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+CHAPTER I
+
+
+1801.--I have just returned from a visit to my landlord--the solitary
+neighbour that I shall be troubled with.  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.  A perfect
+misanthropist's heaven: and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair
+to divide the desolation between us.  A capital fellow!  He little
+imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes
+withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his
+fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in
+his waistcoat, as I announced my name.
+
+'Mr. Heathcliff?' I said.
+
+A nod was the answer.
+
+'Mr. Lockwood, your new tenant, sir.  I do myself the honour of calling
+as soon as possible after my arrival, to express the hope that I have not
+inconvenienced you by my perseverance in soliciting the occupation of
+Thrushcross Grange: I heard yesterday you had had some thoughts--'
+
+'Thrushcross Grange is my own, sir,' he interrupted, wincing.  '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.
+
+When he saw my horse's breast fairly pushing the barrier, he did put out
+his hand to unchain it, and then sullenly preceded me up the causeway,
+calling, as we entered the court,--'Joseph, take Mr. Lockwood's horse;
+and bring up some wine.'
+
+'Here we have the whole establishment of domestics, I suppose,' was the
+reflection suggested by this compound order.  'No wonder the grass grows
+up between the flags, and cattle are the only hedge-cutters.'
+
+Joseph was an elderly, nay, an old man: very old, perhaps, though hale
+and sinewy.  '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 of
+divine aid to digest his dinner, and his pious ejaculation had no
+reference to my unexpected advent.
+
+Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling.  'Wuthering'
+being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric
+tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather.  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.
+Happily, the architect had foresight to build it strong: the narrow
+windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large
+jutting stones.
+
+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.'
+I would have made a few comments, and requested a short history of the
+place from the surly owner; but his attitude at the door appeared to
+demand my speedy entrance, or complete departure, and I had no desire to
+aggravate his impatience previous to inspecting the penetralium.
+
+One stop brought us into the family sitting-room, without any
+introductory lobby or passage: they call it here 'the house'
+pre-eminently.  It includes kitchen and parlour, generally; but I believe
+at Wuthering Heights the kitchen is forced to retreat altogether into
+another quarter: at least I distinguished a chatter of tongues, and a
+clatter of culinary utensils, deep within; and I observed no signs of
+roasting, boiling, or baking, about the huge fireplace; nor any glitter
+of copper saucepans and tin cullenders on the walls.  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.  The latter had never been
+under-drawn: its entire anatomy lay bare to an inquiring eye, except
+where a frame of wood laden with oatcakes and clusters of legs of beef,
+mutton, and ham, concealed it.  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.  The floor was of
+smooth, white stone; the chairs, high-backed, primitive structures,
+painted green: one or two heavy black ones lurking in the shade.  In an
+arch under the dresser reposed a huge, liver-coloured bitch pointer,
+surrounded by a swarm of squealing puppies; and other dogs haunted other
+recesses.
+
+The apartment and furniture would have been nothing extraordinary as
+belonging to a homely, northern farmer, with a stubborn countenance, and
+stalwart limbs set out to advantage in knee-breeches and gaiters.  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.  But Mr.
+Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of living.  He
+is a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that
+is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly,
+perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an
+erect and handsome figure; and rather morose.  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.  He'll love and hate
+equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved
+or hated again.  No, I'm running on too fast: I bestow my own attributes
+over-liberally on him.  Mr. 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.  Let me hope my constitution is
+almost peculiar: my dear mother used to say I should never have a
+comfortable home; and only last summer I proved myself perfectly unworthy
+of one.
+
+While enjoying a month of fine weather at the sea-coast, 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.  I 'never told my love'
+vocally; still, if looks have language, the merest idiot might have
+guessed I was over head and ears: she understood me at last, and looked a
+return--the sweetest of all imaginable looks.  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.  By this curious turn of
+disposition I have gained the reputation of deliberate heartlessness; how
+undeserved, I alone can appreciate.
+
+I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which
+my landlord advanced, and filled up an 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.  My caress provoked a long, guttural gnarl.
+
+'You'd better let the dog alone,' growled Mr. Heathcliff in unison,
+checking fiercer demonstrations with a punch of his foot.  'She's not
+accustomed to be spoiled--not kept for a pet.'  Then, striding to a side
+door, he shouted again, 'Joseph!'
+
+Joseph mumbled indistinctly in the depths of the cellar, but gave no
+intimation of ascending; so his master dived down to him, leaving me
+_vis-a-vis_ the ruffianly bitch and a pair of grim shaggy sheep-dogs,
+who shared with her a jealous guardianship over all my movements. 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. I flung her back, and hastened to interpose the table between us.
+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.
+I felt my heels and coat-laps peculiar subjects of assault; and parrying
+off the larger combatants as effectually as I could with the poker, I
+was constrained to demand, aloud, assistance from some of the household
+in re-establishing peace.
+
+Mr. Heathcliff and his man climbed the cellar steps with vexatious
+phlegm: I don't think they moved one second faster than usual, though
+the hearth was an absolute tempest of worrying and yelping. 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 is the matter?' he asked, eyeing me in a manner that I
+could ill endure, after this inhospitable treatment.
+
+'What the devil, indeed!' I muttered.  'The herd of possessed swine could
+have had no worse spirits in them than those animals of yours, sir.  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 the displaced table.  'The dogs do
+right to be vigilant.  Take a glass of wine?'
+
+'No, thank you.'
+
+'Not bitten, are you?'
+
+'If I had been, I would have set my signet on the biter.'  Heathcliff's
+countenance relaxed into a grin.
+
+'Come, come,' he said, 'you are flurried, Mr. Lockwood.  Here, take a
+little wine.  Guests are so exceedingly rare in this house that I and my
+dogs, I am willing to own, hardly know how to receive them.  Your health,
+sir?'
+
+I bowed and returned the pledge; beginning to perceive that it would be
+foolish to sit sulking for the misbehaviour of a pack of curs; besides, I
+felt loth to yield the fellow further amusement at my expense; since his
+humour took that turn.  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.  I
+found him very intelligent on the topics we touched; and before I went
+home, I was encouraged so far as to volunteer another visit to-morrow.  He
+evidently wished no repetition of my intrusion.  I shall go,
+notwithstanding.  It is astonishing how sociable I feel myself compared
+with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Yesterday afternoon set in misty and cold.  I had half a mind to spend it
+by my study fire, instead of wading through heath and mud to Wuthering
+Heights.  On coming up from dinner, however, (N.B.--I dine between twelve
+and one o'clock; the housekeeper, a matronly lady, taken as a fixture
+along with the house, could not, or would not, comprehend my request that
+I might be served at five)--on mounting the stairs with this lazy
+intention, and stepping into the room, I saw a servant-girl on her knees
+surrounded by brushes and coal-scuttles, and raising an infernal dust as
+she extinguished the flames with heaps of cinders.  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.
+
+On that bleak hill-top the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air
+made me shiver through every limb.  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.
+
+'Wretched inmates!' I ejaculated, mentally, 'you deserve perpetual
+isolation from your species for your churlish inhospitality. At least, I
+would not keep my doors barred in the day-time. I don't care--I will get
+in!' So resolved, I grasped the latch and shook it vehemently.
+Vinegar-faced Joseph projected his head from a round window of the barn.
+
+'What are ye for?' he shouted.  'T' maister's down i' t' fowld.  Go round
+by th' end o' t' laith, if ye went to spake to him.'
+
+'Is there nobody inside to open the door?' I hallooed, responsively.
+
+'There's nobbut t' missis; and shoo'll not oppen 't an ye mak' yer
+flaysome dins till neeght.'
+
+'Why?  Cannot you tell her whom I am, eh, Joseph?'
+
+'Nor-ne me!  I'll hae no hend wi't,' muttered the head, vanishing.
+
+The snow began to drive thickly.  I seized the handle to essay another
+trial; when a young man without coat, and shouldering a pitchfork,
+appeared in the yard behind.  He hailed me to follow him, and, after
+marching through a wash-house, and a paved area containing a coal-shed,
+pump, and pigeon-cot, we at length arrived in the huge, warm, cheerful
+apartment where I was formerly received.  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.  I bowed and waited, thinking she would bid me take a seat.
+She looked at me, leaning back in her chair, and remained motionless and
+mute.
+
+'Rough weather!' I remarked.  'I'm afraid, Mrs. Heathcliff, the door must
+bear the consequence of your servants' leisure attendance: I had hard
+work to make them hear me.'
+
+She never opened her mouth.  I stared--she stared also: at any rate, she
+kept her eyes on me in a cool, regardless manner, exceedingly
+embarrassing and disagreeable.
+
+'Sit down,' said the young man, gruffly.  'He'll be in soon.'
+
+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.
+
+'A beautiful animal!' I commenced again.  '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.
+
+'Ah, your favourites are among these?' I continued, turning to an obscure
+cushion full of something like cats.
+
+'A strange choice of favourites!' she observed scornfully.
+
+Unluckily, it was a heap of dead rabbits.  I hemmed once more, and drew
+closer to the hearth, repeating my comment on the wildness of the
+evening.
+
+'You should not have come out,' she said, rising and reaching from the
+chimney-piece two of the painted canisters.
+
+Her position before was sheltered from the light; now, I had a distinct
+view of her whole figure and countenance.  She was slender, and
+apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable form, and the most
+exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding;
+small features, very fair; flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging
+loose on her delicate neck; and eyes, had they been agreeable in
+expression, that would have been irresistible: fortunately for my
+susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn
+and a kind of desperation, singularly unnatural to be detected there.  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 don't want your help,' she snapped; 'I can get them for myself.'
+
+'I beg your pardon!' I hastened to reply.
+
+'Were you asked to tea?' she demanded, tying an apron over her neat black
+frock, and standing with a spoonful of the leaf poised over the pot.
+
+'I shall be glad to have a cup,' I answered.
+
+'Were you asked?' she repeated.
+
+'No,' I said, half smiling.  'You are the proper person to ask me.'
+
+She flung the tea back, spoon and all, and resumed her chair in a pet;
+her forehead corrugated, and her red under-lip pushed out, like a child's
+ready to cry.
+
+Meanwhile, the young man had slung on to his person a decidedly shabby
+upper garment, and, erecting himself before the blaze, looked down on me
+from the corner of his eyes, for all the world as if there were some
+mortal feud unavenged between us.  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. and Mrs. 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 haughty, and he showed none of a
+domestic's assiduity in attending on the lady of the house.  In the
+absence of clear proofs of his condition, I deemed it best to abstain
+from noticing his curious conduct; and, five minutes afterwards, the
+entrance of Heathcliff relieved me, in some measure, from my
+uncomfortable state.
+
+'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.'
+
+'Half an hour?' he said, shaking the white flakes from his clothes; 'I
+wonder you should select the thick of a snow-storm to ramble about in.  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.'
+
+'Perhaps I can get a guide among your lads, and he might stay at the
+Grange till morning--could you spare me one?'
