fretfully, turning away
...
’
’Is your father attentive to you, Master Heathcliff?’ I
asked, perceiving Catherine to be checked in her friendly
advances
...
‘The wretches! Do you know, Miss
Linton, that brute Hareton laughs at me! I hate him!
indeed, I hate them all: they are odious beings
...
He
bid her add a spoonful of wine from a bottle on the table;
and having swallowed a small portion, appeared more
tranquil, and said she was very kind
...
’Yes, I am
...
‘But I have been vexed, because you
wouldn’t come
...
But you don’t despise me, do you, Miss - ?’
’I wish you would say Catherine, or Cathy,’
interrupted my young lady
...
I
don’t love Mr
...
Do say you will
...
Pretty Linton! I wish you were my brother
...
‘But papa says you would
love me better than him and all the world, if you were my
wife; so I’d rather you were that
...
‘And people hate their wives, sometimes;
but not their sisters and brothers: and if you were the
latter, you would live with us, and papa would be as fond
of you as he is of me
...
I endeavoured to stop
her thoughtless tongue
...
Master Heathcliff, much irritated,
asserted her relation was false
...
’MY papa scorns yours!’ cried Linton
...
’
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’Yours is a wicked man,’ retorted Catherine; ‘and you
are very naughty to dare to repeat what he says
...
’
’She didn’t leave him,’ said the boy; ‘you sha’n’t
contradict me
...
’Well, I’ll tell you something!’ said Linton
...
’
’Oh!’ exclaimed Catherine, too enraged to continue
...
’You little liar! I hate you now!’ she panted, and her
face grew red with passion
...
’Hush, Master Heathcliff!’ I said; ‘that’s your father’s
tale, too, I suppose
...
‘She did,
she did, Catherine! she did, she did!’
Cathy, beside herself, gave the chair a violent push, and
caused him to fall against one arm
...
It lasted so long that it frightened even me
...
I held him till the
fit exhausted itself
...
Catherine quelled her lamentations
also, took a seat opposite, and looked solemnly into the
fire
...
’I wish SHE felt as I do,’ he replied: ‘spiteful, cruel
thing! Hareton never touches me: he never struck me in
his life
...
’I didn’t strike you!’ muttered Cathy, chewing her lip
to prevent another burst of emotion
...
’I’m sorry I hurt you, Linton,’ she said at length, racked
beyond endurance
...
Answer! speak to me
...
If you had it you’d know what it was; but YOU’LL be
comfortably asleep while I’m in agony, and nobody near
me
...
’Since you are in the habit of passing dreadful nights,’ I
said, ‘it won’t be Miss who spoils your ease: you’d be the
same had she never come
...
’
’Must I go?’ asked Catherine dolefully, bending over
him
...
’
’Well, then, I must go?’ she repeated
...
’
She lingered, and resisted my persuasions to departure a
tiresome while; but as he neither looked up nor spoke, she
finally made a movement to the door, and I followed
...
Linton had slid from his seat on
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to the hearthstone, and lay writhing in the mere
perverseness of an indulged plague of a child, determined
to be as grievous and harassing as it can
...
Not so my
companion: she ran back in terror, knelt down, and cried,
and soothed, and entreated, till he grew quiet from lack of
breath: by no means from compunction at distressing her
...
I hope
you are satisfied, Miss Cathy, that you are not the person
to benefit him; and that his condition of health is not
occasioned by attachment to you
...
’
She placed a cushion under his head, and offered him
some water; he rejected the latter, and tossed uneasily on
the former, as if it were a stone or a block of wood
...
’I can’t do with that,’ he said; ‘it’s not high enough
...
’That’s too high,’ murmured the provoking thing
...
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He twined himself up to her, as she half knelt by the
settle, and converted her shoulder into a support
...
‘You’ll be content with the
cushion, Master Heathcliff
...
’
’Yes, yes, we can!’ replied Cathy
...
He’s beginning to think I shall have far
greater misery than he will to-night, if I believe he is the
worse for my visit: and then I dare not come again
...
’
’You must come, to cure me,’ he answered
...
- I didn’t do it all,’ said his cousin
...
And you want me: you would wish
to see me sometimes, really?’
’I told you I did,’ he replied impatiently
...
That’s as mamma used
to do, whole afternoons together
...
I’d rather have a ballad,
though: begin
...
The employment pleased both mightily
...
’And to-morrow, Catherine, will you be here tomorrow?’ asked young Heathcliff, holding her frock as she
rose reluctantly
...
’ She, however,
gave a different response evidently, for his forehead cleared
as she stooped and whispered in his ear
...
‘You are
not dreaming of it, are you?’
She smiled
...
’
’I can get over the wall,’ she said laughing
...
And besides, I’m almost seventeen: I’m a woman
...
I’m older than he is, you know, and wiser: less
childish, am I not? And he’ll soon do as I direct him, with
some slight coaxing
...
I’d make such a pet of him, if he were mine
...
‘The worst-tempered bit of a
sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens
...
Heathcliff conjectured, he’ll not win twenty
...
And small loss to his
family whenever he drops off
...
I’m glad you have no chance
of having him for a husband, Miss Catherine
...
To speak of his death so regardlessly wounded her feelings
...
He’s as strong now as
when he first came into the north; I’m positive of that
...
You say
papa will get better, and why shouldn’t he?’
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’Well, well,’ I cried, ‘after all, we needn’t trouble
ourselves; for listen, Miss, - and mind, I’ll keep my word,
- if you attempt going to Wuthering Heights again, with
or without me, I shall inform Mr
...
’
’It has been revived,’ muttered Cathy, sulkily
...
’We’ll see,’ was her reply, and she set off at a gallop,
leaving me to toil in the rear
...
As soon as I entered I hastened to change my
soaked shoes and stockings; but sitting such awhile at the
Heights had done the mischief
...
My little mistress behaved like an angel in coming to
wait on me, and cheer my solitude; the confinement
brought me exceedingly low
...
The moment Catherine left Mr
...
Her day was divided between
us; no amusement usurped a minute: she neglected her
meals, her studies, and her play; and she was the fondest
nurse that ever watched
...
I
said her days were divided between us; but the master
retired early, and I generally needed nothing after six
o’clock, thus the evening was her own
...
And
though frequently, when she looked in to bid me goodnight, I remarked a fresh colour in her cheeks and a
pinkness over her slender fingers, instead of fancying the
line borrowed from a cold ride across the moors, I laid it
to the charge of a hot fire in the library
...
And on the first
occasion of my sitting up in the evening I asked Catherine
to read to me, because my eyes were weak
...
She selected one of her own
favourites, and got forward steadily about an hour; then
came frequent questions
...
’
’No, no, dear, I’m not tired,’ I returned, continually
...
It changed to
yawning, and stretching, and ’Ellen, I’m tired
...
That was worse: she fretted and sighed, and looked at
her watch till eight, and finally went to her room,
completely overdone with sleep; judging by her peevish,
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heavy look, and the constant rubbing she inflicted on her
eyes
...
I thought her
conduct odd; and having remained alone a long while, I
resolved on going and inquiring whether she were better,
and asking her to come and lie on the sofa, instead of upstairs in the dark
...
The servants affirmed they had not seen
her
...
Edgar’s door; all was silence
...
The moon shone bright; a sprinkling of snow covered
the ground, and I reflected that she might, possibly, have
taken it into her head to walk about the garden, for
refreshment
...
He stood a considerable period, viewing the carriage-road
through the grounds; then started off at a brisk pace, as if
he had detected something, and reappeared presently,
leading Miss’s pony; and there she was, just dismounted,
and walking by its side
...
Cathy entered by the
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casement-window of the drawing-room, and glided
noiselessly up to where I awaited her
...
The surprise petrified her an instant: she uttered an
inarticulate exclamation, and stood fixed
...
‘I didn’t
tell a tale
...
’No,’ was the muttered reply
...
‘You know you
have been doing wrong, or you wouldn’t be driven to
uttering an untruth to me
...
I’d rather
be three months ill, than hear you frame a deliberate lie
...
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’Well, Ellen, I’m so afraid of you being angry,’ she said
...
’
We sat down in the window-seat; I assured her I would
not scold, whatever her secret might be, and I guessed it,
of course; so she commenced ’I’ve been to Wuthering Heights, Ellen, and I’ve never
missed going a day since you fell ill; except thrice before,
and twice after you left your room
...
I was at the Heights by half-past six, and generally stayed
till half-past eight, and then galloped home
...
Now and then I was happy: once in a week perhaps
...
While Michael was refastening the lock of the park door
in the afternoon, I got possession of the key, and told him
how my cousin wished me to visit him, because he was
sick, and couldn’t come to the Grange; and how papa
would object to my going: and then I negotiated with him
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about the pony
...
’On my second visit Linton seemed in lively spirits; and
Zillah (that is their housekeeper) made us a clean room
and a good fire, and told us that, as Joseph was out at a
prayer-meeting and Hareton Earnshaw was off with his
dogs - robbing our woods of pheasants, as I heard
afterwards - we might do what we liked
...
I needn’t repeat that, because you
would call it silly
...
He said
the pleasantest manner of spending a hot July day was
lying from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the
middle of the moors, with the bees humming dreamily
about among the bloom, and the larks singing high up
overhead, and the blue sky and bright sun shining steadily
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and cloudlessly
...
He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I
wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee
...
At last, we agreed to try both, as soon as the
right weather came; and then we kissed each other and
were friends
...
He wouldn’t: there was no pleasure in
it, he said; but he consented to play at ball with me
...
One was
marked C
...
; I wished to have the C
...
might be for
Heathcliff, his name; but the bran came out of H
...
I beat him constantly: and he got
cross again, and coughed, and returned to his chair
...
Minny and I went flying home as light as air;
and I dreamt of Wuthering Heights and my sweet, darling
cousin, till morning
...
I shall have
another happy evening, I thought to myself; and what
delights me more, my pretty Linton will
...
He patted Minny’s neck, and said
she was a bonny beast, and appeared as if he wanted me to
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speak to him
...
He answered in his vulgar accent,
‘It wouldn’t do mitch hurt if it did;’ and surveyed its legs
with a smile
...
’
’’Wonderful,’ I exclaimed
...
’
’’And the figures?’ I cried, encouragingly, perceiving
that he came to a dead halt
...
’’Oh, you dunce!’ I said, laughing heartily at his failure
...
I
settled his doubts, by suddenly retrieving my gravity and
desiring him to walk away, for I came to see Linton, not
him
...
He imagined himself to be as
accomplished as Linton, I suppose, because he could spell
his own name; and was marvellously discomfited that I
didn’t think the same
...
‘I shall not
scold, but I don’t like your conduct there
...
At least, it was praiseworthy
ambition for him to desire to be as accomplished as
Linton; and probably he did not learn merely to show off:
you had made him ashamed of his ignorance before, I
have no doubt; and he wished to remedy it and please
you
...
Had you been brought up in his circumstances,
would you be less rude? He was as quick and as intelligent
a child as ever you were; and I’m hurt that he should be
despised now, because that base Heathcliff has treated him
so unjustly
...
‘But wait, and you
shall hear if he conned his A B C to please me; and if it
were worth while being civil to the brute
...
’’I’m ill to-night, Catherine, love,’ he said; ‘and you
must have all the talk, and let me listen
...
I was sure you wouldn’t break your word, and I’ll
make you promise again, before you go
...
I had brought some of my nicest books
for him: he asked me to read a little of one, and I was
about to comply, when Earnshaw burst the door open:
having gathered venom with reflection
...
’’Get to thy own room!’ he said, in a voice almost
inarticulate with passion; and his face looked swelled and
furious
...
Begone wi’ ye both!’
’He swore at us, and left Linton no time to answer,
nearly throwing him into the kitchen; and he clenched his
fist as I followed, seemingly longing to knock me down
...
I heard a malignant,
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crackly laugh by the fire, and turning, beheld that odious
Joseph standing rubbing his bony hands, and quivering
...
’Linton was white and trembling
...
He grasped the handle of the door, and
shook it: it was fastened inside
...
‘Devil!
devil! - I’ll kill you - I’ll kill you!’
Joseph uttered his croaking laugh again
...
‘That’s father! We’ve
allas summut o’ either side in us
...
At last his cries were choked by a dreadful fit of
coughing; blood gushed from his mouth, and he fell on
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the ground
...
She soon heard me: she was
milking the cows in a shed behind the barn, and hurrying
from her work, she inquired what there was to do? I
hadn’t breath to explain; dragging her in, I looked about
for Linton
...
Zillah and I ascended after him; but
he stopped me at the top of the steps, and said I shouldn’t
go in: I must go home
...
Joseph locked the door,
and declared I should do ‘no sich stuff,’ and asked me
whether I were ‘bahn to be as mad as him
...
She affirmed he would be
better in a bit, but he couldn’t do with that shrieking and
din; and she took me, and nearly carried me into the
house
...
Still, I was
not rid of him: when at length they compelled me to
depart, and I had got some hundred yards off the premises,
he suddenly issued from the shadow of the road-side, and
checked Minny and took hold of me
...
He let go, thundering one of his horrid
curses, and I galloped home more than half out of my
senses
...
On
the third day I took courage: at least, I couldn’t bear
longer suspense, and stole off once more
...
However, the dogs gave notice of my approach
...
But he would neither
speak to me nor look at me, through a whole hour, Ellen:
he has such an unhappy temper
...
He sent
after me a faint ‘Catherine!’ He did not reckon on being
answered so: but I wouldn’t turn back; and the morrow
was the second day on which I stayed at home, nearly
determined to visit him no more
...
It had appeared wrong to take the
journey once; now it seemed wrong to refrain
...
I was forced to pass the front windows to get to the
court: it was no use trying to conceal my presence
...
I went in; Earnshaw was there
also, but he quitted the room directly
...
Heathcliff that you have no wish to see me,
and that he mustn’t invent any more falsehoods on the
subject
...
‘You are so much happier than I am, you ought
to be better
...
I doubt whether I am not altogether as worthless as
he calls me, frequently; and then I feel so cross and bitter,
I hate everybody! I am worthless, and bad in temper, and
bad in spirit, almost always; and, if you choose, you may
say good-bye: you’ll get rid of an annoyance
...
And
believe that your kindness has made me love you deeper
than if I deserved your love: and though I couldn’t, and
cannot help showing my nature to you, I regret it and
repent it; and shall regret and repent it till I die!’
’I felt he spoke the truth; and I felt I must forgive him:
and, though we should quarrel the next moment, I must
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forgive him again
...
He’ll never let his friends be at ease, and he’ll never be at
ease himself! I have always gone to his little parlour, since
that night; because his father returned the day after
...
Mr
...
Last Sunday, indeed, coming earlier than
usual, I heard him abusing poor Linton cruelly for his
conduct of the night before
...
Linton had certainly behaved
provokingly: however, it was the business of nobody but
me, and I interrupted Mr
...
He burst into a laugh, and went away,
saying he was glad I took that view of the matter
...
Now, Ellen, you have heard all
...
You’ll not tell,
will you? It will be very heartless, if you do
...
‘It requires some study; and so
I’ll leave you to your rest, and go think it over
...
Mr
...
In the morning, Catherine learnt my betrayal of
her confidence, and she learnt also that her secret visits
were to end
...
Perhaps, had he been
aware of his nephew’s disposition and state of health, he
would have seen fit to withhold even that slight
consolation
...
Dean; ‘hardly more than a year ago
...
You smile; but why do you look so lively and interested
when I talk about her? and why have you asked me to
hang her picture over your fireplace? and why - ?’
’Stop, my good friend!’ I cried
...
I’m of the
busy world, and to its arms I must return
...
Was
Catherine obedient to her father’s commands?’
’She was,’ continued the housekeeper
...
He said to me, a few days
afterwards, ‘I wish my nephew would write, Ellen, or call
...
However,
master, you’ll have plenty of time to get acquainted with
him and see whether he would suit her: it wants four years
and more to his being of age
...
It was a misty afternoon, but
the February sun shone dimly, and we could just
distinguish the two fir-trees in the yard, and the sparelyscattered gravestones
...
I thought the memory of the hour I came
down that glen a bridegroom would be less sweet than the
anticipation that I was soon, in a few months, or, possibly,
weeks, to be carried up, and laid in its lonely hollow!
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Ellen, I’ve been very happy with my little Cathy: through
winter nights and summer days she was a living hope at
my side
...
What can I do for Cathy? How must I quit
her? I’d not care one moment for Linton being
Heathcliff’s son; nor for his taking her from me, if he
could console her for my loss
...
Darling! I’d rather resign her to God,
and lay her in the earth before me
...
Miss Catherine is a good girl: I don’t fear that she will go
wilfully wrong; and people who do their duty are always
finally rewarded
...
To her inexperienced notions, this itself was
a sign of convalescence; and then his cheek was often
flushed, and his eyes were bright; she felt sure of his
recovering
...
’ He wrote again to Linton, expressing his great
desire to see him; and, had the invalid been presentable,
I’ve no doubt his father would have permitted him to
come
...
Heathcliff objected to his calling at the
Grange; but his uncle’s kind remembrance delighted him,
and he hoped to meet him sometimes in his rambles, and
personally to petition that his cousin and he might not
remain long so utterly divided
...
Heathcliff knew he could plead eloquently for
Catherine’s company, then
...
Dear uncle! send me a kind note to-morrow, and
leave to join you anywhere you please, except at
Thrushcross Grange
...
You
inquire after my health - it is better; but while I remain
cut off from all hope, and doomed to solitude, or the
society of those who never did and never will like me,
how can I be cheerful and well?’
Edgar, though he felt for the boy, could not consent to
grant his request; because he could not accompany
Catherine
...
Linton complied; and had he been unrestrained,
would probably have spoiled all by filling his epistles with
complaints and lamentations
...
Linton must allow an
interview soon, or he should fear he was purposely
deceiving him with empty promises
...
Though he had set aside
yearly a portion of his income for my young lady’s
fortune, he had a natural desire that she might retain - or
at least return in a short time to - the house of her
ancestors; and he considered her only prospect of doing
that was by a union with his heir; he had no idea that the
latter was failing almost as fast as himself; nor had any one,
I believe: no doctor visited the Heights, and no one saw
Master Heathcliff to make report of his condition among
us
...
I could not picture a
father treating a dying child as tyrannically and wickedly as
I afterwards learned Heathcliff had treated him, to compel
this apparent eagerness: his efforts redoubling the more
imminently his avaricious and unfeeling plans were
threatened with defeat by death
...
It was a close, sultry day: devoid of sunshine, but with a
sky too dappled and hazy to threaten rain: and our place of
meeting had been fixed at the guide-stone, by the crossroads
...
’
’Then Master Linton has forgot the first injunction of
his uncle,’ I observed: ‘he bid us keep on the Grange land,
and here we are off at once
...
’
But when we reached him, and that was scarcely a
quarter of a mile from his own door, we found he had no
horse; and we were forced to dismount, and leave ours to
graze
...
Then he walked
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so feebly, and looked so pale, that I immediately
exclaimed, - ‘Why, Master Heathcliff, you are not fit for
enjoying a ramble this morning
...
’But you have been worse,’ persisted his cousin; ‘worse
than when I saw you last; you are thinner, and - ‘
’I’m tired,’ he interrupted, hurriedly
...
And, in the morning, I often feel
sick - papa says I grow so fast
...
’This is something like your paradise,’ said she, making
an effort at cheerfulness
...
Next week, if you can, we’ll ride down to the Grange
Park, and try mine
...
His lack of interest in the subjects she
started, and his equal incapacity to contribute to her
entertainment, were so obvious that she could not conceal
her disappointment
...
The pettishness that
might be caressed into fondness, had yielded to a listless
apathy; there was less of the peevish temper of a child
which frets and teases on purpose to be soothed, and more
of the self-absorbed moroseness of a confirmed invalid,
repelling consolation, and ready to regard the goodhumoured mirth of others as an insult
...
That proposal, unexpectedly, roused Linton from
his lethargy, and threw him into a strange state of
agitation
...
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’But I think,’ said Cathy, ‘you’d be more comfortable
at home than sitting here; and I cannot amuse you to-day,
I see, by my tales, and songs, and chatter: you have grown
wiser than I, in these six months; you have little taste for
my diversions now: or else, if I could amuse you, I’d
willingly stay
...
‘And, Catherine,
don’t think or say that I’m VERY unwell: it is the heavy
weather and heat that make me dull; and I walked about,
before you came, a great deal for me
...
I couldn’t affirm
that you are,’ observed my young lady, wondering at his
pertinacious assertion of what was evidently an untruth
...
‘And give him my thanks for
permitting you to come - my best thanks, Catherine
...
’
’I care nothing for his anger,’ exclaimed Cathy,
imagining she would be its object
...
‘DON’T
provoke him against me, Catherine, for he is very hard
...
‘Has he grown weary of indulgence, and passed from
passive to active hatred?’
Linton looked at me, but did not answer; and, after
keeping her seat by his side another ten minutes, during
which his head fell drowsily on his breast, and he uttered
nothing except suppressed moans of exhaustion or pain,
Cathy began to seek solace in looking for bilberries, and
sharing the produce of her researches with me: she did not
offer them to him, for she saw further notice would only
weary and annoy
...
‘I can’t tell why we should stay
...
’
’Well, we must not leave him asleep,’ I answered; ‘wait
till lie wakes, and be patient
...
‘In
his crossest humours, formerly, I liked him better than I
do in his present curious mood
...
But I’m hardly going to come to
give Mr
...
And, though
I’m glad he’s better in health, I’m sorry he’s so much less
pleasant, and so much less affectionate to me
...
’Yes,’ she answered; ‘because he always made such a
great deal of his sufferings, you know
...
’
’There you differ with me, Miss Cathy,’ I remarked; ‘I
should conjecture him to be far worse
...
’No,’ said Catherine; ‘unless in dreams
...