+
+'No, I could not.'
+
+'Oh, indeed!  Well, then, I must trust to my own sagacity.'
+
+'Umph!'
+
+'Are you going to mak' the tea?' demanded he of the shabby coat, shifting
+his ferocious gaze from me to the young lady.
+
+'Is _he_ to have any?' she asked, appealing to Heathcliff.
+
+'Get it ready, will you?' was the answer, uttered so savagely that I
+started.  The tone in which the words were said revealed a genuine bad
+nature.  I no longer felt inclined to call Heathcliff a capital fellow.
+When the preparations were finished, he invited me with--'Now, sir, bring
+forward your chair.'  And we all, including the rustic youth, drew round
+the table: an austere silence prevailing while we discussed our meal.
+
+I thought, if I had caused the cloud, it was my duty to make an effort to
+dispel it.  They could not every day sit so grim and taciturn; and it was
+impossible, however ill-tempered they might be, that the universal scowl
+they wore was their every-day countenance.
+
+'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. Heathcliff; yet,
+I'll venture to say, that, surrounded by your family, and with your
+amiable lady as the presiding genius over your home and heart--'
+
+'My amiable lady!' he interrupted, with an almost diabolical sneer on his
+face.  'Where is she--my amiable lady?'
+
+'Mrs. Heathcliff, your wife, I mean.'
+
+'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.  Is that it?'
+
+Perceiving myself in a blunder, I attempted to correct it.  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.  One was about forty: a
+period of mental vigour at which men seldom cherish the delusion of being
+married for love by girls: that dream is reserved for the solace of our
+declining years.  The other did not look seventeen.
+
+Then it flashed upon me--'The clown at my elbow, who is drinking his tea
+out of a basin and eating his bread with unwashed hands, may be her
+husband: Heathcliff junior, of course.  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 must beware how
+I cause her to regret her choice.'  The last reflection may seem
+conceited; it was not.  My neighbour struck me as bordering on repulsive;
+I knew, through experience, that I was tolerably attractive.
+
+'Mrs. Heathcliff is my daughter-in-law,' said Heathcliff, corroborating
+my surmise.  He turned, as he spoke, a peculiar look in her direction: a
+look of hatred; unless he has a most perverse set of facial muscles that
+will not, like those of other people, interpret the language of his soul.
+
+'Ah, certainly--I see now: you are the favoured possessor of the
+beneficent fairy,' I remarked, turning to my neighbour.
+
+This was worse than before: the youth grew crimson, and clenched his
+fist, with every appearance of a meditated assault.  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.
+
+'Unhappy in your conjectures, sir,' observed my host; 'we neither of us
+have the privilege of owning your good fairy; her mate is dead.  I said
+she was my daughter-in-law: therefore, she must have married my son.'
+
+'And this young man is--'
+
+'Not my son, assuredly.'
+
+Heathcliff smiled again, as if it were rather too bold a jest to
+attribute the paternity of that bear to him.
+
+'My name is Hareton Earnshaw,' growled the other; 'and I'd counsel you to
+respect it!'
+
+'I've shown no disrespect,' was my reply, laughing internally at the
+dignity with which he announced himself.
+
+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.
+I began to feel unmistakably out of place in that pleasant family circle.
+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.
+
+The business of eating being concluded, and no one uttering a word of
+sociable conversation, I approached a window to examine the weather.  A
+sorrowful sight I saw: dark night coming down prematurely, and sky and
+hills mingled in one bitter whirl of wind and suffocating snow.
+
+'I don't think it possible for me to get home now without a guide,' I
+could not help exclaiming.  'The roads will be buried already; and, if
+they were bare, I could scarcely distinguish a foot in advance.'
+
+'Hareton, drive those dozen sheep into the barn porch.  They'll be
+covered if left in the fold all night: and put a plank before them,' said
+Heathcliff.
+
+'How must I do?' I continued, with rising irritation.
+
+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. Heathcliff leaning
+over the fire, diverting herself with burning a bundle of matches which
+had fallen from the chimney-piece as she restored the tea-canister to its
+place.  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.  Mrs. Heathcliff, however,
+checked me by her answer.
+
+'You scandalous old hypocrite!' she replied.  'Are you not afraid of
+being carried away bodily, whenever you mention the devil's name?  I warn
+you to refrain from 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.  The red cow
+didn't die by chance; and your rheumatism can hardly be reckoned among
+providential visitations!'
+
+'Oh, wicked, wicked!' gasped the elder; 'may the Lord deliver us from
+evil!'
+
+'No, reprobate! you are a castaway--be off, or I'll hurt you seriously!
+I'll have you all modelled in wax and clay! and the first who passes the
+limits I fix shall--I'll not say what he shall be done to--but, you'll
+see!  Go, I'm looking at you!'
+
+The little witch put a mock malignity into her beautiful eyes, and
+Joseph, trembling with sincere horror, hurried out, praying, and
+ejaculating 'wicked' as he went.  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.
+
+'Mrs. Heathcliff,' I said earnestly, 'you must excuse me for troubling
+you.  I presume, because, with that face, I'm sure you cannot help being
+good-hearted.  Do point out some landmarks by which I may know my way
+home: I 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.  'It is brief advice,
+but as sound as I can give.'
+
+'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.  They wouldn't let me go to the end of the
+garden wall.'
+
+'_You_!  I should be sorry to ask you to cross the threshold, for my
+convenience, on such a night,' I cried.  'I want you to tell me my way,
+not to _show_ it: or else to persuade Mr. Heathcliff to give me a guide.'
+
+'Who?  There is himself, Earnshaw, Zillah, Joseph and I.  Which would you
+have?'
+
+'Are there no boys at the farm?'
+
+'No; those are all.'
+
+'Then, it follows that I am compelled to stay.'
+
+'That you may settle with your host.  I have nothing to do with it.'
+
+'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.  'As to
+staying here, I don't keep accommodations for visitors: you must share a
+bed with Hareton or Joseph, if you do.'
+
+'I can sleep on a chair in this room,' I replied.
+
+'No, no!  A stranger is a stranger, be he rich or poor: it will not suit
+me to permit any one the range of the place while I am off guard!' said
+the unmannerly wretch.
+
+With this insult my patience was at an end.  I uttered an expression of
+disgust, and pushed past him into the yard, running against Earnshaw in
+my haste.  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.  At first the young man appeared about to befriend
+me.
+
+'I'll go with him as far as the park,' he said.
+
+'You'll go with him to hell!' exclaimed his master, or whatever relation
+he bore.  '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. Heathcliff, more kindly than I
+expected.
+
+'Not at your command!' retorted Hareton.  'If you set store on him, you'd
+better be quiet.'
+
+'Then I hope his ghost will haunt you; and I hope Mr. Heathcliff will
+never get another tenant till the Grange is a ruin,' she answered,
+sharply.
+
+'Hearken, hearken, shoo's cursing on 'em!' muttered Joseph, towards whom
+I had been steering.
+
+He sat within earshot, milking the cows by the light of a lantern, which
+I seized unceremoniously, and, calling out that I would send it back on
+the morrow, rushed to the nearest postern.
+
+'Maister, maister, he's staling t' lanthern!' shouted the ancient,
+pursuing my retreat.  'Hey, Gnasher!  Hey, dog!  Hey Wolf, holld him,
+holld him!'
+
+On opening the little door, two hairy monsters flew at my throat, bearing
+me down, and extinguishing the light; while a mingled guffaw from
+Heathcliff and Hareton put the copestone on my rage and humiliation.
+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 retaliation that,
+in their indefinite depth of virulency, smacked of King Lear.
+
+The vehemence of my agitation brought on a copious bleeding at the nose,
+and still Heathcliff laughed, and still I scolded.  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.  This was Zillah, the stout housewife; who at length issued
+forth to inquire into the nature of the uproar.  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.
+
+'Well, Mr. 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.  Come in, and I'll cure that: there now,
+hold ye still.'
+
+With these words she suddenly splashed a pint of icy water down my neck,
+and pulled me into the kitchen.  Mr. Heathcliff followed, his accidental
+merriment expiring quickly in his habitual moroseness.
+
+I was sick exceedingly, and dizzy, and faint; and thus compelled perforce
+to accept lodgings under his roof.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+While leading the way upstairs, she recommended that I should hide the
+candle, and not make a noise; for her master had an odd notion about the
+chamber she would put me in, and never let anybody lodge there willingly.
+I asked the reason.  She did not know, she answered: she had only lived
+there a year or two; and they had so many queer goings on, she could not
+begin to be curious.
+
+Too stupefied to be curious myself, I fastened my door and glanced round
+for the bed.  The whole furniture consisted of a chair, a clothes-press,
+and a large oak case, with squares cut out near the top resembling coach
+windows.  Having approached this structure, I looked inside, and
+perceived it to be a singular sort of old-fashioned couch, very
+conveniently designed to obviate the necessity for every member of the
+family having a room to himself.  In fact, it formed a little closet, and
+the ledge of a window, which it enclosed, served as a table.  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.
+
+The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in
+one corner; and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint.  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_.
+
+In vapid listlessness I leant my head against the window, and continued
+spelling over Catherine Earnshaw--Heathcliff--Linton, till my eyes
+closed; but they had not rested five minutes when a glare of white
+letters started from the dark, as vivid as spectres--the air swarmed with
+Catherines; and rousing myself to dispel the obtrusive name, I discovered
+my candle-wick reclining on one of the antique volumes, and perfuming the
+place with an odour of roasted calf-skin.  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.  It was a Testament, in lean
+type, and smelling dreadfully musty: a fly-leaf bore the
+inscription--'Catherine Earnshaw, her book,' and a date some quarter of a
+century back.  I shut it, and took up another and another, till I had
+examined all.  Catherine's library was select, and its state of
+dilapidation proved it to have been well used, though not altogether for
+a legitimate purpose: scarcely one chapter had escaped, a pen-and-ink
+commentary--at least the appearance of one--covering every morsel of
+blank that the printer had left.  Some were detached sentences; other
+parts took the form of a regular diary, scrawled in an unformed, childish
+hand.  At the top of an extra page (quite a treasure, probably, when
+first lighted on) I was greatly amused to behold an excellent caricature
+of my friend Joseph,--rudely, yet powerfully sketched.  An immediate
+interest kindled within me for the unknown Catherine, and I began
+forthwith to decipher her faded hieroglyphics.
+
+'An awful Sunday,' commenced the paragraph beneath.  'I wish my father
+were back again.  Hindley is a detestable substitute--his conduct to
+Heathcliff is atrocious--H. and I are going to rebel--we took our
+initiatory step this evening.
+
+'All day had been flooding with rain; we could not go to church, so
+Joseph must needs get up a congregation in the garret; and, while Hindley
+and his wife basked downstairs before a comfortable fire--doing anything
+but reading their Bibles, I'll answer for it--Heathcliff, myself, and the
+unhappy ploughboy were commanded to take our prayer-books, and mount: we
+were ranged in a row, on a sack of corn, groaning and shivering, and
+hoping that Joseph would shiver too, so that he might give us a short
+homily for his own sake.  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.