’
’I thought I heard my father,’ he gasped, glancing up to
the frowning nab above us
...
‘Only Ellen and I were
disputing concerning your health
...
Cathy rose
...
‘And I
won’t conceal that I have been sadly disappointed with
our meeting; though I’ll mention it to nobody but you:
not that I stand in awe of Mr
...
’
’Hush,’ murmured Linton; ‘for God’s sake, hush! He’s
coming
...
’I’ll be here next Thursday,’ she cried, springing to the
saddle
...
Quick, Ellen!’
And so we left him, scarcely conscious of our
departure, so absorbed was he in anticipating his father’s
approach
...
My master
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requested an account of our ongoings
...
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Chapter XXVII
SEVEN days glided away, every one marking its course
by the henceforth rapid alteration of Edgar Linton’s state
...
Catherine we would
fain have deluded yet; but her own quick spirit refused to
delude her: it divined in secret, and brooded on the
dreadful probability, gradually ripening into certainty
...
She grudged each moment that
did not find her bending over his pillow, or seated by his
side
...
He had a fixed idea, I guessed by several observations
he let fall, that, as his nephew resembled him in person, he
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would resemble him in mind; for Linton’s letters bore few
or no indications of his defective character
...
We deferred our excursion till the afternoon; a golden
afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of
life, that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying,
might revive
...
We discerned Linton watching at the same spot he had
selected before
...
Master Heathcliff received us with greater
animation on this occasion: not the animation of high
spirits though, nor yet of joy; it looked more like fear
...
‘Is
not your father very ill? I thought you wouldn’t come
...
‘Why cannot you say at once
you don’t want me? It is strange, Linton, that for the
second time you have brought me here on purpose,
apparently to distress us both, and for no reason besides!’
Linton shivered, and glanced at her, half supplicating,
half ashamed; but his cousin’s patience was not sufficient
to endure this enigmatical behaviour
...
Hate my father, and spare me for contempt
...
‘Foolish, silly
boy! And there! he trembles: as if I were really going to
touch him! You needn’t bespeak contempt, Linton:
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anybody will have it spontaneously at your service
...
Ellen, tell him
how disgraceful this conduct is
...
’Oh!’ he sobbed, ‘I cannot bear it! Catherine,
Catherine, I’m a traitor, too, and I dare not tell you! But
leave me, and I shall be killed! DEAR Catherine, my life
is in your hands: and you have said you loved me, and if
you did, it wouldn’t harm you
...
The old feeling of indulgent
tenderness overcame her vexation, and she grew
thoroughly moved and alarmed
...
‘To stay! tell me the
meaning of this strange talk, and I will
...
You
wouldn’t injure me, Linton, would you? You wouldn’t let
any enemy hurt me, if you could prevent it? I’ll believe
you are a coward, for yourself, but not a cowardly betrayer
of your best friend
...
Save yourself: I’m not
afraid!’
Her magnanimity provoked his tears: he wept wildly,
kissing her supporting hands, and yet could not summon
courage to speak out
...
Heathcliff almost close upon us, descending the Heights
...
How are you at the Grange? Let us hear
...
A sad thing it will be for us all, but a blessing for him!’
’How long will he last, do you think?’ he asked
...
’Because,’ he continued, looking at the two young
people, who were fixed under his eye - Linton appeared as
if he could not venture to stir or raise his head, and
Catherine could not move, on his account - ‘because that
lad yonder seems determined to beat me; and I’d thank his
uncle to be quick, and go before him! Hallo! has the
whelp been playing that game long? I DID give him some
lessons about snivelling
...
‘To see him, I should say, that instead of
rambling with his sweetheart on the hills, he ought to be
in bed, under the hands of a doctor
...
‘But
first - get up, Linton! Get up!’ he shouted
...
He made several efforts to obey, but his little
strength was annihilated for the time, and he fell back
again with a moan
...
Heathcliff advanced, and lifted
him to lean against a ridge of turf
...
‘Only, let me alone, or I shall
faint
...
Catherine will tell
you that I - that I - have been cheerful
...
’
’Take mine,’ said his father; ‘stand on your feet
...
You would imagine I was the devil himself, Miss Linton,
to excite such horror
...
’
’Linton dear!’ whispered Catherine, ‘I can’t go to
Wuthering Heights: papa has forbidden me
...
‘I’m
NOT to re- enter it without you!’
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’Stop!’ cried his father
...
Nelly, take him in, and I’ll follow your advice
concerning the doctor, without delay
...
‘But I must remain with my
mistress: to mind your son is not my business
...
Come, then, my hero
...
However I
disapproved, I couldn’t hinder her: indeed, how could she
have refused him herself? What was filling him with dread
we had no means of discerning; but there he was,
powerless under its gripe, and any addition seemed capable
of shocking him into idiotcy
...
Heathcliff, pushing me forward,
exclaimed - ‘My house is not stricken with the plague,
Nelly; and I have a mind to be hospitable to-day: sit
down, and allow me to shut the door
...
I started
...
‘I
am by myself
...
Miss
Linton, take your seat by HIM
...
It is Linton, I mean
...
’
He drew in his breath, struck the table, and swore to
himself, ‘By hell! I hate them
...
She stepped
close up; her black eyes flashing with passion and
resolution
...
‘I
wouldn’t eat or drink here, if I were starving
...
He looked up, seized with a sort of surprise at her
boldness; or, possibly, reminded, by her voice and glance,
of the person from whom she inherited it
...
’Now, Catherine Linton,’ he said, ‘stand off, or I shall
knock you down; and, that will make Mrs
...
’
Regardless of this warning, she captured his closed
hand and its contents again
...
Heathcliff glanced at me a
glance that kept me from interfering a moment
...
He opened
them suddenly, and resigned the object of dispute; but, ere
she had well secured it, he seized her with the liberated
hand, and, pulling her on his knee, administered with the
other a shower of terrific slaps on both sides of the head,
each sufficient to have fulfilled his threat, had she been
able to fall
...
‘You villain!’ I began to cry, ‘you villain!’ A touch on the
chest silenced me: I am stout, and soon put out of breath;
and, what with that and the rage, I staggered dizzily back
and felt ready to suffocate, or to burst a blood-vessel
...
She
trembled like a reed, poor thing, and leant against the table
perfectly bewildered
...
‘Go to Linton now,
as I told you; and cry at your ease! I shall be your father,
to-morrow - all the father you’ll have in a few days - and
you shall have plenty of that
...
Her
cousin had shrunk into a corner of the settle, as quiet as a
mouse, congratulating himself, I dare say, that the
correction had alighted on another than him
...
Heathcliff, perceiving us all confounded, rose, and
expeditiously made the tea himself
...
He poured it out, and handed me a cup
...
‘And help your own
naughty pet and mine
...
I’m going out to seek your horses
...
We tried the kitchen door, but that was
fastened outside: we looked at the windows - they were
too narrow for even Cathy’s little figure
...
’
’Yes, Linton, you must tell,’ said Catherine
...
’
’Give me some tea, I’m thirsty, and then I’ll tell you,’
he answered
...
Dean, go away
...
Now, Catherine, you are letting your
tears fall into my cup
...
Give me
another
...
I felt disgusted at the little wretch’s composure, since
he was no longer in terror for himself
...
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’Papa wants us to be married,’ he continued, after
sipping some of the liquid
...
’
’Take you with her, pitiful changeling!’ I exclaimed
...
And do you imagine that beautiful young lady,
that healthy, hearty girl, will tie herself to a little perishing
monkey like you? Are you cherishing the notion that
anybody, let alone Miss Catherine Linton, would have
you for a husband? You want whipping for bringing us in
here at all, with your dastardly puling tricks: and - don’t
look so silly, now! I’ve a very good mind to shake you
severely, for your contemptible treachery, and your
imbecile conceit
...
’Stay all night? No,’ she said, looking slowly round
...
’
And she would have commenced the execution of her
threat directly, but Linton was up in alarm for his dear self
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again
...
You MUST obey my father - you MUST!’
’I must obey my own,’ she replied, ‘and relieve him
from this cruel suspense
...
I’ll either break or
burn a way out of the house
...
Heathcliff’s
anger restored to the boy his coward’s eloquence
...
While they were thus
occupied, our jailor re- entered
...
In a month or
two, my lad, you’ll be able to pay her back her present
tyrannies with a vigorous hand
...
Hush! hold your noise! Once
in your own room, I’ll not come near you: you needn’t
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fear
...
I’ll look to the
rest
...
The lock was resecured
...
Catherine looked up, and instinctively
raised her hand to her cheek: his neighbourhood revived a
painful sensation
...
Heathcliff, let ME
go home! I promise to marry Linton: papa would like me
to: and I love him
...
‘There’s law in the
land, thank God! there is; though we be in an out-of-theway place
...
‘To the devil with your
clamour! I don’t want YOU to speak
...
You could have
hit on no surer way of fixing your residence under my
roof for the next twenty-four hours than informing me
that such an event would follow
...
’
’Send Ellen, then, to let papa know I’m safe!’ exclaimed
Catherine, weeping bitterly
...
Poor
papa! Ellen, he’ll think we’re lost
...
‘You cannot deny that you entered my house of your own
accord, in contempt of his injunctions to the contrary
...
Catherine, his happiest
days were over when your days began
...
I’d
join him
...
As
far as I can see, it will be your chief diversion hereafter;
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unless Linton make amends for other losses: and your
provident parent appears to fancy he may
...
In his last he
recommended my jewel to be careful of his; and kind to
her when he got her
...
But Linton requires his whole stock of care and kindness
for himself
...
He’ll
undertake to torture any number of cats, if their teeth be
drawn and their claws pared
...
’
’You’re right there!’ I said; ‘explain your son’s
character
...
I can detain you both, quite concealed, here
...
‘I’ll marry
him within this hour, if I may go to Thrushcross Grange
afterwards
...
Heathcliff, you’re a cruel man, but you’re
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not a fiend; and you won’t, from MERE malice, destroy
irrevocably all my happiness
...
I don’t hate you
...
Have you never loved ANYBODY in all your life, uncle?
NEVER? Ah! you must look once
...
’
’Keep your eft’s fingers off; and move, or I’ll kick you!’
cried Heathcliff, brutally repulsing her
...
How the devil can you dream of
fawning on me? I DETEST you!’
He shrugged his shoulders: shook himself, indeed, as if
his flesh crept with aversion; and thrust back his chair;
while I got up, and opened my mouth, to commence a
downright torrent of abuse
...
It was growing dark - we heard a sound of voices
at the garden-gate
...
There was a talk of two
or three minutes, and he returned alone
...
‘I wish he would arrive! Who knows but he
might take our part?’
’It was three servants sent to seek you from the
Grange,’ said Heathcliff, overhearing me
...
She’s glad to be obliged to stay, I’m
certain
...
Then he bid us go upstairs,
through the kitchen, to Zillah’s chamber; and I whispered
my companion to obey: perhaps we might contrive to get
through the window there, or into a garret, and out by its
skylight
...