+
+'"You forget you have a master here," says the tyrant.  "I'll demolish
+the first who puts me out of temper!  I insist on perfect sobriety and
+silence.  Oh, boy! was that you?  Frances darling, pull his hair as you
+go by: I heard him snap his fingers."  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.  We made ourselves as snug as our
+means allowed in the arch of the dresser.  I had just fastened our
+pinafores together, and hung them up for a curtain, when in comes Joseph,
+on an errand from the stables.  He tears down my handiwork, boxes my
+ears, and croaks:
+
+'"T' maister nobbut just buried, and Sabbath not o'ered, und t' sound o'
+t' gospel still i' yer lugs, and ye darr be laiking!  Shame on ye! sit ye
+down, ill childer! there's good books eneugh if ye'll read 'em: sit ye
+down, and think o' yer sowls!"
+
+'Saying this, he compelled us so to square our positions that we might
+receive from the far-off fire a dull ray to show us the text of the
+lumber he thrust upon us.  I could not bear the employment.  I took my
+dingy volume by the scroop, and hurled it into the dog-kennel, vowing I
+hated a good book.  Heathcliff kicked his to the same place.  Then there
+was a hubbub!
+
+'"Maister Hindley!" shouted our chaplain.  "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.  Ech! th' owd man wad ha'
+laced 'em properly--but he's goan!"
+
+'Hindley hurried up from his paradise on the hearth, and seizing one of
+us by the collar, and the other by the arm, hurled both into the
+back-kitchen; where, Joseph asseverated, "owd Nick" would fetch us as
+sure as we were living: and, so comforted, we each sought a separate
+nook to await his advent. 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 that we should appropriate the dairywoman's
+cloak, and have a scamper on the moors, under its shelter. A pleasant
+suggestion--and then, if the surly old man come in, he may believe his
+prophecy verified--we cannot be damper, or colder, in the rain than we
+are here.'
+
+* * * * * *
+
+I suppose Catherine fulfilled her project, for the next sentence took up
+another subject: she waxed lachrymose.
+
+'How little did I dream that Hindley would ever make me cry so!' she
+wrote.  'My head aches, till I cannot keep it on the pillow; and still I
+can't give over.  Poor Heathcliff!  Hindley calls him a vagabond, and
+won't let him sit with us, nor eat with us any more; and, he says, he and
+I must not play together, and threatens to turn him out of the house if
+we break his orders.  He has been blaming our father (how dared he?) for
+treating H. too liberally; and swears he will reduce him to his right
+place--'
+
+* * * * * *
+
+I began to nod drowsily over the dim page: my eye wandered from
+manuscript to print.  I saw a red ornamented title--'Seventy Times Seven,
+and the First of the Seventy-First.  A Pious Discourse delivered by the
+Reverend Jabez Branderham, in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough.'  And while
+I was, half-consciously, worrying my brain to guess what Jabez Branderham
+would make of his subject, I sank back in bed, and fell asleep.  Alas,
+for the effects of bad tea and bad temper!  What else could it be that
+made me pass such a terrible night?  I don't remember another that I can
+at all compare with it since I was capable of suffering.
+
+I began to dream, almost before I ceased to be sensible of my locality.  I
+thought it was morning; and I had set out on my way home, with Joseph for
+a guide.  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.  For a moment I considered it absurd that I should
+need such a weapon to gain admittance into my own residence.  Then a new
+idea flashed across me.  I was not going there: we were journeying to
+hear the famous Jabez Branderham preach, from the text--'Seventy Times
+Seven;' and either Joseph, the preacher, or I had committed the 'First of
+the Seventy-First,' and were to be publicly exposed and excommunicated.
+
+We came to the chapel.  I have passed it really in my walks, twice or
+thrice; it lies in a hollow, between two hills: an elevated hollow, near
+a swamp, whose peaty moisture is said to answer all the purposes of
+embalming on the few corpses deposited there.  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.  However, in my
+dream, Jabez had a full and attentive congregation; and he preached--good
+God! what a sermon; divided into _four hundred and ninety_ parts, each
+fully equal to an ordinary address from the pulpit, and each discussing a
+separate sin!  Where he searched for them, I cannot tell.  He had his
+private manner of interpreting the phrase, and it seemed necessary the
+brother should sin different sins on every occasion.  They were of the
+most curious character: odd transgressions that I never imagined
+previously.
+
+Oh, how weary I grow.  How I writhed, and yawned, and nodded, and
+revived!  How I pinched and pricked myself, and rubbed my eyes, and stood
+up, and sat down again, and nudged Joseph to inform me if he would _ever_
+have done.  I was condemned to hear all out: finally, he reached the
+'_First of the Seventy-First_.'  At that crisis, a sudden inspiration
+descended on me; I was moved to rise and denounce Jabez Branderham as the
+sinner of the sin that no Christian need pardon.
+
+'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.  Seventy times seven times have I plucked up my hat and
+been about to depart--Seventy times seven times have you preposterously
+forced me to resume my seat.  The four hundred and ninety-first is too
+much.  Fellow-martyrs, have at him!  Drag him down, and crush him to
+atoms, that the place which knows him may know him no more!'
+
+'_Thou art the Man_!' cried Jabez, after a solemn pause, leaning over his
+cushion.  '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.  Brethren, execute upon him the judgment written.
+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
+ferocious assailant, for his.  In the confluence of the multitude,
+several clubs crossed; blows, aimed at me, fell on other sconces.
+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.  And what was it that had suggested the
+tremendous tumult?  What had played Jabez's part in the row?  Merely the
+branch of a fir-tree that touched my lattice as the blast wailed by, and
+rattled its dry cones against the panes!  I listened doubtingly an
+instant; detected the disturber, then turned and dozed, and dreamt again:
+if possible, still more disagreeably than before.
+
+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.
+The hook was soldered into the staple: a circumstance observed by me when
+awake, but forgotten.  'I must stop it, nevertheless!' I muttered,
+knocking my knuckles 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.  'Catherine Linton,'
+it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of _Linton_?  I had read
+_Earnshaw_ twenty times for Linton)--'I'm come home: I'd lost my way on
+the moor!'  As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking
+through the window.  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
+grip, almost maddening me with fear.  'How can I!' I said at length.
+'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
+seemed to keep them closed above a quarter of an hour; yet, the instant I
+listened again, there was the doleful cry moaning on!  'Begone!' I
+shouted.  'I'll never let you in, not if you beg for twenty years.'  'It
+is twenty years,' mourned the voice: '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.  I tried to jump up; but could not
+stir a limb; and so yelled aloud, in a frenzy of fright.  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.  I
+sat shuddering yet, and wiping the perspiration from my forehead: the
+intruder appeared to hesitate, and muttered to himself.  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.  With this intention, I turned and opened the panels.  I shall not
+soon forget the effect my action produced.
+
+Heathcliff stood near the entrance, in his shirt and trousers; with a
+candle dripping over his fingers, and his face as white as the wall
+behind him.  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.
+
+'It is only your guest, sir,' I called out, desirous to spare him the
+humiliation of exposing his cowardice further.  'I had the misfortune to
+scream in my sleep, owing to a frightful nightmare.  I'm sorry I
+disturbed you.'
+
+'Oh, God confound you, Mr. Lockwood!  I wish you were at the--' commenced
+my host, setting the candle on a chair, because he found it impossible to
+hold it steady.  '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.  'Who was it?  I've a good mind to turn them out
+of the house this moment?'
+
+'It was your servant Zillah,' I replied, flinging myself on to the floor,
+and rapidly resuming my garments.  'I should not care if you did, Mr.
+Heathcliff; she richly deserves it.  I suppose that she wanted to get
+another proof that the place was haunted, at my expense.  Well, it
+is--swarming with ghosts and goblins!  You have reason in shutting it up,
+I assure you.  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!'
+
+'If the little fiend had got in at the window, she probably would have
+strangled me!' I returned.  'I'm not going to endure the persecutions of
+your hospitable ancestors again.  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.  I blushed at my
+inconsideration: but, without showing further consciousness of the
+offence, I hastened to add--'The truth is, sir, I passed the first part
+of the night in--'  Here I stopped afresh--I was about to say 'perusing
+those old volumes,' then it would have revealed my knowledge of their
+written, as well as their printed, contents; so, correcting myself, I
+went on--'in spelling over the name scratched on that window-ledge.  A
+monotonous occupation, calculated to set me asleep, like counting, or--'
+
+'What _can_ you mean by talking in this way to _me_!' thundered
+Heathcliff with savage vehemence.  'How--how _dare_ you, under my
+roof?--God! he's mad to speak so!'  And he struck his forehead with rage.
+
+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.
+Heathcliff gradually fell back into the shelter of the bed, as I spoke;
+finally sitting down almost concealed behind it.  I guessed, however, by
+his irregular and intercepted breathing, that he struggled to vanquish an
+excess of violent emotion.  Not liking to show him that I had heard the
+conflict, I continued my toilette rather noisily, looked at my watch, and
+soliloquised on the length of the night: 'Not three o'clock yet!  I could
+have taken oath it had been six.  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.  'Mr. Lockwood,' he added, 'you may go into my room:
+you'll only be in the way, coming down-stairs so early: and your childish
+outcry has sent sleep to the devil for me.'
+
+'And for me, too,' I replied.  'I'll walk in the yard till daylight, and
+then I'll be off; and you need not dread a repetition of my intrusion.
+I'm now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or
+town.  A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.'
+
+'Delightful company!' muttered Heathcliff.  'Take the candle, and go
+where you please.  I shall join you directly.  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.  But,
+away with you!  I'll come in two minutes!'
+
+I obeyed, so far as to quit the chamber; when, ignorant where the narrow
+lobbies led, I stood still, and was witness, involuntarily, to a piece of
+superstition on the part of my landlord which belied, oddly, his apparent
+sense.  He got on to the bed, and wrenched open the lattice, bursting, as
+he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears.  'Come in! come
+in!' he sobbed.  'Cathy, do come.  Oh, do--_once_ more!  Oh! my heart's
+darling! hear me _this_ time, Catherine, at last!'  The spectre showed a
+spectre's ordinary caprice: it gave no sign of being; but the snow and
+wind whirled wildly through, even reaching my station, and blowing out
+the light.
+
+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.  I descended cautiously to the lower regions, and landed
+in the back-kitchen, where a gleam of fire, raked compactly together,
+enabled me to rekindle my candle.  Nothing was stirring except a
+brindled, grey cat, which crept from the ashes, and saluted me with a
+querulous mew.
+
+Two benches, shaped in sections of a circle, nearly enclosed the hearth;
+on one of these I stretched myself, and Grimalkin mounted the other.  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.  He cast a sinister look at
+the little flame which I had enticed to play between the ribs, swept the
+cat from its elevation, and bestowing himself in the vacancy, commenced
+the operation of stuffing a three-inch pipe with tobacco.  My presence in
+his sanctum was evidently esteemed a piece of impudence too shameful for
+remark: he silently applied the tube to his lips, folded his arms, and
+puffed away.  I let him enjoy the luxury unannoyed; and after sucking out
+his last wreath, and heaving a profound sigh, he got up, and departed as
+solemnly as he came.
+
+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.  He glanced over
+the back of the bench, dilating his nostrils, and thought as little of
+exchanging civilities with me as with my companion the cat.  I guessed,
+by his preparations, that egress was allowed, and, leaving my hard couch,
+made a movement to follow him.  He noticed this, and thrust at an inner
+door with the end of his spade, intimating by an inarticulate sound that
+there was the place where I must go, if I changed my locality.
+
+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.
+Heathcliff, kneeling on the hearth, reading a book by the aid of the
+blaze.  She held her hand interposed between the furnace-heat and 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.  I was
+surprised to see Heathcliff there also.  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.
+
+'And you, you worthless--' he broke out as I entered, turning to his
+daughter-in-law, and employing an epithet as harmless as duck, or sheep,
+but generally represented by a dash--.  '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.  You shall pay
+me for the plague of having you eternally in my sight--do you hear,
+damnable jade?'
+
+'I'll put my trash away, because you can make me if I refuse,' answered
+the young lady, closing her book, and throwing it on a chair.  '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.  Having no desire to be entertained
+by a cat-and-dog combat, I stepped forward briskly, as if eager to
+partake the warmth of the hearth, and innocent of any knowledge of the
+interrupted dispute.  Each had enough decorum to suspend further
+hostilities: Heathcliff placed his fists, out of temptation, in his
+pockets; Mrs. Heathcliff curled her lip, and walked to a seat far off,
+where she kept her word by playing the part of a statue during the
+remainder of my stay.  That was not long.  I declined joining their
+breakfast, and, at the first gleam of dawn, took an opportunity of
+escaping into the free air, now clear, and still, and cold as impalpable
+ice.
+
+My landlord halloed for me to stop ere I reached the bottom of the
+garden, and offered to accompany me across the moor.  It was well he did,
+for the whole hill-back was one billowy, white ocean; the swells and
+falls not indicating corresponding rises and depressions in the ground:
+many pits, at least, were filled to a level; and entire ranges of mounds,
+the refuse of the quarries, blotted from the chart which my yesterday's
+walk left pictured in my mind.  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, 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.
+
+We exchanged little conversation, and he halted at the entrance of
+Thrushcross Park, saying, I could make no error there.  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.  The distance
+from the gate to the grange is two miles; I believe I managed to make it
+four, what with losing myself among the trees, and sinking up to the neck
+in snow: a predicament which only those who have experienced it can
+appreciate.  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.
+
+My human fixture and her satellites rushed to welcome me; exclaiming,
+tumultuously, they had completely given me up: everybody conjectured that
+I perished last night; and they were wondering how they must set about
+the search for my remains.  I bid them be quiet, now that they saw me
+returned, and, benumbed to my very heart, I 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+What vain weathercocks we are!  I, who had determined to hold myself
+independent of all social intercourse, and thanked my stars that, at
+length, I had lighted on a spot where it was next to impracticable--I,
+weak wretch, after maintaining till dusk a struggle with low spirits and
+solitude, was finally compelled to strike my colours; and under pretence
+of gaining information concerning the necessities of my establishment, I
+desired Mrs. 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.
+
+'You have lived here a considerable time,' I commenced; 'did you not say
+sixteen years?'
+
+'Eighteen, sir: I came when the mistress was married, to wait on her;
+after she died, the master retained me for his housekeeper.'
+
+'Indeed.'
+
+There ensued a pause.  She was not a gossip, I feared; unless about her
+own affairs, and those could hardly interest me.  However, having studied
+for an interval, with a fist on either knee, and a cloud of meditation
+over her ruddy countenance, she ejaculated--'Ah, times are greatly
+changed since then!'
+
+'Yes,' I remarked, 'you've seen a good many alterations, I suppose?'
+
+'I have: and troubles too,' she said.
+
+'Oh, I'll turn the talk on my landlord's family!' I thought to myself.  'A
+good subject to start!  And that pretty girl-widow, I should like to know
+her history: whether she be a native of the country, or, as is more
+probable, an exotic that the surly _indigenae_ will not recognise for
+kin.'  With this intention I asked Mrs. Dean why Heathcliff let
+Thrushcross Grange, and preferred living in a situation and residence so
+much inferior.  'Is he not rich enough to keep the estate in good order?'
+I inquired.
+
+'Rich, sir!' she returned.  'He has nobody knows what money, and every
+year it increases.  Yes, yes, he's rich enough to live in a finer house
+than this: but he's very near--close-handed; and, if he had meant to flit
+to Thrushcross Grange, as soon as he heard of a good tenant he could not
+have borne to miss the chance of getting a few hundreds more.  It is
+strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in the world!'
+
+'He had a son, it seems?'
+
+'Yes, he had one--he is dead.'
+
+'And that young lady, Mrs. Heathcliff, is his widow?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Where did she come from originally?'
+
+'Why, sir, she is my late master's daughter: Catherine Linton was her
+maiden name.  I nursed her, poor thing!  I did wish Mr. Heathcliff would
+remove here, and then we might have been together again.'
+
+'What!  Catherine Linton?' I exclaimed, astonished.  But a minute's
+reflection convinced me it was not my ghostly Catherine.  'Then,' I
+continued, 'my predecessor's name was Linton?'
+
+'It was.'
+
+'And who is that Earnshaw: Hareton Earnshaw, who lives with Mr.
+Heathcliff?  Are they relations?'
+
+'No; he is the late Mrs. Linton's nephew.'
+
+'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. Linton's sister.'
+
+'I see the house at Wuthering Heights has "Earnshaw" carved over the
+front door.  Are they an old family?'
+
+'Very old, sir; and Hareton is the last of them, as our Miss Cathy is of
+us--I mean, of the Lintons.  Have you been to Wuthering Heights?  I beg
+pardon for asking; but I should like to hear how she is!'
+
+'Mrs. Heathcliff? she looked very well, and very handsome; yet, I think,
+not very happy.'
+
+'Oh dear, I don't wonder!  And how did you like the master?'
+
+'A rough fellow, rather, Mrs. Dean.  Is not that his character?
+
+'Rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone!  The less you meddle with
+him the better.'
+
+'He must have had some ups and downs in life to make him such a churl.  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.  And Hareton has
+been cast out like an unfledged dunnock!  The unfortunate lad is the only
+one in all this parish that does not guess how he has been cheated.'
+
+'Well, Mrs. Dean, it will be a charitable deed to tell me something of my
+neighbours: I feel I shall not rest if I go to bed; so be good enough to
+sit and chat an hour.'
+
+'Oh, certainly, sir!  I'll just fetch a little sewing, and then I'll sit
+as long as you please.  But you've caught cold: I saw you shivering, and
+you must have some gruel to drive it out.'
+
+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.  This caused me to
+feel, not uncomfortable, but rather fearful (as I am still) of serious
+effects from the incidents of to-day and yesterday.  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.
+
+Before I came to live here, she commenced--waiting no farther invitation
+to her story--I was almost always at Wuthering Heights; because my mother
+had nursed Mr. 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.  One fine summer morning--it was the beginning of harvest, I
+remember--Mr. 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 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 did not forget
+me; for he had a kind heart, though he was rather severe sometimes.  He
+promised to bring me a pocketful of apples and pears, and then he kissed
+his children, said good-bye, and set off.
+
+It seemed a long while to us all--the three days of his absence--and
+often did little Cathy ask when he would be home.  Mrs. Earnshaw expected
+him by supper-time on the third evening, and she put the meal off hour
+after hour; there were no signs of his coming, however, and at last the
+children got tired of running down to the gate to look.  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.  He threw himself into a chair,
+laughing and groaning, and bid them all stand off, for he was nearly
+killed--he would not have such another walk for the three kingdoms.
+
+'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.  'See here, wife!  I
+was never so beaten with anything in my life: but you must e'en take it
+as a gift of God; though it's as dark almost as if it came from the
+devil.'
+
+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.  I was frightened, and Mrs. 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.
+Not a soul knew to whom it belonged, he said; and his money and time
+being both limited, he thought it better to take it home with him at
+once, than run into vain expenses there: because he was determined he
+would not leave it as he found it.  Well, the conclusion was, that my
+mistress grumbled herself calm; and Mr. Earnshaw told me to wash it, and
+give it clean things, and let it sleep with the children.
+
+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. The former was a boy of fourteen,
+but when he drew out what had been a fiddle, crushed to morsels in the
+great-coat, he blubbered aloud; and Cathy, when she learned the master
+had lost her whip in attending on the stranger, showed her humour by
+grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing; earning for her pains
+a sound blow from her father, to teach her cleaner manners. 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 be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his
+voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on
+quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was
+obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity
+was sent out of the house.
+
+This was Heathcliff's first introduction to the family.  On coming back a
+few days afterwards (for I did not consider my banishment perpetual), I
+found they had christened him 'Heathcliff': it was the name of a son who
+died in childhood, and it has served him ever since, both for Christian
+and surname.  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.
+
+He seemed a sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment:
+he would stand Hindley's blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my
+pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes, as if he
+had hurt himself by accident, and nobody was to blame.  This endurance
+made old Earnshaw furious, when he discovered his son persecuting the
+poor fatherless child, as he called him.  He took to Heathcliff
+strangely, believing all he said (for that matter, he said precious
+little, and generally the truth), and petting him up far above Cathy, who
+was too mischievous and wayward for a favourite.
+
+So, from the very beginning, he bred bad feeling in the house; and at
+Mrs. Earnshaw's death, which happened in less than two years after, the
+young master had learned to regard his father as an oppressor rather than
+a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his parent's affections and his
+privileges; and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries.  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.  Heathcliff was dangerously sick; and while he lay at the worst
+he would have me constantly by his pillow: I suppose he felt I did a good
+deal for him, and he hadn't wit to guess that I was compelled to do it.
+However, I will say this, he was the quietest child that ever nurse
+watched over.  The difference between him and the others forced me to be
+less partial.  Cathy and her brother harassed me terribly: he was as
+uncomplaining as a lamb; though hardness, not gentleness, made him give
+little trouble.