We neither of us lay down:
Catherine took her station by the lattice, and watched
anxiously for morning; a deep sigh being the only answer I
could obtain to my frequent entreaties that she would try
to rest
...
It was not the case, in reality, I am
aware; but it was, in my imagination, that dismal night;
and I thought Heathcliff himself less guilty than I
...
She ran to the door immediately, and answered,
‘Yes
...
I rose to follow, but he turned the lock again
...
’Be patient,’ he replied; ‘I’ll send up your breakfast in a
while
...
I endured it two or three hours; at length, I heard a
footstep: not Heathcliff’s
...
’Tak’ it,’ he added, thrusting the tray into my hand
...
’Nay,’ cried he, and retired, regardless of any prayers I
could pour forth to detain him
...
Five
nights and four days I remained, altogether, seeing nobody
but Hareton once every morning; and he was a model of a
jailor: surly, and dumb, and deaf to every attempt at
moving his sense of justice or compassion
...
It was Zillah; donned in her
scarlet shawl, with a black silk bonnet on her head, and a
willow-basket swung to her arm
...
Dean!’ she exclaimed
...
I never thought but you
were sunk in the Blackhorse marsh, and missy with you,
till master told me you’d been found, and he’d lodged you
here! What! and you must have got on an island, sure?
And how long were you in the hole? Did master save you,
Mrs
...
‘But he
shall answer for it
...
‘It’s not his tale:
they tell that in the village - about your being lost in the
marsh; and I calls to Earnshaw, when I come in - ‘Eh,
they’s queer things, Mr
...
It’s a sad pity of that likely young lass, and cant Nelly
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Dean
...
I thought he had not heard aught, so I
told him the rumour
...
Nelly Dean is lodged, at
this minute, in your room
...
The bog-water got into her
head, and she would have run home quite flighty; but I
fixed her till she came round to her senses
...
‘‘
’Mr
...
‘Oh! Zillah, Zillah!’
’No, no; sit you down, my good mistress,’ she replied;
‘you’re right sickly yet
...
I met him on the road and
asked
...
On entering the
house, I looked about for some one to give information of
Catherine
...
As I
hesitated whether to go off at once, or return and seek my
mistress, a slight cough drew my attention to the hearth
...
‘Where is Miss Catherine?’ I demanded sternly,
supposing I could frighten him into giving intelligence, by
catching him thus, alone
...
’Is she gone?’ I said
...
’
’You won’t let her, little idiot!’ I exclaimed
...
’
’Papa would make you sing out, if you attempted to get
there,’ he answered
...
He says she hates me and wants me to
die, that she may have my money; but she shan’t have it:
and she shan’t go home! She never shall! - she may cry,
and be sick as much as she pleases!’
He resumed his former occupation, closing his lids, as if
he meant to drop asleep
...
And you join him against her
...
’Did she come to Wuthering Heights because she hated
you?’ I continued
...
And you
say she’s sick; and yet you leave her alone, up there in a
strange house! You who have felt what it is to be so
neglected! You could pity your own sufferings; and she
pitied them, too; but you won’t pity hers! I shed tears,
Master Heathcliff, you see - an elderly woman, and a
servant merely - and you, after pretending such affection,
and having reason to worship her almost, store every tear
you have for yourself, and lie there quite at ease
...
‘I’ll not stay
by myself
...
And she won’t give
over, though I say I’ll call my father
...
’
’Is Mr
...
’He’s in the court,’ he replied, ‘talking to Doctor
Kenneth; who says uncle is dying, truly, at last
...
Catherine
always spoke of it as her house
...
All her nice books
are mine; she offered to give me them, and her pretty
birds, and her pony Minny, if I would get the key of our
room, and let her out; but I told her she had nothing to
give, they ware all, all mine
...
That was
yesterday - I said they were mine, too; and tried to get
them from her
...
I shrieked out - that frightens
her - she heard papa coming, and she broke the hinges and
divided the case, and gave me her mother’s portrait; the
other she attempted to hide: but papa asked what was the
matter, and I explained it
...
’
’And were you pleased to see her struck?’ I asked:
having my designs in encouraging his talk
...
Yet I was glad at first
- she deserved punishing for pushing me: but when papa
was gone, she made me come to the window and showed
me her cheek cut on the inside, against her teeth, and her
mouth filling with blood; and then she gathered up the
bits of the picture, and went and sat down with her face to
the wall, and she has never spoken to me since: and I
sometimes think she can’t speak for pain
...
’
’And you can get the key if you choose?’ I said
...
’
’In what apartment is it?’ I asked
...
It is our
secret
...
There! you’ve tired me - go away, go away!’ And he
turned his face on to his arm, and shut his eyes again
...
Heathcliff, and bring a rescue for my young lady from the
Grange
...
Edgar’s door: but I bespoke the announcement of it
myself
...
Very young he looked: though his actual age
was thirty-nine, one would have called him ten years
younger, at least
...
I touched his hand, and spoke
...
’
I trembled at the first effects of this intelligence: he half
rose up, looked eagerly round the apartment, and then
sank back in a swoon
...
I said
Heathcliff forced me to go in: which was not quite true
...
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He divined that one of his enemy’s purposes was to
secure the personal property, as well as the estate, to his
son: or rather himself; yet why he did not wait till his
decease was a puzzle to my master, because ignorant how
nearly he and his nephew would quit the world together
...
By that means, it could not fall to Mr
...
Having received his orders, I despatched a man to fetch
the attorney, and four more, provided with serviceable
weapons, to demand my young lady of her jailor
...
The single servant returned
first
...
Green, the lawyer, was out when he
arrived at his house, and he had to wait two hours for his
re-entrance; and then Mr
...
The four men
came back unaccompanied also
...
I scolded the stupid
fellows well for listening to that tale, which I would not
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carry to my master; resolving to take a whole bevy up to
the Heights, at day-light, and storm it literally, unless the
prisoner were quietly surrendered to us
...
I
had gone down-stairs at three o’clock to fetch a jug of
water; and was passing through the hall with it in my
hand, when a sharp knock at the front door made me
jump
...
I put the jug on the banister and hastened
to admit him myself
...
It was not the attorney
...
Linton’s room; but I compelled her to sit down on a
chair, and made her drink, and washed her pale face,
chafing it into a faint colour with my apron
...
She stared,
but soon comprehending why I counselled her to utter the
falsehood, she assured me she would not complain
...
I stood
outside the chamber-door a quarter of an hour, and hardly
ventured near the bed, then
...
She
supported him calmly, in appearance; and he fixed on her
features his raised eyes that seemed dilating with ecstasy
...
Lockwood: he died so
...
None could
have noticed the exact minute of his death, it was so
entirely without a struggle
...
It was well I
succeeded in removing her, for at dinner-time appeared
the lawyer, having called at Wuthering Heights to get his
instructions how to behave
...
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Heathcliff: that was the cause of his delay in obeying my
master’s summons
...
Mr
...
He gave all the servants but
me, notice to quit
...
There was the will, however, to hinder that, and
my loud protestations against any infringement of its
directions
...
Linton Heathcliff now, was suffered to stay at the Grange
till her father’s corpse had quitted it
...
She heard the men I
sent disputing at the door, and she gathered the sense of
Heathcliff’s answer
...
Linton who
had been conveyed up to the little parlour soon after I left,
was terrified into fetching the key before his father reascended
...
Catherine stole out before break of
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day
...
Her accomplice suffered for his
share in the escape, notwithstanding his timid
contrivances
...
We had just agreed the best destiny which could await
Catherine would be a permission to continue resident at
the Grange; at least during Linton’s life: he being allowed
to join her there, and I to remain as housekeeper
...
He made no ceremony of knocking or
announcing his name: he was master, and availed himself
of the master’s privilege to walk straight in, without saying
a word
...
It was the same room into which he had been ushered,
as a guest, eighteen years before: the same moon shone
through the window; and the same autumn landscape lay
outside
...
Linton, and the graceful one of
her husband
...
Time had
little altered his person either
...
Catherine had risen with an impulse to dash
out, when she saw him
...
‘No more
runnings away! Where would you go? I’m come to fetch
you home; and I hope you’ll be a dutiful daughter and not
encourage my son to further disobedience
...
I sent Hareton out, and we had
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the room to ourselves
...
Hareton says he wakes and
shrieks in the night by the hour together, and calls you to
protect him from me; and, whether you like your precious
mate, or not, you must come: he’s your concern now; I
yield all my interest in him to you
...
’
’I’m seeking a tenant for the Grange,’ he answered;
‘and I want my children about me, to be sure
...
I’m not going
to nurture her in luxury and idleness after Linton is gone
...
’
’I shall,’ said Catherine
...
And I defy you to hurt him when I am
by, and I defy you to frighten me!’
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’You are a boastful champion,’ replied Heathcliff; ‘but I
don’t like you well enough to hurt him: you shall get the
full benefit of the torment, as long as it lasts
...
He’s as bitter as gall at your desertion and its
consequences: don’t expect thanks for this noble devotion
...
’
’I know he has a bad nature,’ said Catherine: ‘he’s your
son
...
Mr
...
You ARE miserable, are you not? Lonely, like the devil,
and envious like him? NOBODY loves you - NOBODY
will cry for you when you die! I wouldn’t be you!’
Catherine spoke with a kind of dreary triumph: she
seemed to have made up her mind to enter into the spirit
of her future family, and draw pleasure from the griefs of
her enemies
...
Begone, witch, and get your things!’
She scornfully withdrew
...
He bid me be
silent; and then, for the first time, allowed himself a glance
round the room and a look at the pictures
...
Linton’s, he said - ‘I shall have that home
...
I thought,
once, I would have stayed there: when I saw her face
again - it is hers yet! - he had hard work to stir me; but he
said it would change if the air blew on it, and so I struck
one side of the coffin loose, and covered it up: not
Linton’s side, damn him! I wish he’d been soldered in
lead
...
Heathcliff!’ I exclaimed;
‘were you not ashamed to disturb the dead?’
’I disturbed nobody, Nelly,’ he replied; ‘and I gave
some ease to myself
...
Disturbed
her? No! she has disturbed me, night and day, through
eighteen years - incessantly - remorselessly - till
yesternight; and yesternight I was tranquil
...
’
’And if she had been dissolved into earth, or worse,
what would you have dreamt of then?’ I said
...
‘Do you suppose I dread any change of that
sort? I expected such a transformation on raising the lid but I’m better pleased that it should not commence till I
share it
...
It began oddly
...
In the evening I went to the churchyard
...
I didn’t fear that
her fool of a husband would wander up the glen so late;
and no one else had business to bring them there
...
’ I got a
spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my
might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands;
the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on
the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I
heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the
grave, and bending down
...
There
was another sigh, close at my ear
...
I knew
no living thing in flesh and blood was by; but, as certainly
as you perceive the approach to some substantial body in
the dark, though it cannot be discerned, so certainly I felt
that Cathy was there: not under me, but on the earth
...
I relinquished my labour of agony, and turned
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consoled at once: unspeakably consoled
...
You may laugh, if you will; but I was sure I
should see her there
...
Having reached the Heights,
I rushed eagerly to the door
...
I remember stopping to kick the breath out
of him, and then hurrying up-stairs, to my room and hers
...
She showed herself, as she often
was in life, a devil to me! And, since then, sometimes
more and sometimes less, I’ve been the sport of that
intolerable torture! Infernal! keeping my nerves at such a
stretch that, if they had not resembled catgut, they would
long ago have relaxed to the feebleness of Linton’s
...
When I went from home I
hastened to return; she MUST be somewhere at the
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I was beaten out of that
...
And so I
opened and closed them a hundred times a night - to be
always disappointed! It racked me! I’ve often groaned
aloud, till that old rascal Joseph no doubt believed that my
conscience was playing the fiend inside of me
...
It was a strange way of
killing: not by inches, but by fractions of hairbreadths, to
beguile me with the spectre of a hope through eighteen
years!’
Mr
...
He only half addressed me, and I
maintained silence
...
’Send that over to-morrow,’ said Heathcliff to me; then
turning to her, he added: ‘You may do without your
pony: it is a fine evening, and you’ll need no ponies at
Wuthering Heights; for what journeys you take, your own
feet will serve you
...
’
’Good-bye, Ellen!’ whispered my dear little mistress
...
‘Come and see
me, Ellen; don’t forget
...
Dean!’ said her
new father
...
I
want none of your prying at my house!’
He signed her to precede him; and casting back a look
that cut my heart, she obeyed
...
Heathcliff fixed
Catherine’s arm under his: though she disputed the act at
first evidently; and with rapid strides he hurried her into
the alley, whose trees concealed them
...
He said
Mrs
...
Zillah
has told me something of the way they go on, otherwise I
should hardly know who was dead and who living
...
My young lady asked some aid of her
when she first came; but Mr
...
Catherine evinced a child’s
annoyance at this neglect; repaid it with contempt, and
thus enlisted my informant among her enemies, as securely
as if she had done her some great wrong
...
’The first thing Mrs
...
Then,
while the master and Earnshaw were at breakfast, she
entered the house, and asked all in a quiver if the doctor
might be sent for? her cousin was very ill
...
’
’’But I cannot tell how to do,’ she said; ‘and if nobody
will help me, he’ll die!’
’’Walk out of the room,’ cried the master, ‘and let me
never hear a word more about him! None here care what
becomes of him; if you do, act the nurse; if you do not,
lock him up and leave him
...
Heathcliff bid
me leave that labour to her
...
I fancy he
fretted a great deal, and moaned hisseln night and day; and
she had precious little rest: one could guess by her white
face and heavy eyes
...
Dean; and, though I thought
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it wrong that Kenneth should not be sent for, it was no
concern of mine either to advise or complain, and I always
refused to meddle
...
I did pity
her then, I’m sure: still I didn’t wish to lose my place, you
know
...
Heathcliff that his son is dying - I’m sure he is, this time
...
’
’Having uttered this speech, she vanished again
...
Nothing stirred
- the house was quiet
...
He’s got over it
...
But my sleep
was marred a second time by a sharp ringing of the bell the only bell we have, put up on purpose for Linton; and
the master called to me to see what was the matter, and
inform them that he wouldn’t have that noise repeated
...
He cursed to himself,
and in a few minutes came out with a lighted candle, and
proceeded to their room
...
Mrs
...
Her father-in-law went up, held the light to Linton’s face,
looked at him, and touched him; afterwards he turned to
her
...
’’How do you feel, Catherine?’ he repeated
...
Hareton and Joseph, who had been wakened by the
ringing and the sound of feet, and heard our talk from
outside, now entered
...
But the master bid him get off to
bed again: we didn’t want his help
...
Heathcliff remained by herself
...
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I informed Mr
...
‘‘
Cathy stayed upstairs a fortnight, according to Zillah;
who visited her twice a day, and would have been rather
more friendly, but her attempts at increasing kindness
were proudly and promptly repelled
...
He
had bequeathed the whole of his, and what had been her,
moveable property, to his father: the poor creature was
threatened, or coaxed, into that act during her week’s
absence, when his uncle died
...
However, Mr
...
’Nobody,’ said Zillah, ‘ever approached her door,
except that once, but I; and nobody asked anything about
her
...
She had cried out, when I
carried up her dinner, that she couldn’t bear any longer
being in the cold; and I told her the master was going to
Thrushcross Grange, and Earnshaw and I needn’t hinder
her from descending; so, as soon as she heard Heathcliff’s
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horse trot off, she made her appearance, donned in black,
and her yellow curls combed back behind her ears as plain
as a Quaker: she couldn’t comb them out
...
Dean; and they call the Methodists’ or Baptists’ place (I
can’t say which it is) at Gimmerton, a chapel
...
Young folks are always the better for an elder’s
over-looking; and Hareton, with all his bashfulness, isn’t a
model of nice behaviour
...
He coloured up at the news, and cast his eyes over his
hands and clothes
...
I saw he meant to give
her his company; and I guessed, by his way, he wanted to
be presentable; so, laughing, as I durst not laugh when the
master is by, I offered to help him, if he would, and joked
at his confusion
...
’Now, Mrs
...
Hareton; and happen you’re right:
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but I own I should love well to bring her pride a peg
lower
...
’
Hareton allowed Zillah to give him her aid; and she
flattered him into a good humour; so, when Catherine
came, half forgetting her former insults, he tried to make
himself agreeable, by the housekeeper’s account
...
I got up and offered her my seat in the
arm-chair
...
Earnshaw rose, too, and bid her come to the settle, and sit
close by the fire: he was sure she was starved
...
’And she got a chair for herself, and placed it at a
distance from both of us
...
Her
cousin, after watching her endeavours a while, at last
summoned courage to help her; she held her frock, and he
filled it with the first that came to hand
...
She didn’t thank
him; still, he felt gratified that she had accepted his
assistance, and ventured to stand behind as she examined
them, and even to stoop and point out what struck his
fancy in certain old pictures which they contained; nor
was he daunted by the saucy style in which she jerked the
page from his finger: he contented himself with going a bit
farther back and looking at her instead of the book
...
His
attention became, by degrees, quite centred in the study of
her thick silky curls: her face he couldn’t see, and she
couldn’t see him
...
He
might have stuck a knife into her neck, she started round
in such a taking
...
‘I can’t endure you! I’ll go upstairs again, if you
come near me
...
Hareton recoiled, looking as foolish as he could
do: he sat down in the settle very quiet, and she continued
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turning over her volumes another half hour; finally,
Earnshaw crossed over, and whispered to me
...
’
’’Mr
...
‘He’d take it very kind - he’d be much
obliged
...
Hareton, and the whole set of you, will be good
enough to understand that I reject any pretence at
kindness you have the hypocrisy to offer! I despise you,
and will have nothing to say to any of you! When I would
have given my life for one kind word, even to see one of
your faces, you all kept off
...
’
’’What could I ha’ done?’ began Earnshaw
...
Heathcliff
...
’
’’But I offered more than once, and asked,’ he said,
kindling up at her pertness, ‘I asked Mr
...
’Hareton muttered she might go to hell, for him! and
unslinging his gun, restrained himself from his Sunday
occupations no longer
...
However, I
took care there should be no further scorning at my good
nature: ever since, I’ve been as stiff as herself; and she has
no lover or liker among us: and she does not deserve one;
for, let them say the least word to her, and she’ll curl back
without respect of any one
...
’
At first, on hearing this account from Zillah, I
determined to leave my situation, take a cottage, and get
Catherine to come and live with me: but Mr
...
Thus ended Mrs
...
Notwithstanding the
doctor’s prophecy, I am rapidly recovering strength; and
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though it be only the second week in January, I propose
getting out on horseback in a day or two, and riding over
to Wuthering Heights, to inform my landlord that I shall
spend the next six months in London; and, if he likes, he
may look out for another tenant to take the place after
October
...
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Chapter XXXI
YESTERDAY was bright, calm, and frosty
...
The front door stood open,
but the jealous gate was fastened, as at my last visit; I
knocked and invoked Earnshaw from among the gardenbeds; he unchained it, and I entered
...
I took particular notice
of him this time; but then he does his best apparently to
make the least of his advantages
...
Heathcliff were at home? He answered,
No; but he would be in at dinner-time
...
We entered together; Catherine was there, making
herself useful in preparing some vegetables for the
approaching meal; she looked more sulky and less spirited
than when I had seen her first
...
’She does not seem so amiable,’ I thought, ‘as Mrs
...
She’s a beauty, it is
true; but not an angel
...
‘Remove them yourself,’ she said, pushing them
from her as soon as she had done; and retiring to a stool by
the window, where she began to carve figures of birds and
beasts out of the turnip-parings in her lap
...
Dean’s note on to her
knee, unnoticed by Hareton - but she asked aloud, ‘What
is that?’ And chucked it off
...
She would gladly have gathered it up at this
information, but Hareton beat her; he seized and put it in
his waistcoat, saying Mr
...
Thereat, Catherine silently turned her face from us, and,
very stealthily, drew out her pocket- handkerchief and
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applied it to her eyes; and her cousin, after struggling
awhile to keep down his softer feelings, pulled out the
letter and flung it on the floor beside her, as ungraciously
as he could
...
’Mrs
...
My housekeeper never wearies of talking about and
praising you; and she’ll be greatly disappointed if I return
with no news of or from you, except that you received
her letter and said nothing!’
She appeared to wonder at this speech, and asked, ’Does Ellen like you?’
’Yes, very well,’ I replied, hesitatingly
...
’
’No books!’ I exclaimed
...
Though provided with a large library, I’m frequently very
dull at the Grange; take my books away, and I should be
desperate!’
’I was always reading, when I had them,’ said
Catherine; ‘and Mr
...
I have not had a
glimpse of one for weeks
...
I brought the last here - and you gathered them, as a
magpie gathers silver spoons, for the mere love of stealing!
They are of no use to you; or else you concealed them in
the bad spirit that, as you cannot enjoy them, nobody else
shall
...
Heathcliff to
rob me of my treasures? But I’ve most of them written on
my brain and printed in my heart, and you cannot deprive
me of those!’
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Earnshaw blushed crimson when his cousin made this
revelation of his private literary accumulations, and
stammered an indignant denial of her accusations
...
Hareton is desirous of increasing his amount of
knowledge,’ I said, coming to his rescue
...
He’ll be
a clever scholar in a few years
...
‘Yes, I hear him trying to spell and
read to himself, and pretty blunders he makes! I wish you
would repeat Chevy Chase as you did yesterday: it was
extremely funny
...
I had a similar notion; and,
remembering Mrs
...
Heathcliff, we have each had a
commencement, and each stumbled and tottered on the
threshold; had our teachers scorned instead of aiding us,
we should stumble and totter yet
...
’
Hareton’s chest heaved in silence a minute: he laboured
under a severe sense of mortification and wrath, which it
was no easy task to suppress
...