+
+He got through, and the doctor affirmed it was in a great measure owing
+to me, and praised me for my care.  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.  He
+was not insolent to his benefactor, he was simply insensible; though
+knowing perfectly the hold he had on his heart, and conscious he had only
+to speak and all the house would be obliged to bend to his wishes.  As an
+instance, I remember Mr. Earnshaw once bought a couple of colts at the
+parish fair, and gave the lads each one.  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.'  Hindley put out
+his tongue, and cuffed him over the ears.  '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.'  'Off, dog!' cried Hindley, threatening him with an iron
+weight used for weighing potatoes and hay.  '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.'  Hindley threw it, hitting him on the breast, and down he
+fell, but staggered up immediately, breathless and white; and, had not I
+prevented it, he would have gone just so to the master, and got full
+revenge by letting his condition plead for him, intimating who had caused
+it.  'Take my colt, Gipsy, then!' said young Earnshaw.  'And I pray that
+he may break your neck: take him, and be damned, you beggarly interloper!
+and wheedle my father out of all he has: only afterwards show him what
+you are, imp of Satan.--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 was surprised to witness how
+coolly the child gathered himself up, and went on with his intention;
+exchanging saddles and all, and then sitting down on a bundle of hay to
+overcome the qualm which the violent blow occasioned, before he entered
+the house.  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.  He complained so seldom, indeed, of such stirs as these, that I
+really thought him not vindictive: I was deceived completely, as you will
+hear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+In the course of time Mr. Earnshaw began to fail. He had been active and
+healthy, yet his strength left him suddenly; and when he was confined to
+the chimney-corner he grew grievously irritable. A nothing vexed him;
+and suspected slights of his authority nearly threw him into fits. 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. It was a disadvantage to the lad; for the kinder among
+us did not wish to fret the master, so we humoured his partiality; and
+that humouring was rich nourishment to the child's pride and black
+tempers. 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.
+
+At last, our curate (we had a curate then who made the living answer by
+teaching the little Lintons and Earnshaws, and farming his bit of land
+himself) advised that the young man should be sent to college; and Mr.
+Earnshaw agreed, though with a heavy spirit, for he said--'Hindley was
+nought, and would never thrive as where he wandered.'
+
+I hoped heartily we should have peace now.  It hurt me to think the
+master should be made uncomfortable by his own good deed.  I fancied the
+discontent of age and disease arose from his family disagreements; as he
+would have it that it did: really, you know, sir, it was in his sinking
+frame.  We might have got on tolerably, notwithstanding, but for two
+people--Miss Cathy, and Joseph, the servant: you saw him, I daresay, up
+yonder.  He was, and is yet most likely, the wearisomest self-righteous
+Pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and
+fling the curses to his neighbours.  By his knack of sermonising and
+pious discoursing, he contrived to make a great impression on Mr.
+Earnshaw; and the more feeble the master became, the more influence he
+gained.  He was relentless in worrying him about his soul's concerns, and
+about ruling his children rigidly.  He encouraged him to regard Hindley
+as a reprobate; and, night after night, he regularly grumbled out a long
+string of tales against Heathcliff and Catherine: always minding to
+flatter Earnshaw's weakness by heaping the heaviest blame on the latter.
+
+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.  Her
+spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going--singing,
+laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same.  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.  She was much too fond of Heathcliff.  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.  In play, she liked
+exceedingly to act the little mistress; using her hands freely, and
+commanding her companions: she did so to me, but I would not bear
+slapping and ordering; and so I let her know.
+
+Now, Mr. Earnshaw did not understand jokes from his children: he had
+always been strict and grave with them; and Catherine, on her part, had
+no idea why her father should be crosser and less patient in his ailing
+condition than he was in his prime.  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.  After
+behaving as badly as possible all day, she sometimes came fondling to
+make it up at night.  'Nay, Cathy,' the old man would say, 'I cannot love
+thee, thou'rt worse than thy brother.  Go, say thy prayers, child, and
+ask God's pardon.  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.
+
+But the hour came, at last, that ended Mr. Earnshaw's troubles on earth.
+He died quietly in his chair one October evening, seated by the
+fire-side.  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, 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).  Miss Cathy had been sick,
+and that made her still; she leant against her father's knee, and
+Heathcliff was lying on the floor with his head in her lap.  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.  She began singing very low, till his fingers
+dropped from hers, and his head sank on his breast.  Then I told her to
+hush, and not stir, for fear she should wake him.  We all kept as mute as
+mice a full half-hour, and should have done so longer, only Joseph,
+having finished his chapter, got up and said that he must rouse the
+master for prayers and bed.  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 thought there was something wrong as he set down
+the light; and seizing the children each by an arm, whispered them to
+'frame up-stairs, and make little din--they might pray alone that
+evening--he had summut to do.'
+
+'I shall bid father good-night first,' said Catherine, putting her arms
+round his neck, before we could hinder her.  The poor thing discovered
+her loss directly--she screamed out--'Oh, he's dead, Heathcliff! he's
+dead!'  And they both set up a heart-breaking cry.
+
+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.  He told
+me to put on my cloak and run to Gimmerton for the doctor and the parson.
+I could not guess the use that either would be of, then.  However, I
+went, through wind and rain, and brought one, the doctor, back with me;
+the other said he would come in the morning.  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.  The little souls were comforting
+each other with better thoughts than I could have hit on: no parson in
+the world ever pictured heaven so beautifully as they did, in their
+innocent talk; and, while I sobbed and listened, I could not help wishing
+we were all there safe together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Mr. Hindley came home to the funeral; and--a thing that amazed us, and
+set the neighbours gossiping right and left--he brought a wife with him.
+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.
+
+She was not one that would have disturbed the house much on her own
+account.  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.  I thought she was half silly, from her behaviour while that
+went on: she ran into her chamber, and made me come with her, though I
+should have been dressing the children: and there she sat shivering and
+clasping her hands, and asking repeatedly--'Are they gone yet?'  Then she
+began describing with hysterical emotion the effect it produced on her to
+see black; and started, and trembled, and, at last, fell a-weeping--and
+when I asked what was the matter, answered, she didn't know; but she felt
+so afraid of dying!  I imagined her as little likely to die as myself.
+She was rather thin, but young, and fresh-complexioned, and her eyes
+sparkled as bright as diamonds.  I did remark, to be sure, that mounting
+the stairs made her breathe very quick; that the least sudden noise set
+her all in a quiver, and that she coughed troublesomely sometimes: but I
+knew nothing of what these symptoms portended, and had no impulse to
+sympathise with her.  We don't in general take to foreigners here, Mr.
+Lockwood, unless they take to us first.
+
+Young Earnshaw was altered considerably in the three years of his
+absence. He had grown sparer, and lost his colour, and spoke and dressed
+quite differently; and, on the very day of his return, he told Joseph
+and me we must thenceforth quarter ourselves in the back-kitchen, and
+leave the house for him. 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.
+
+She expressed pleasure, too, at finding a sister among her new
+acquaintance; and she prattled to Catherine, and kissed her, and ran
+about with her, and gave her quantities of presents, at the beginning.
+Her affection tired very soon, however, and when she grew peevish,
+Hindley became tyrannical.  A few words from her, evincing a dislike to
+Heathcliff, were enough to rouse in him all his old hatred of the boy.  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.
+
+Heathcliff bore his degradation pretty well at first, because Cathy
+taught him what she learnt, and worked or played with him in the fields.
+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.  He would not even have seen after their going to
+church on Sundays, only Joseph and the curate reprimanded his
+carelessness when they absented themselves; and that reminded him to
+order Heathcliff a flogging, and Catherine a fast from dinner or supper.
+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.  The curate might set as many chapters as he pleased
+for Catherine to get by heart, and Joseph might thrash Heathcliff till
+his arm ached; they forgot everything the minute they were together
+again: at least the minute they had contrived some naughty plan of
+revenge; and many a time I've cried to myself to watch them growing more
+reckless daily, and I not daring to speak a syllable, for fear of losing
+the small power I still retained over the unfriended creatures.  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.  We searched the
+house, above and below, and the yard and stables; they were invisible:
+and, at last, Hindley in a passion told us to bolt the doors, and swore
+nobody should let them in that night.  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.  In a while, I distinguished steps
+coming up the road, and the light of a lantern glimmered through the
+gate.  I threw a shawl over my head and ran to prevent them from waking
+Mr. Earnshaw by knocking.  There was Heathcliff, by himself: it gave me a
+start to see him alone.
+
+'Where is Miss Catherine?' I cried hurriedly. '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.' 'Well, you will catch it!'
+I said: 'you'll never be content till you're sent about your business.
+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.
+I bid him beware of rousing the master, and while he undressed and I
+waited to put out the candle, he continued--'Cathy and I escaped from
+the wash-house to have a ramble at liberty, and getting a glimpse of the
+Grange lights, we thought we would just go and see whether the Lintons
+passed their Sunday evenings standing shivering in corners, while their
+father and mother sat eating and drinking, and singing and laughing, and
+burning their eyes out before the fire. 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. 'They are good children, no doubt, and don't deserve
+the treatment you receive, for your bad conduct.' '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, because she
+was barefoot. You'll have to seek for her shoes in the bog to-morrow. We
+crept through a broken hedge, groped our way up the path, and planted
+ourselves on a flower-plot under the drawing-room window. The light came
+from thence; they had not put up the shutters, and the curtains were
+only half closed. 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. Old Mr. and Mrs. Linton were not there; Edgar
+and his sisters had it entirely to themselves. 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. Edgar
+stood on the hearth weeping silently, and in the middle of the table sat
+a little dog, shaking its paw and yelping; which, from their mutual
+accusations, we understood they had nearly pulled in two between them.
+The idiots! That was their pleasure! to quarrel who should hold a heap
+of warm hair, and each begin to cry because both, after struggling to
+get it, refused to take it. We laughed outright at the petted things; we
+did despise them! When would you catch me wishing to have what Catherine
+wanted? or find us by ourselves, seeking entertainment in yelling, and
+sobbing, and rolling on the ground, divided by the whole room? I'd not
+exchange, for a thousand lives, my condition here, for Edgar Linton's at
+Thrushcross Grange--not if I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph
+off the highest gable, and painting the house-front with Hindley's
+blood!'
+
+'Hush, hush!' I interrupted.  'Still you have not told me, Heathcliff,
+how Catherine is left behind?'
+
+'I told you we laughed,' he answered. 'The Lintons heard us, and with
+one accord they shot like arrows to the door; there was silence, and
+then a cry, "Oh, mamma, mamma! Oh, papa! Oh, mamma, come here. Oh, papa,
+oh!" They really did howl out something in that way. We made frightful
+noises to terrify them still more, and then we dropped off the ledge,
+because somebody was drawing the bars, and we felt we had better flee. I
+had Cathy by the hand, and was urging her on, when all at once she fell
+down. "Run, Heathcliff, run!" she whispered. "They have let the bull-dog
+loose, and he holds me!" The devil had seized her ankle, Nelly: I heard
+his abominable snorting. She did not yell out--no! she would have
+scorned to do it, if she had been spitted on the horns of a mad cow. 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. A beast of a servant came
+up with a lantern, at last, shouting--"Keep fast, Skulker, keep fast!"