He followed my example, and left the room;
but presently reappeared, bearing half a dozen volumes in
his hands, which he threw into Catherine’s lap,
exclaiming, - ‘Take them! I never want to hear, or read,
or think of them again!’
’I won’t have them now,’ she answered
...
’
She opened one that had obviously been often turned
over, and read a portion in the drawling tone of a
beginner; then laughed, and threw it from her
...
But his self-love would endure no further torment: I
heard, and not altogether disapprovingly, a manual cheek
given to her saucy tongue
...
He afterwards gathered the books and hurled
them on the fire
...
I fancied that as they
consumed, he recalled the pleasure they had already
imparted, and the triumph and ever-increasing pleasure he
had anticipated from them; and I fancied I guessed the
incitement to his secret studies also
...
Shame at her scorn, and hope
of her approval, were his first prompters to higher pursuits;
and instead of guarding him from one and winning him to
the other, his endeavours to raise himself had produced
just the contrary result
...
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’You’d BETTER hold your tongue, now,’ he
answered fiercely
...
But ere he had crossed the door-stones, Mr
...
Heathcliff gazed after him, and sighed
...
‘But when I look for
his father in his face, I find HER every day more! How
the devil is he so like? I can hardly bear to see him
...
There was a restless, anxious expression in his
countenance
...
His daughter-in-law, on
perceiving him through the window, immediately escaped
to the kitchen, so that I remained alone
...
Lockwood,’ he said, in reply to my greeting; ‘from selfish
motives partly: I don’t think I could readily supply your
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loss in this desolation
...
’
’An idle whim, I fear, sir,’ was my answer; ‘or else an
idle whim is going to spirit me away
...
I believe I shall not
live there any more
...
‘But if you be coming to plead
off paying for a place you won’t occupy, your journey is
useless: I never relent in exacting my due from any one
...
‘Should you wish it, I’ll settle with
you now,’ and I drew my note-book from my pocket
...
Sit down and take your dinner with us; a
guest that is safe from repeating his visit can generally be
made welcome
...
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’You may get your dinner with Joseph,’ muttered
Heathcliff, aside, ‘and remain in the kitchen till he is
gone
...
Living among clowns and
misanthropists, she probably cannot appreciate a better
class of people when she meets them
...
Heathcliff, grim and saturnine, on the one
hand, and Hareton, absolutely dumb, on the other, I made
a somewhat cheerless meal, and bade adieu early
...
’How dreary life gets over in that house!’ I reflected,
while riding down the road
...
Linton Heathcliff, had she and I struck up
an attachment, as her good nurse desired, and migrated
together into the stirring atmosphere of the town!’
CHAPTER XXXII
1802
...
The ostler at a roadside public-house was
holding a pail of water to refresh my horses, when a cart of
very green oats, newly reaped, passed by, and he
remarked, - ‘Yon’s frough Gimmerton, nah! They’re allas
three wick’ after other folk wi’ ther harvest
...
‘Ah! I know
...
A sudden impulse seized me to visit Thrushcross
Grange
...
Besides, I could spare a day easily to arrange matters with
my landlord, and thus save myself the trouble of invading
the neighbourhood again
...
I left him there, and proceeded down the valley alone
...
I distinguished a moor-sheep cropping the short
turf on the graves
...
In winter nothing
more dreary, in summer nothing more divine, than those
glens shut in by hills, and those bluff, bold swells of heath
...
I rode into
the court
...
’Is Mrs
...
’Mistress Dean? Nay!’ she answered, ‘she doesn’t bide
here: shoo’s up at th’ Heights
...
’Eea, aw keep th’ hause,’ she replied
...
Lockwood, the master
...
’
’T’ maister!’ she cried in astonishment
...
They’s
nowt norther dry nor mensful abaht t’ place: nowt there
isn’t!’
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She threw down her pipe and bustled in, the girl
followed, and I entered too; soon perceiving that her
report was true, and, moreover, that I had almost upset
her wits by my unwelcome apparition, I bade her be
composed
...
No sweeping and
dusting, only good fire and dry sheets were necessary
...
Wuthering Heights was the goal of my
proposed excursion
...
’All well at the Heights?’ I inquired of the woman
...
I would have asked why Mrs
...
Heathcliff’s dwelling
...
I had neither to climb the gate nor to
knock - it yielded to my hand
...
And I noticed another, by the aid of my nostrils;
a fragrance of stocks and wallflowers wafted on the air
from amongst the homely fruit- trees
...
But the house of
Wuthering Heights is so large that the inmates have plenty
of space for withdrawing out of its influence; and
accordingly what inmates there were had stationed
themselves not far from one of the windows
...
’Con-TRARY!’ said a voice as sweet as a silver bell
...
Recollect, or I’ll pull your hair!’
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’Contrary, then,’ answered another, in deep but
softened tones
...
’
’No, read it over first correctly, without a single
mistake
...
His handsome features glowed with pleasure,
and his eyes kept impatiently wandering from the page to
a small white hand over his shoulder, which recalled him
by a smart slap on the cheek, whenever its owner detected
such signs of inattention
...
I could; and I bit my lip
in spite, at having thrown away the chance I might have
had of doing something besides staring at its smiting
beauty
...
Then they came
to the door, and from their conversation I judged they
were about to issue out and have a walk on the moors
...
There was unobstructed admittance on that side also; and
at the door sat my old friend Nelly Dean, sewing and
singing a song; which was often interrupted from within
by harsh words of scorn and intolerance, uttered in far
from musical accents
...
‘It’s a blazing shame, that I cannot oppen t’
blessed Book, but yah set up them glories to sattan, and all
t’ flaysome wickednesses that iver were born into th’
warld! Oh! ye’re a raight nowt; and shoo’s another; and
that poor lad ‘ll be lost atween ye
...
Oh, Lord,
judge ‘em, for there’s norther law nor justice among wer
rullers!’
’No! or we should be sitting in flaming fagots, I
suppose,’ retorted the singer
...
This
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is ‘Fairy Annie’s Wedding’ - a bonny tune - it goes to a
dance
...
Dean was about to recommence, when I
advanced; and recognising me directly, she jumped to her
feet, crying - ‘Why, bless you, Mr
...
You should have given us notice!’
’I’ve arranged to be accommodated there, for as long as
I shall stay,’ I answered
...
And
how are you transplanted here, Mrs
...
’
’Zillah left, and Mr
...
But, step in, pray! Have you walked from Gimmerton this
evening?’
’From the Grange,’ I replied; ‘and while they make me
lodging room there, I want to finish my business with
your master; because I don’t think of having another
opportunity in a hurry
...
‘He’s gone out at present, and won’t return soon
...
’Oh! then it is with Mrs
...
She has not learnt to
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manage her affairs yet, and I act for her: there’s nobody
else
...
’Ah! you have not heard of Heathcliff’s death, I see,’
she continued
...
‘How long
ago?’
’Three months since: but sit down, and let me take
your hat, and I’ll tell you all about it
...
You
sit down too
...
You say you don’t expect them back
for some time - the young people?’
’No - I have to scold them every evening for their late
rambles: but they don’t care for me
...
’
She hastened to fetch it before I could refuse, and I
heard Joseph asking whether ‘it warn’t a crying scandal
that she should have followers at her time of life? And
then, to get them jocks out o’ t’ maister’s cellar! He fair
shaamed to ‘bide still and see it
...
And afterwards she furnished
me with the sequel of Heathcliff’s history
...
I was summoned to Wuthering Heights, within a
fortnight of your leaving us, she said; and I obeyed
joyfully, for Catherine’s sake
...
Mr
...
It was enough if he were obliged
to see her once or twice a day
...
The delusion did not last long
...
For one thing, she was forbidden to move out
of the garden, and it fretted her sadly to be confined to its
narrow bounds as spring drew on; for another, in
following the house, I was forced to quit her frequently,
and she complained of loneliness: she preferred quarrelling
with Joseph in the kitchen to sitting at peace in her
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solitude
...
’He’s just like a dog, is he not, Ellen?’ she once
observed, ‘or a cart-horse? He does his work, eats his food,
and sleeps eternally! What a blank, dreary mind he must
have! Do you ever dream, Hareton? And, if you do, what
is it about? But you can’t speak to me!’
Then she looked at him; but he would neither open his
mouth nor look again
...
‘He
twitched his shoulder as Juno twitches hers
...
’
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’Mr
...
He had not only twitched his
shoulder but clenched his fist, as if tempted to use it
...
‘He is afraid
I shall laugh at him
...
’
’Perhaps I was,’ she went on; ‘but I did not expect him
to be so silly
...
’Well, I shall put it here,’ she said, ‘in the table-drawer;
and I’m going to bed
...
But he would not come near it; and so I
informed her in the morning, to her great disappointment
...
But
her ingenuity was at work to remedy the injury: while I
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ironed, or pursued other such stationary employments as I
could not well do in the parlour, she would bring some
pleasant volume and read it aloud to me
...
On fine evenings the latter followed
his shooting expeditions, and Catherine yawned and
sighed, and teased me to talk to her, and ran off into the
court or garden the moment I began; and, as a last
resource, cried, and said she was tired of living: her life
was useless
...
Heathcliff, who grew more and more disinclined
to society, had almost banished Earnshaw from his
apartment
...
His gun burst while out on the hills by himself; a splinter
cut his arm, and he lost a good deal of blood before he
could reach home
...
It suited Catherine to have him there: at
any rate, it made her hate her room up-stairs more than
ever: and she would compel me to find out business
below, that she might accompany me
...
Earnshaw sat, morose as usual, at
the chimney corner, and my little mistress was beguiling
an idle hour with drawing pictures on the window-panes,
varying her amusement by smothered bursts of songs, and
whispered ejaculations, and quick glances of annoyance
and impatience in the direction of her cousin, who
steadfastly smoked, and looked into the grate
...
I bestowed little attention
on her proceedings, but, presently, I heard her begin ‘I’ve found out, Hareton, that I want - that I’m glad - that
I should like you to be my cousin now, if you had not
grown so cross to me, and so rough
...
’Hareton, Hareton, Hareton! do you hear?’ she
continued
...
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’Let me take that pipe,’ she said, cautiously advancing
her hand and abstracting it from his mouth
...
He swore at her and seized another
...
’
’Will you go to the devil!’ he exclaimed, ferociously,
‘and let me be!’
’No,’ she persisted, ‘I won’t: I can’t tell what to do to
make you talk to me; and you are determined not to
understand
...
Come, you shall
take notice of me, Hareton: you are my cousin, and you
shall own me
...
‘I’ll
go to hell, body and soul, before I look sideways after you
again
...
’You should be friends with your cousin, Mr
...
It would
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do you a great deal of good: it would make you another
man to have her for a companion
...
’
’It is not I who hate you, it is you who hate me!’ wept
Cathy, no longer disguising her trouble
...
Heathcliff does, and more
...
He blackened and scowled like a thunder-cloud,
and kept his fists resolutely clenched, and his gaze fixed on
the ground
...
The little rogue thought I had not seen her,
and, drawing back, she took her former station by the
window, quite demurely
...
’
Whether the kiss convinced Hareton, I cannot tell: he
was very careful, for some minutes, that his face should
not be seen, and when he did raise it, he was sadly puzzled
where to turn his eyes
...
Hareton Earnshaw,’ she
desired me to be her ambassadress, and convey the present
to its destined recipient
...
’
I carried it, and repeated the message; anxiously
watched by my employer
...
He did not strike it off,
either
...
Catherine leaned her head
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and arms on the table, till she heard the slight rustle of the
covering being removed; then she stole away, and quietly
seated herself beside her cousin
...
’Say you forgive me, Hareton, do
...
’
He muttered something inaudible
...
’Nay, you’ll be ashamed of me every day of your life,’
he answered; ‘and the more ashamed, the more you know
me; and I cannot bide it
...
I overheard no further distinguishable talk, but, on
looking round again, I perceived two such radiant
countenances bent over the page of the accepted book,
that I did not doubt the treaty had been ratified on both
sides; and the enemies were, thenceforth, sworn allies
...
He, poor man, was
perfectly aghast at the spectacle of Catherine seated on the
same bench with Hareton Earnshaw, leaning her hand on
his shoulder; and confounded at his favourite’s endurance
of her proximity: it affected him too deeply to allow an
observation on the subject that night
...
At length he summoned Hareton
from his seat
...
I’s gang up to my own rahm
...
’
’Come, Catherine,’ I said, ‘we must ‘side out’ too: I’ve
done my ironing
...
’Hareton, I’ll leave this book upon the chimney-piece,
and I’ll bring some more to-morrow
...
The intimacy thus commenced grew rapidly; though it
encountered temporary interruptions
...
You see, Mr
...
Heathcliff’s heart
...
The crown of all my wishes will be the union of those
two
...
She got downstairs before me, and out into the garden,
where she had seen her cousin performing some easy
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work; and when I went to bid them come to breakfast, I
saw she had persuaded him to clear a large space of ground
from currant and gooseberry bushes, and they were busy
planning together an importation of plants from the
Grange
...
’There! That will be all shown to the master,’ I
exclaimed, ‘the minute it is discovered
...
Hareton, I wonder you should have no more
wit than to go and make that mess at her bidding!’
’I’d forgotten they were Joseph’s,’ answered Earnshaw,
rather puzzled; ‘but I’ll tell him I did it
...
Heathcliff
...
Catherine usually sat by me, but today she stole nearer to Hareton; and I presently saw she
would have no more discretion in her friendship than she
had in her hostility
...
‘It will certainly annoy Mr
...
’
’I’m not going to,’ she answered
...
He dared not speak to her there: he dared hardly look;
and yet she went on teasing, till he was twice on the point
of being provoked to laugh
...
Afterwards she turned, and
recommenced her nonsense; at last, Hareton uttered a
smothered laugh
...
Heathcliff started; his eye rapidly
surveyed our faces, Catherine met it with her accustomed
look of nervousness and yet defiance, which he abhorred
...
‘What fiend possesses you to stare back at me, continually,
with those infernal eyes? Down with them! and don’t
remind me of your existence again
...
’
’It was me,’ muttered Hareton
...
Hareton looked at his plate, and did not repeat the
confession
...
Heathcliff looked at him a bit, and then
silently resumed his breakfast and his interrupted musing
...
He must have seen Cathy and her cousin about
the spot before he examined it, for while his jaws worked
like those of a cow chewing its cud, and rendered his
speech difficult to understand, he began:’I mun hev’ my wage, and I mun goa! I HED aimed to
dee wheare I’d sarved fur sixty year; and I thowt I’d lug
my books up into t’ garret, and all my bits o’ stuff, and
they sud hev’ t’ kitchen to theirseln; for t’ sake o’
quietness
...
I’d
rayther arn my bite an’ my sup wi’ a hammer in th’ road!’
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’Now, now, idiot!’ interrupted Heathcliff, ‘cut it short!
What’s your grievance? I’ll interfere in no quarrels
between you and Nelly
...
’
’It’s noan Nelly!’ answered Joseph
...
Thank God! SHOO
cannot stale t’ sowl o’ nob’dy! Shoo wer niver soa
handsome, but what a body mud look at her ‘bout
winking
...
’Is the fool drunk?’ asked Mr
...
‘Hareton, is it
you he’s finding fault with?’
’I’ve pulled up two or three bushes,’ replied the young
man; ‘but I’m going to set ‘em again
...
Catherine wisely put in her tongue
...
‘I’m the only person to blame, for I wished him to do it
...
‘And who ordered YOU to obey her?’ he
added, turning to Hareton
...
’And my money,’ she continued; returning his angry
glare, and meantime biting a piece of crust, the remnant of
her breakfast
...
‘Get done, and begone!’
’And Hareton’s land, and his money,’ pursued the
reckless thing
...
’If you strike me, Hareton will strike you,’ she said; ‘so
you may as well sit down
...
‘Damnable
witch! dare you pretend to rouse him against me? Off with
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her! Do you hear? Fling her into the kitchen! I’ll kill her,
Ellen Dean, if you let her come into my sight again!’
Hareton tried, under his breath, to persuade her to go
...
‘Are you staying to
talk?’ And he approached to execute his own command
...
’
’Wisht! wisht!’ muttered the young man, reproachfully;
‘I will not hear you speak so to him
...
’
’But you won’t let him strike me?’ she cried
...
It was too late: Heathcliff had caught hold of her
...
‘Accursed
witch! this time she has provoked me when I could not
bear it; and I’ll make her repent it for ever!’
He had his hand in her hair; Hareton attempted to
release her looks, entreating him not to hurt her that once
...
Then he drew his hand over his
eyes, stood a moment to collect himself apparently, and
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‘You must learn to avoid putting me in a passion, or I shall
really murder you some time! Go with Mrs
...
As
to Hareton Earnshaw, if I see him listen to you, I’ll send
him seeking his bread where he can get it! Your love will
make him an outcast and a beggar
...
Heathcliff had the
room to himself till dinner
...
He spoke to none of us, ate very
little, and went out directly afterwards, intimating that he
should not return before evening
...
He said he wouldn’t
suffer a word to be uttered in his disparagement: if he
were the devil, it didn’t signify; he would stand by him;
and he’d rather she would abuse himself, as she used to,
than begin on Mr
...
Catherine was waxing cross
at this; but he found means to make her hold her tongue,
by asking how she would like HIM to speak ill of her
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father? Then she comprehended that Earnshaw took the
master’s reputation home to himself; and was attached by
ties stronger than reason could break - chains, forged by
habit, which it would be cruel to attempt to loosen
...
When this slight disagreement was over, they were
friends again, and as busy as possible in their several
occupations of pupil and teacher
...
You know, they both appeared in a measure my
children: I had long been proud of one; and now, I was
sure, the other would be a source of equal satisfaction
...
His brightening mind brightened his
features, and added spirit and nobility to their aspect: I
could hardly fancy it the same individual I had beheld on
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the day I discovered my little lady at Wuthering Heights,
after her expedition to the Crags
...
He came upon us quite unexpectedly, entering by
the front way, and had a full view of the whole three, ere
we could raise our heads to glance at him
...
The
red fire-light glowed on their two bonny heads, and
revealed their faces animated with the eager interest of
children; for, though he was twenty-three and she
eighteen, each had so much of novelty to feel and learn,
that neither experienced nor evinced the sentiments of
sober disenchanted maturity
...
Heathcliff: perhaps you have never remarked that their
eyes are precisely similar, and they are those of Catherine
Earnshaw
...
With Hareton the resemblance is carried
farther: it is singular at all times, THEN it was particularly
striking; because his senses were alert, and his mental
faculties wakened to unwonted activity
...
Heathcliff: he walked to the
hearth in evident agitation; but it quickly subsided as he
looked at the young man: or, I should say, altered its
character; for it was there yet
...
’It is a poor conclusion, is it not?’ he observed, having
brooded awhile on the scene he had just witnessed: ‘an
absurd termination to my violent exertions? I get levers
and mattocks to demolish the two houses, and train myself
to be capable of working like Hercules, and when
everything is ready and in my power, I find the will to lift
a slate off either roof has vanished! My old enemies have
not beaten me; now would be the precise time to revenge
myself on their representatives: I could do it; and none
could hinder me
...
It is far from being the
case: I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction,
and I am too idle to destroy for nothing
...
I take so little interest in my daily life
that I hardly remember to eat and drink
...
About HER I won’t
speak; and I don’t desire to think; but I earnestly wish she
were invisible: her presence invokes only maddening
sensations
...
But you’ll not talk of what I tell you; and my
mind is so eternally secluded in itself, it is tempting at last
to turn it out to another
...
In the first place, his startling
likeness to Catherine connected him fearfully with her
...
The entire world is a dreadful
collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have
lost her! Well, Hareton’s aspect was the ghost of my
immortal love; of my wild endeavours to hold my right;
my degradation, my pride, my happiness, and my anguish
’But it is frenzy to repeat these thoughts to you: only it
will let you know why, with a reluctance to be always
alone, his society is no benefit; rather an aggravation of the
constant torment I suffer: and it partly contributes to
render me regardless how he and his cousin go on
together
...
’
’But what do you mean by a CHANGE, Mr
...
He might
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have had a monomania on the subject of his departed idol;
but on every other point his wits were as sound as mine
...
’
’You have no feeling of illness, have you?’ I asked
...
’Then you are not afraid of death?’ I pursued
...
‘I have neither a fear, nor a
presentiment, nor a hope of death
...
And yet I cannot continue in this condition! I
have to remind myself to breathe - almost to remind my
heart to beat! And it is like bending back a stiff spring: it is
by compulsion that I do the slightest act not prompted by
one thought; and by compulsion that I notice anything
alive or dead, which is not associated with one universal
idea
...
They have yearned
towards it so long, and so unwaveringly, that I’m
convinced it will be reached - and soon - because it has
devoured my existence: I am swallowed up in the
anticipation of its fulfilment
...
O God! It
is a long fight; I wish it were over!’
He began to pace the room, muttering terrible things
to himself, till I was inclined to believe, as he said Joseph
did, that conscience had turned his heart to an earthly hell
...
Though he seldom
before had revealed this state of mind, even by looks, it
was his habitual mood, I had no doubt: he asserted it
himself; but not a soul, from his general bearing, would
have conjectured the fact
...
Lockwood: and at the period of which I speak,
he was just the same as then; only fonder of continued
solitude, and perhaps still more laconic in company
...
Heathcliff
shunned meeting us at meals; yet he would not consent
formally to exclude Hareton and Cathy
...
One night, after the family were in bed, I heard him go
downstairs, and out at the front door
...
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We were in April then: the weather was sweet and warm,
the grass as green as showers and sun could make it, and
the two dwarf apple-trees near the southern wall in full
bloom
...
I was comfortably
revelling in the spring fragrance around, and the beautiful
soft blue overhead, when my young lady, who had run
down near the gate to procure some primrose roots for a
border, returned only half laden, and informed us that Mr
...
‘And he spoke to me,’ she
added, with a perplexed countenance
...