+He changed his note, however, when he saw Skulker's game. 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. The man took
+Cathy up; she was sick: not from fear, I'm certain, but from pain. He
+carried her in; I followed, grumbling execrations and vengeance. "What
+prey, Robert?" hallooed Linton from the entrance. "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.
+Hold your tongue, you foul-mouthed thief, you! you shall go to the
+gallows for this. Mr. Linton, sir, don't lay by your gun." "No, no,
+Robert," said the old fool. "The rascals knew that yesterday was my
+rent-day: they thought to have me cleverly. Come in; I'll furnish them a
+reception. There, John, fasten the chain. Give Skulker some water,
+Jenny. To beard a magistrate in his stronghold, and on the Sabbath, too!
+Where will their insolence stop? Oh, my dear Mary, look here! Don't be
+afraid, it is but a boy--yet the villain scowls so plainly in his face;
+would it not be a kindness to the country to hang him at once, before he
+shows his nature in acts as well as features?" He pulled me under the
+chandelier, and Mrs. Linton placed her spectacles on her nose and raised
+her hands in horror. The cowardly children crept nearer also, Isabella
+lisping--"Frightful thing! Put him in the cellar, papa. He's exactly
+like the son of the fortune-teller that stole my tame pheasant. Isn't
+he, Edgar?"
+
+'While they examined me, Cathy came round; she heard the last speech, and
+laughed.  Edgar Linton, after an inquisitive stare, collected sufficient
+wit to recognise her.  They see us at church, you know, though we seldom
+meet them elsewhere.  "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 dear, the child is in mourning--surely
+it is--and she may be lamed for life!"
+
+'"What culpable carelessness in her brother!" exclaimed Mr. Linton,
+turning from me to Catherine.  "I've understood from Shielders"' (that
+was the curate, sir) '"that he lets her grow up in absolute heathenism.
+But who is this?  Where did she pick up this companion?  Oho! I declare
+he is that strange acquisition my late neighbour made, in his journey to
+Liverpool--a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway."
+
+'"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 recommenced cursing--don't be angry, Nelly--and so Robert was ordered
+to take me off.  I refused to go without Cathy; he dragged me into the
+garden, pushed the lantern into my hand, assured me that Mr. Earnshaw
+should be informed of my behaviour, and, bidding me march directly,
+secured the door again.  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.  She sat on the sofa quietly.  Mrs.
+Linton took off the grey cloak of the dairy-maid which we had borrowed
+for our excursion, shaking her head and expostulating with her, I
+suppose: she was a young lady, and they made a distinction between her
+treatment and mine.  Then the woman-servant brought a basin of warm
+water, and washed her feet; and Mr. Linton mixed a tumbler of negus, and
+Isabella emptied a plateful of cakes into her lap, and Edgar stood gaping
+at a distance.  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.  I saw they were full of stupid admiration; she
+is so immeasurably superior to them--to everybody on earth, is she not,
+Nelly?'
+
+'There will more come of this business than you reckon on,' I answered,
+covering him up and extinguishing the light.  'You are incurable,
+Heathcliff; and Mr. Hindley will have to proceed to extremities, see if
+he won't.'  My words came truer than I desired.  The luckless adventure
+made Earnshaw furious.  And then Mr. Linton, to mend matters, paid us a
+visit himself on the morrow, and read the young master such a lecture on
+the road he guided his family, that he was stirred to look about him, in
+earnest.  Heathcliff received no flogging, but he was told that the first
+word he spoke to Miss Catherine should ensure a dismissal; and Mrs.
+Earnshaw undertook to keep her sister-in-law in due restraint when she
+returned home; employing art, not force: with force she would have found
+it impossible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Cathy stayed at Thrushcross Grange five weeks: till Christmas.  By that
+time her ankle was thoroughly cured, and her manners much improved.  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.  Hindley lifted her from her horse, exclaiming
+delightedly, 'Why, Cathy, you are quite a beauty!  I should scarcely have
+known you: you look like a lady now.  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.  Ellen, help Miss Catherine off with her things--Stay, dear, you
+will disarrange your curls--let me untie your hat.'
+
+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.  She kissed
+me gently: I was all flour making the Christmas cake, and it would not
+have done to give me a hug; and then she looked round for Heathcliff.  Mr.
+and Mrs. 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.
+
+Heathcliff was hard to discover, at first.  If he were careless, and
+uncared for, before Catherine's absence, he had been ten times more so
+since.  Nobody but I even did him the kindness to call him a dirty boy,
+and bid him wash himself, once a week; and children of his age seldom
+have a natural pleasure in soap and water.  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.  He might well skulk behind the settle, on beholding such a
+bright, graceful damsel enter the house, instead of a rough-headed
+counterpart of himself, as he expected.  'Is Heathcliff not here?' she
+demanded, pulling off her gloves, and displaying fingers wonderfully
+whitened with doing nothing and staying indoors.
+
+'Heathcliff, you may come forward,' cried Mr. Hindley, enjoying his
+discomfiture, and gratified to see what a forbidding young blackguard he
+would be compelled to present himself.  'You may come and wish Miss
+Catherine welcome, like the other servants.'
+
+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.
+Well, Heathcliff, have you forgotten me?'
+
+She had some reason to put the question, for shame and pride threw double
+gloom over his countenance, and kept him immovable.
+
+'Shake hands, Heathcliff,' said Mr. Earnshaw, condescendingly; 'once in a
+way that is permitted.'
+
+'I shall not,' replied the boy, finding his tongue at last; 'I shall not
+stand to be laughed at.  I shall not bear it!'  And he would have broken
+from the circle, but Miss Cathy seized him again.
+
+'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.  If you wash your face and brush your hair, it will
+be all right: but you are so dirty!'
+
+She gazed concernedly at the dusky fingers she held in her own, and also
+at her dress; which she feared had gained no embellishment from its
+contact with his.
+
+'You needn't have touched me!' he answered, following her eye and
+snatching away his hand.  'I shall be as dirty as I please: and I like to
+be dirty, and I will be dirty.'
+
+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.
+
+After playing lady's-maid to the new-comer, and putting my cakes in the
+oven, and making the house and kitchen cheerful with great fires,
+befitting Christmas-eve, I prepared to sit down and amuse myself by
+singing carols, all alone; regardless of Joseph's affirmations that he
+considered the merry tunes I chose as next door to songs.  He had retired
+to private prayer in his chamber, and Mr. and Mrs. 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.  They had invited
+them to spend the morrow at Wuthering Heights, and the invitation had
+been accepted, on one condition: Mrs. Linton begged that her darlings
+might be kept carefully apart from that 'naughty swearing boy.'
+
+Under these circumstances I remained solitary.  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.  I gave
+due inward applause to every object, and then I remembered how old
+Earnshaw used to come in when all was tidied, and call me a cant lass,
+and slip a shilling into my hand as a Christmas-box; and from that I went
+on to think of his fondness for Heathcliff, and his dread lest he should
+suffer neglect after death had removed him: and that naturally led me to
+consider the poor lad's situation now, and from singing I changed my mind
+to crying.  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 seek him.  He was not far; I found
+him smoothing the glossy coat of the new pony in the stable, and feeding
+the other beasts, according to custom.
+
+'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.'
+
+He proceeded with his task, and never turned his head towards me.
+
+'Come--are you coming?' I continued.  'There's a little cake for each of
+you, nearly enough; and you'll need half-an-hour's donning.'
+
+I waited five minutes, but getting no answer left him.  Catherine supped
+with her brother and sister-in-law: Joseph and I joined at an unsociable
+meal, seasoned with reproofs on one side and sauciness on the other.  His
+cake and cheese remained on the table all night for the fairies.  He
+managed to continue work till nine o'clock, and then marched dumb and
+dour to his chamber.  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.  In the morning he rose
+early; and, as it was a holiday, carried his ill-humour on to the moors;
+not re-appearing till the family were departed for church.  Fasting and
+reflection seemed to have brought him to a better spirit.  He hung about
+me for a while, and having screwed up his courage, exclaimed
+abruptly--'Nelly, make me decent, I'm going to be good.'
+
+'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.'
+
+The notion of _envying_ Catherine was incomprehensible to him, but the
+notion of grieving her he understood clearly enough.
+
+'Did she say she was grieved?' he inquired, looking very serious.
+
+'She cried when I told her you were off again this morning.'
+
+'Well, _I_ cried last night,' he returned, 'and I had more reason to cry
+than she.'
+
+'Yes: you had the reason of going to bed with a proud heart and an empty
+stomach,' said I.  'Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.  But,
+if you be ashamed of your touchiness, you must ask pardon, mind, when she
+comes in.  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.  And now, though I have dinner to get
+ready, I'll steal time to arrange you so that Edgar Linton shall look
+quite a doll beside you: and that he does.  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.
+
+'But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn't make him
+less handsome or me more so.  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.  Oh, Heathcliff, you are showing a poor spirit!  Come to the glass,
+and I'll let you see what you should wish.  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
+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.  Don't get the expression of a vicious cur
+that appears to know the kicks it gets are its dessert, and yet hates all
+the world, as well as the kicker, for what it suffers.'
+
+'In other words, I must wish for Edgar Linton's great blue eyes and even
+forehead,' he replied.  'I do--and that won't help me to them.'
+
+'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.  And now that we've done washing, and combing,
+and sulking--tell me whether you don't think yourself rather handsome?
+I'll tell you, I do.  You're fit for a prince in disguise.  Who knows but
+your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, each
+of them able to buy up, with one week's income, Wuthering Heights and
+Thrushcross Grange together?  And you were kidnapped by wicked sailors
+and brought to England.  Were I in your place, I would frame high notions
+of my birth; and the 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.  He ran to
+the window and I to the door, just in time to behold the two Lintons
+descend from the family carriage, smothered in cloaks and furs, and the
+Earnshaws dismount from their horses: they often rode to church in
+winter.  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.
+
+I urged my companion to hasten now and show his amiable humour, and he
+willingly obeyed; but ill luck would have it that, as he opened the door
+leading from the kitchen on one side, Hindley opened it on the other.
+They met, and the master, irritated at seeing him clean and cheerful, or,
+perhaps, eager to keep his promise to Mrs. Linton, shoved him back with a
+sudden thrust, and angrily bade Joseph 'keep the fellow out of the
+room--send him into the garret till dinner is over.  He'll be cramming
+his fingers in the tarts and stealing the fruit, if left alone with them
+a minute.'
+
+'Nay, sir,' I could not avoid answering, 'he'll touch nothing, not he:
+and I suppose he must have his share of the dainties as well as we.'
+
+'He shall have his share of my hand, if I catch him downstairs till
+dark,' cried Hindley.  'Begone, you vagabond!  What! you are attempting
+the coxcomb, are you?  Wait till I get hold of those elegant locks--see
+if I won't pull them a bit longer!'