’He told me to begone as fast as I could,’ she answered
...
’
’How?’ he inquired
...
No, ALMOST
nothing - VERY MUCH excited, and wild, and glad!’ she
replied
...
I framed an excuse to go in
...
’Will you have some breakfast?’ I said
...
’No, I’m not hungry,’ he answered, averting his head,
and speaking rather contemptuously, as if he guessed I was
trying to divine the occasion of his good humour
...
’I don’t think it right to wander out of doors,’ I
observed, ‘instead of being in bed: it is not wise, at any
rate this moist season
...
’
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I obeyed: and, in passing, I noticed he breathed as fast
as a cat
...
I cannot conceive what he has been doing
...
’I’ve neither cold nor fever, Nelly,’ he remarked, in
allusion to my morning’s speech; ‘and I’m ready to do
justice to the food you give me
...
He laid them on the table,
looked eagerly towards the window, then rose and went
out
...
’Well, is he coming?’ cried Catherine, when her cousin
returned
...
’
I set his plate to keep warm on the fender; and after an
hour or two he re-entered, when the room was clear, in
no degree calmer: the same unnatural - it was unnatural appearance of joy under his black brows; the same
bloodless hue, and his teeth visible, now and then, in a
kind of smile; his frame shivering, not as one shivers with
chill or weakness, but as a tight-stretched cord vibrates - a
strong thrilling, rather than trembling
...
Heathcliff? You look uncommonly animated
...
‘I’m animated with hunger; and, seemingly, I must not
eat
...
And, Nelly, once for all, let me beg you to warn
Hareton and the other away from me
...
’
’Is there some new reason for this banishment?’ I
inquired
...
Heathcliff?
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Where were you last night? I’m not putting the question
through idle curiosity, but - ‘
’You are putting the question through very idle
curiosity,’ he interrupted, with a laugh
...
Last night I was on the threshold of hell
...
I have my eyes on it: hardly
three feet to sever me! And now you’d better go! You’ll
neither see nor hear anything to frighten you, if you
refrain from prying
...
He did not quit the house again that afternoon, and no
one intruded on his solitude; till, at eight o’clock, I
deemed it proper, though unsummoned, to carry a candle
and his supper to him
...
The fire had smouldered to ashes; the
room was filled with the damp, mild air of the cloudy
evening; and so still, that not only the murmur of the beck
down Gimmerton was distinguishable, but its ripples and
its gurgling over the pebbles, or through the large stones
which it could not cover
...
’Must I close this?’ I asked, in order to rouse him; for
he would not stir
...
Oh, Mr
...
Heathcliff, but a goblin; and, in my terror, I let the candle
bend towards the wall, and it left me in darkness
...
‘There,
that is pure awkwardness! Why did you hold the candle
horizontally? Be quick, and bring another
...
’ For I dared not go in myself again just
then
...
Heathcliff was going to
bed, and he wanted nothing to eat till morning
...
’Is he a ghoul or a vampire?’ I mused
...
And then I set myself to
reflect how I had tended him in infancy, and watched him
grow to youth, and followed him almost through his
whole course; and what absurd nonsense it was to yield to
that sense of horror
...
And I began, half dreaming, to weary myself with
imagining some fit parentage for him; and, repeating my
waking meditations, I tracked his existence over again,
with grim variations; at last, picturing his death and
funeral: of which, all I can remember is, being exceedingly
vexed at having the task of dictating an inscription for his
monument, and consulting the sexton about it; and, as he
had no surname, and we could not tell his age, we were
obliged to content ourselves with the single word,
‘Heathcliff
...
If you enter the
kirkyard, you’ll read, on his headstone, only that, and the
date of his death
...
I rose, and went
into the garden, as soon as I could see, to ascertain if there
were any footmarks under his window
...
‘He has stayed at home,’ I thought, ‘and he’ll be all right
to-day
...
They preferred
taking it out of doors, under the trees, and I set a little
table to accommodate them
...
Heathcliff below
...
When Joseph quitted the room he
took his seat in the place he generally chose, and I put a
basin of coffee before him
...
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’Come now,’ I exclaimed, pushing some bread against
his hand, ‘eat and drink that, while it is hot: it has been
waiting near an hour
...
I’d rather have
seen him gnash his teeth than smile so
...
Heathcliff! master!’ I cried, ‘don’t, for God’s sake,
stare as if you saw an unearthly vision
...
‘Turn round, and tell me, are we by ourselves?’
’Of course,’ was my answer; ‘of course we are
...
With a sweep of his hand he cleared a vacant space in
front among the breakfast things, and leant forward to gaze
more at his ease
...
And
whatever it was, it communicated, apparently, both
pleasure and pain in exquisite extremes: at least the
anguished, yet raptured, expression of his countenance
suggested that idea
...
I vainly
reminded him of his protracted abstinence from food: if he
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stirred to touch anything in compliance with my
entreaties, if he stretched his hand out to get a piece of
bread, his fingers clenched before they reached it, and
remained on the table, forgetful of their aim
...
Having uttered these words he left the
house, slowly sauntered down the garden path, and
disappeared through the gate
...
I
did not retire to rest till late, and when I did, I could not
sleep
...
I listened, and
tossed about, and, finally, dressed and descended
...
I distinguished Mr
...
He muttered
detached words also; the only one I could catch was the
name of Catherine, coupled with some wild term of
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endearment or suffering; and spoken as one would speak
to a person present; low and earnest, and wrung from the
depth of his soul
...
It drew him forth sooner than
I expected
...
’
’It is striking four,’ I answered
...
’
’No, I don’t wish to go up-stairs,’ he said
...
’
’I must blow the coals red first, before I can carry any,’
I replied, getting a chair and the bellows
He roamed to and fro, meantime, in a state
approaching distraction; his heavy sighs succeeding each
other so thick as to leave no space for common breathing
between
...
I
have not written my will yet; and how to leave my
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property I cannot determine
...
’
’I would not talk so, Mr
...
‘Let
your will be a while: you’ll be spared to repent of your
many injustices yet! I never expected that your nerves
would be disordered: they are, at present, marvellously so,
however; and almost entirely through your own fault
...
Do take some food, and some repose
...
Your cheeks are hollow, and your eyes blood- shot,
like a person starving with hunger and going blind with
loss of sleep
...
‘I assure you it is through no settled designs
...
But you might as well bid a man
struggling in the water rest within arms’ length of the
shore! I must reach it first, and then I’ll rest
...
Green: as to repenting of my injustices, I’ve
done no injustice, and I repent of nothing
...
My soul’s bliss kills my
body, but does not satisfy itself
...
‘Strange happiness! If you
would hear me without being angry, I might offer some
advice that would make you happier
...
‘Give it
...
Heathcliff,’ I said, ‘that from the
time you were thirteen years old you have lived a selfish,
unchristian life; and probably hardly had a Bible in your
hands during all that period
...
Could it be hurtful to send for some one some minister of any denomination, it does not matter
which - to explain it, and show you how very far you
have erred from its precepts; and how unfit you will be for
its heaven, unless a change takes place before you die?’
’I’m rather obliged than angry, Nelly,’ he said, ‘for you
remind me of the manner in which I desire to be buried
...
You
and Hareton may, if you please, accompany me: and
mind, particularly, to notice that the sexton obeys my
directions concerning the two coffins! No minister need
come; nor need anything be said over me
...
’
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’And supposing you persevered in your obstinate fast,
and died by that means, and they refused to bury you in
the precincts of the kirk?’ I said, shocked at his godless
indifference
...
But in
the afternoon, while Joseph and Hareton were at their
work, he came into the kitchen again, and, with a wild
look, bid me come and sit in the house: he wanted
somebody with him
...
’I believe you think me a fiend,’ he said, with his
dismal laugh: ‘something too horrible to live under a
decent roof
...
No! to you I’ve made myself worse than the devil
...
Oh, damn it! It’s unutterably too
much for flesh and blood to bear - even mine
...
At dusk he
went into his chamber
...
Hareton was anxious to enter; but I bid him
fetch Mr
...
When he came, and I requested admittance and tried to
open the door, I found it locked; and Heathcliff bid us be
damned
...
The following evening was very wet: indeed, it poured
down till day-dawn; and, as I took my morning walk
round the house, I observed the master’s window
swinging open, and the rain driving straight in
...
He must either be up or out
...
’
Having succeeded in obtaining entrance with another
key, I ran to unclose the panels, for the chamber was
vacant; quickly pushing them aside, I peeped in
...
Heathcliff was there - laid on his back
...
I could not think him dead: but his face and throat were
washed with rain; the bed-clothes dripped, and he was
perfectly still
...
They would not shut: they seemed
to sneer at my attempts; and his parted lips and sharp white
teeth sneered too! Taken with another fit of cowardice, I
cried out for Joseph
...
’Th’ divil’s harried off his soul,’ he cried, ‘and he may
hev’ his carcass into t’ bargin, for aught I care! Ech! what a
wicked ‘un he looks, girning at death!’ and the old sinner
grinned in mockery
...
I felt stunned by the awful event; and my memory
unavoidably recurred to former times with a sort of
oppressive sadness
...
He sat by the
corpse all night, weeping in bitter earnest
...
Mr
...
I concealed the fact of his having
swallowed nothing for four days, fearing it might lead to
trouble, and then, I am persuaded, he did not abstain on
purpose: it was the consequence of his strange illness, not
the cause
...
Earnshaw and I, the sexton,
and six men to carry the coffin, comprehended the whole
attendance
...
Hareton,
with a streaming face, dug green sods, and laid them over
the brown mould himself: at present it is as smooth and
verdant as its companion mounds - and I hope its tenant
sleeps as soundly
...
Idle tales, you’ll say,
and so say I
...
I was going to
the Grange one evening - a dark evening, threatening
thunder - and, just at the turn of the Heights, I
encountered a little boy with a sheep and two lambs
before him; he was crying terribly; and I supposed the
lambs were skittish, and would not be guided
...
’There’s Heathcliff and a woman yonder, under t’ nab,’
he blubbered, ‘un’ I darnut pass ‘em
...
He probably
raised the phantoms from thinking, as he traversed the
moors alone, on the nonsense he had heard his parents and
companions repeat
...
’They are going to the Grange, then?’ I said
...
Dean, ‘as soon as they are
married, and that will be on New Year’s Day
...
They will live in the kitchen,
and the rest will be shut up
...
’No, Mr
...
‘I
believe the dead are at peace: but it is not right to speak of
them with levity
...
’THEY are afraid of nothing,’ I grumbled, watching
their approach through the window
...
’
As they stepped on to the door-stones, and halted to
take a last look at the moon - or, more correctly, at each
other by her light - I felt irresistibly impelled to escape
them again; and, pressing a remembrance into the hand of
Mrs
...
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My walk home was lengthened by a diversion in the
direction of the kirk
...
I sought, and soon discovered, the three headstones on
the slope next the moor: on middle one grey, and half
buried in the heath; Edgar Linton’s only harmonized by
the turf and moss creeping up its foot; Heathcliff’s still
bare
...
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