+
+'They are long enough already,' observed Master Linton, peeping from the
+doorway; 'I wonder they don't make his head ache.  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.  He seized a
+tureen of hot apple sauce (the first thing that came under his grip) and
+dashed it full against the speaker's face and neck; who instantly
+commenced a lament that brought Isabella and Catherine hurrying to the
+place.  Mr. Earnshaw snatched up the culprit directly and conveyed him to
+his chamber; where, doubtless, he administered a rough remedy to cool the
+fit of passion, for he appeared red and breathless.  I got the dishcloth,
+and rather spitefully scrubbed Edgar's nose and mouth, affirming it
+served him right for meddling.  His sister began weeping to go home, and
+Cathy stood by confounded, blushing for all.
+
+'You should not have spoken to him!' she expostulated with Master Linton.
+'He was in a bad temper, and now you've spoilt your visit; and he'll be
+flogged: I hate him to be flogged!  I can't eat my dinner.  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.  'I
+promised mamma that I wouldn't say one word to him, and I didn't.'
+
+'Well, don't cry,' replied Catherine, contemptuously; 'you're not killed.
+Don't make more mischief; my brother is coming: be quiet!  Hush,
+Isabella!  Has anybody hurt you?'
+
+'There, there, children--to your seats!' cried Hindley, bustling in.
+'That brute of a lad has warmed me nicely.  Next time, Master Edgar, take
+the law into your own fists--it will give you an appetite!'
+
+The little party recovered its equanimity at sight of the fragrant feast.
+They were hungry after their ride, and easily consoled, since no real
+harm had befallen them.  Mr. Earnshaw carved bountiful platefuls, and the
+mistress made them merry with lively talk.  I waited behind her chair,
+and was pained to behold Catherine, with dry eyes and an indifferent air,
+commence cutting up the wing of a goose before her.  'An unfeeling
+child,' I thought to myself; 'how lightly she dismisses her old
+playmate's troubles.  I could not have imagined her to be so selfish.'
+She lifted a mouthful to her lips: then she set it down again: her cheeks
+flushed, and the tears gushed over them.  She slipped her fork to the
+floor, and hastily dived under the cloth to conceal her emotion.  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.
+
+In the evening we had a dance.  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.  We got rid of all gloom in the
+excitement of the exercise, and our pleasure was increased by the arrival
+of the Gimmerton band, mustering fifteen strong: a trumpet, a trombone,
+clarionets, bassoons, French horns, and a bass viol, besides singers.
+They go the rounds of all the respectable houses, and receive
+contributions every Christmas, and we esteemed it a first-rate treat to
+hear them.  After the usual carols had been sung, we set them to songs
+and glees.  Mrs. Earnshaw loved the music, and so they gave us plenty.
+
+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. They shut the house
+door below, never noting our absence, it was so full of people. She made
+no stay at the stairs'-head, but mounted farther, to the garret where
+Heathcliff was confined, and called him. He stubbornly declined
+answering for a while: she persevered, and finally persuaded him to hold
+communion with her through the boards. 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. Instead of finding her outside, I heard her voice within. 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. When she did come, Heathcliff came with her,
+and she insisted that I should take him into the kitchen, as my
+fellow-servant had gone to a neighbour's, to be removed from the sound
+of our 'devil's psalmody,' as it pleased him to call it. I told them I
+intended by no means to encourage their tricks: but as the prisoner had
+never broken his fast since yesterday's dinner, I would wink at his
+cheating Mr. Hindley that once. 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. He
+leant his two elbows on his knees, and his chin on his hands and
+remained rapt in dumb meditation. On my inquiring the subject of his
+thoughts, he answered gravely--'I'm trying to settle how I shall pay
+Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last.
+I hope he will not die before I do!'
+
+'For shame, Heathcliff!' said I.  'It is for God to punish wicked people;
+we should learn to forgive.'
+
+'No, God won't have the satisfaction that I shall,' he returned.  'I only
+wish I knew the best way!  Let me alone, and I'll plan it out: while I'm
+thinking of that I don't feel pain.'
+
+'But, Mr. Lockwood, I forget these tales cannot divert you.  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.'
+
+* * * * *
+
+Thus interrupting herself, the housekeeper rose, and proceeded to lay
+aside her sewing; but I felt incapable of moving from the hearth, and I
+was very far from nodding.  'Sit still, Mrs. Dean,' I cried; 'do sit
+still another half-hour.  You've done just right to tell the story
+leisurely.  That is the method I like; and you must finish it in the same
+style.  I am interested in every character you have mentioned, more or
+less.'
+
+'The clock is on the stroke of eleven, sir.'
+
+'No matter--I'm not accustomed to go to bed in the long hours.  One or
+two is early enough for a person who lies till ten.'
+
+'You shouldn't lie till ten.  There's the very prime of the morning gone
+long before that time.  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.'
+
+'Nevertheless, Mrs. Dean, resume your chair; because to-morrow I intend
+lengthening the night till afternoon.  I prognosticate for myself an
+obstinate cold, at least.'
+
+'I hope not, sir.  Well, you must allow me to leap over some three years;
+during that space Mrs. 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?'
+
+'A terribly lazy mood, I should say.'
+
+'On the contrary, a tiresomely active one. It is mine, at present; and,
+therefore, continue minutely. I perceive that people in these regions
+acquire over people in towns the value that a spider in a dungeon does
+over a spider in a cottage, to their various occupants; and yet the
+deepened attraction is not entirely owing to the situation of the
+looker-on. They _do_ live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less
+in surface, change, and frivolous external things. I could fancy a love
+for life here almost possible; and I was a fixed unbeliever in any love
+of a year's standing. 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.'
+
+'Oh! here we are the same as anywhere else, when you get to know us,'
+observed Mrs. Dean, somewhat puzzled at my speech.
+
+'Excuse me,' I responded; 'you, my good friend, are a striking evidence
+against that assertion.  Excepting a few provincialisms of slight
+consequence, you have no marks of the manners which I am habituated to
+consider as peculiar to your class.  I am sure you have thought a great
+deal more than the generality of servants think.  You have been compelled
+to cultivate your reflective faculties for want of occasions for
+frittering your life away in silly trifles.'
+
+Mrs. Dean laughed.
+
+'I certainly esteem myself a steady, reasonable kind of body,' she said;
+'not exactly from living among the hills and seeing one set of faces, and
+one series of actions, from year's end to year's end; but I have
+undergone sharp discipline, which has taught me wisdom; and then, I have
+read more than you would fancy, Mr. Lockwood.  You could not open a book
+in this library that I have not looked into, and got something out of
+also: unless it be that range of Greek and Latin, and that of French; and
+those I know one from another: it is as much as you can expect of a poor
+man's daughter.  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.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+On the morning of a fine June day my first bonny little nursling, and the
+last of the ancient Earnshaw stock, was born.  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.
+
+'Oh, such a grand bairn!' she panted out.  'The finest lad that ever
+breathed!  But the doctor says missis must go: he says she's been in a
+consumption these many months.  I heard him tell Mr. Hindley: and now she
+has nothing to keep her, and she'll be dead before winter.  You must come
+home directly.  You're to nurse it, Nelly: to feed it with sugar and
+milk, and take care of it day and night.  I wish I were you, because it
+will be all yours when there is no missis!'
+
+'But is she very ill?' I asked, flinging down my rake and tying my
+bonnet.
+
+'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.  She's out of her head
+for joy, it's such a beauty!  If I were her I'm certain I should not die:
+I should get better at the bare sight of it, in spite of Kenneth.  I was
+fairly mad at him.  Dame Archer brought the cherub down to master, in the
+house, and his face just began to light up, when the old croaker steps
+forward, and says he--"Earnshaw, it's a blessing your wife has been
+spared to leave you this son.  When she came, I felt convinced we
+shouldn't keep her long; and now, I must tell you, the winter will
+probably finish her.  Don't take on, and fret about it too much: it can't
+be helped.  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 think he swore: but I didn't mind him, I was straining to see the
+bairn,' and she began again to describe it rapturously.  I, as zealous as
+herself, hurried eagerly home to admire, on my part; though I was very
+sad for Hindley's sake.  He had room in his heart only for two idols--his
+wife and himself: he doted on both, and adored one, and I couldn't
+conceive how he would bear the loss.
+
+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.
+
+'And the mistress?' I ventured to inquire; 'the doctor says she's--'
+
+'Damn the doctor!' he interrupted, reddening.  'Frances is quite right:
+she'll be perfectly well by this time next week.  Are you going
+up-stairs? will you tell her that I'll come, if she'll promise not to
+talk.  I left her because she would not hold her tongue; and she
+must--tell her Mr. Kenneth says she must be quiet.'
+
+I delivered this message to Mrs. Earnshaw; she seemed in flighty spirits,
+and replied merrily, 'I hardly spoke a word, Ellen, and there he has gone
+out twice, crying.  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.  When Kenneth warned him that his medicines
+were useless at that stage of the malady, and he needn't put him to
+further expense by attending her, he retorted, 'I know you need not--she's
+well--she does not want any more attendance from you!  She never was in a
+consumption.  It was a fever; and it is gone: her pulse is as slow as
+mine now, and her cheek as cool.'
+
+He told his wife the same story, and she seemed to believe him; but one
+night, while leaning on his shoulder, in the act of saying she thought
+she should be able to get up to-morrow, a fit of coughing took her--a
+very slight one--he raised her in his arms; she put her two hands about
+his neck, her face changed, and she was dead.
+
+As the girl had anticipated, the child Hareton fell wholly into my hands.
+Mr. Earnshaw, provided he saw him healthy and never heard him cry, was
+contented, as far as regarded him.  For himself, he grew desperate: his
+sorrow was of that kind that will not lament.  He neither wept nor
+prayed; he cursed and defied: execrated God and man, and gave himself up
+to reckless dissipation.  The servants could not bear his tyrannical and
+evil conduct long: Joseph and I were the only two that would stay.  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.  Joseph remained to hector over tenants and labourers; and because
+it was his vocation to be where he had plenty of wickedness to reprove.
+
+The master's bad ways and bad companions formed a pretty example for
+Catherine and Heathcliff.  His treatment of the latter was enough to make
+a fiend of a saint.  And, truly, it appeared as if the lad _were_
+possessed of something diabolical at that period.  He delighted to
+witness Hindley degrading himself past redemption; and became daily more
+notable for savage sullenness and ferocity.  I could not half tell what
+an infernal house we had.  The curate dropped calling, and nobody decent
+came near us, at last; unless Edgar Linton's visits to Miss Cathy might
+be an exception.  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.  She had a wondrous constancy to old attachments: even Heathcliff
+kept his hold on her affections unalterably; and young Linton, with all
+his superiority, found it difficult to make an equally deep impression.
+He was my late master: that is his portrait over the fireplace.  It used
+to hang on one side, and his wife's on the other; but hers has been
+removed, or else you might see something of what she was.  Can you make
+that out?
+
+Mrs. Dean raised the candle, and I discerned a soft-featured face,
+exceedingly resembling the young lady at the Heights, but more pensive
+and amiable in expression.  It formed a sweet picture.  The long light
+hair curled slightly on the temples; the eyes were large and serious; the
+figure almost too graceful.  I did not marvel how Catherine Earnshaw
+could forget her first friend for such an individual.  I marvelled much
+how he, with a mind to correspond with his person, could fancy my idea of
+Catherine Earnshaw.
+
+'A very agreeable portrait,' I observed to the house-keeper.  'Is it
+like?'
+
+'Yes,' she answered; 'but he looked better when he was animated; that is
+his everyday countenance: he wanted spirit in general.'
+
+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. In the place where she heard
+Heathcliff termed a 'vulgar young ruffian,' and 'worse than a brute,'
+she took care not to act like him; but at home she had small inclination
+to practise politeness that would only be laughed at, and restrain an
+unruly nature when it would bring her neither credit nor praise.
+
+Mr. Edgar seldom mustered courage to visit Wuthering Heights openly.  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 rather think his
+appearance there was distasteful to Catherine; she was not artful, never
+played the coquette, and had evidently an objection to her two friends
+meeting at all; for when Heathcliff expressed contempt of Linton in his
+presence, she could not half coincide, as she did in his absence; and
+when Linton evinced disgust and antipathy to Heathcliff, she dared not
+treat his sentiments with indifference, as if depreciation of her
+playmate were of scarcely any consequence to her.  I've had many a laugh
+at her perplexities and untold troubles, which she vainly strove to hide
+from my mockery.  That sounds ill-natured: but she was so proud it became
+really impossible to pity her distresses, till she should be chastened
+into more humility.  She did bring herself, finally, to confess, and to
+confide in me: there was not a soul else that she might fashion into an
+adviser.
+
+Mr. Hindley had gone from home one afternoon, and Heathcliff presumed to
+give himself a holiday on the strength of it.  He had reached the age of
+sixteen then, I think, and without having bad features, or being
+deficient in intellect, he contrived to convey an impression of inward
+and outward repulsiveness that his present aspect retains no traces of.
+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.  His childhood's sense of superiority,
+instilled into him by the favours of old Mr. Earnshaw, was faded away.  He
+struggled long to keep up an equality with Catherine in her studies, and
+yielded with poignant though silent regret: but he yielded completely;
+and there was no prevailing on him to take a step in the way of moving
+upward, when he found he must, necessarily, sink beneath his former
+level.  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 pleasure, apparently, in exciting the
+aversion rather than the esteem of his few acquaintances.
+
+Catherine and he were constant companions still at his seasons of respite
+from labour; but he had ceased to express his fondness for her in words,
+and recoiled with angry suspicion from her girlish caresses, as if
+conscious there could be no gratification in lavishing such marks of
+affection on him.  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. Edgar of her brother's absence, and
+was then preparing to receive him.
+
+'Cathy, are you busy this afternoon?' asked Heathcliff.  'Are you going
+anywhere?'
+
+'No, it is raining,' she answered.
+
+'Why have you that silk frock on, then?' he said.  'Nobody coming here, I
+hope?'
+
+'Not that I know of,' stammered Miss: 'but you should be in the field
+now, Heathcliff.  It is an hour past dinnertime: I thought you were
+gone.'
+
+'Hindley does not often free us from his accursed presence,' observed the
+boy.  'I'll not work any more to-day: I'll stay with you.'
+
+'Oh, but Joseph will tell,' she suggested; 'you'd better go!'
+
+'Joseph is loading lime on the further side of Penistone Crags; it will
+take him till dark, and he'll never know.'
+
+So, saying, he lounged to the fire, and sat down.  Catherine reflected an
+instant, with knitted brows--she found it needful to smooth the way for
+an intrusion.  'Isabella and Edgar Linton talked of calling this
+afternoon,' she said, at the conclusion of a minute's silence.  'As it
+rains, I hardly expect them; but they may come, and if they do, you run
+the risk of being scolded for no good.'
+
+'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.  'Oh, Nelly!' she added petulantly, jerking her head away
+from my hands, 'you've combed my hair quite out of curl!  That's enough;
+let me alone.  What are you on the point of complaining about,
+Heathcliff?'
+
+'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.  Do you see?  I've marked every day.'
+
+'Yes--very foolish: as if I took notice!' replied Catherine, in a peevish
+tone.  'And where is the sense of that?'
+
+'To show that I _do_ take notice,' said Heathcliff.
+
+'And should I always be sitting with you?' she demanded, growing more
+irritated.  'What good do I get?  What do you talk about?  You might be
+dumb, or a baby, for anything you say to amuse me, or for anything you
+do, either!'
+
+'You never told me before that I talked too little, or that you disliked
+my company, Cathy!' exclaimed Heathcliff, in much agitation.
+
+'It's no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing,' she
+muttered.
+
+Her companion rose up, but he hadn't time to express his feelings
+further, for a horse's feet were heard on the flags, and having knocked
+gently, young Linton entered, his face brilliant with delight at the
+unexpected summon she had received.  Doubtless Catherine marked the
+difference between her friends, as one came in and the other went out.
+The contrast resembled what you see in exchanging a bleak, hilly, coal
+country for a beautiful fertile valley; and his voice and greeting were
+as opposite as his aspect.  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.
+
+'I'm not come too soon, am I?' he said, casting a look at me: I had begun
+to wipe the plate, and tidy some drawers at the far end in the dresser.
+
+'No,' answered Catherine.  'What are you doing there, Nelly?'
+
+'My work, Miss,' I replied.  (Mr. Hindley had given me directions to make
+a third party in any private visits Linton chose to pay.)
+
+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.  I'm sure Mr.
+Edgar will excuse me.'
+
+'I hate you to be fidgeting in _my_ presence,' exclaimed the young lady
+imperiously, not allowing her guest time to speak: she had failed to
+recover her equanimity since the little dispute with Heathcliff.
+
+'I'm sorry for it, Miss Catherine,' was my response; and I proceeded
+assiduously with my occupation.
+
+She, supposing Edgar could not see her, snatched the cloth from my hand,
+and pinched me, with a prolonged wrench, very spitefully on the arm.  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.'
+
+'I didn't touch you, you lying creature!' cried she, her fingers tingling
+to repeat the act, and her ears red with rage.  She never had power to
+conceal her passion, it always set her whole complexion in a blaze.
+
+'What's that, then?' I retorted, showing a decided purple witness to
+refute her.
+
+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.
+
+'Catherine, love!  Catherine!' interposed Linton, greatly shocked at the
+double fault of falsehood and violence which his idol had committed.
+
+'Leave the room, Ellen!' she repeated, trembling all over.
+
+Little Hareton, who followed me everywhere, and was sitting near me on
+the floor, at seeing my tears commenced crying himself, and sobbed out
+complaints against 'wicked aunt Cathy,' which drew her fury on to his
+unlucky head: she seized his shoulders, and shook him till the poor child
+waxed livid, and Edgar thoughtlessly laid hold of her hands to deliver
+him.  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.
+He drew back in consternation.  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.  The
+insulted visitor moved to the spot where he had laid his hat, pale and
+with a quivering lip.
+
+'That's right!' I said to myself.  'Take warning and begone!  It's a
+kindness to let you have a glimpse of her genuine disposition.'
+
+'Where are you going?' demanded Catherine, advancing to the door.
+
+He swerved aside, and attempted to pass.
+
+'You must not go!' she exclaimed, energetically.
+
+'I must and shall!' he replied in a subdued voice.
+
+'No,' she persisted, grasping the handle; 'not yet, Edgar Linton: sit
+down; you shall not leave me in that temper.  I should be miserable all
+night, and I won't be miserable for you!'
+
+'Can I stay after you have struck me?' asked Linton.
+
+Catherine was mute.
+
+'You've made me afraid and ashamed of you,' he continued; 'I'll not come
+here again!'
+
+Her eyes began to glisten and her lids to twinkle.
+
+'And you told a deliberate untruth!' he said.
+
+'I didn't!' she cried, recovering her speech; 'I did nothing
+deliberately.  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.  Edgar persevered in his resolution as far as the court; there
+he lingered.  I resolved to encourage him.
+
+'Miss is dreadfully wayward, sir,' I called out.  'As bad as any marred
+child: you'd better be riding home, or else she will be sick, only to
+grieve us.'
+
+The soft thing looked askance through the window: he possessed the power
+to depart as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half
+killed, or a bird half eaten.  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.
+
+Intelligence of Mr. Hindley's arrival drove Linton speedily to his horse,
+and Catherine to her chamber.  I went to hide little Hareton, and to take
+the shot out of the master's fowling-piece, which he was fond of playing
+with in his insane excitement, to the hazard of the lives of any who
+provoked, or even attracted his notice too much; and I had hit upon the
+plan of removing it, that he might do less mischief if he did go the
+length of firing the gun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+He entered, vociferating oaths dreadful to hear; and caught me in the act
+of stowing his son away in the kitchen cupboard.  Hareton was impressed
+with a wholesome terror of encountering either his wild beast's fondness
+or his madman's rage; for in one he ran a chance of being squeezed and
+kissed to death, and in the other of being flung into the fire, or dashed
+against the wall; and the poor thing remained perfectly quiet wherever I
+chose to put him.
+
+'There, I've found it out at last!' cried Hindley, pulling me back by the
+skin of my neck, like a dog.  'By heaven and hell, you've sworn between
+you to murder that child!  I know how it is, now, that he is always out
+of my way.  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. Hindley,' I answered; 'it has
+been cutting red herrings.  I'd rather be shot, if you please.'
+
+'You'd rather be damned!' he said; 'and so you shall.  No law in England
+can hinder a man from keeping his house decent, and mine's abominable!
+Open your mouth.'  He held the knife in his hand, and pushed its point
+between my teeth: but, for my part, I was never much afraid of his
+vagaries.  I spat out, and affirmed it tasted detestably--I would not
+take it on any account.
+
+'Oh!' said he, releasing me, 'I see that hideous little villain is not
+Hareton: I beg your pardon, Nell.  If it be, he deserves flaying alive
+for not running to welcome me, and for screaming as if I were a goblin.
+Unnatural cub, come hither!  I'll teach thee to impose on a good-hearted,
+deluded father.  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.  Hush, child, hush!  Well then, it is my darling!
+wisht, dry thy eyes--there's a joy; kiss me.  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.'
+
+Poor Hareton was squalling and kicking in his father's arms with all his
+might, and redoubled his yells when he carried him up-stairs and lifted
+him over the banister.  I cried out that he would frighten the child into
+fits, and ran to rescue him.  As I reached them, Hindley leant forward on
+the rails to listen to a noise below; almost forgetting what he had in
+his hands.  'Who is that?' he asked, hearing some one approaching the
+stairs'-foot.  I leant forward also, for the purpose of signing to
+Heathcliff, whose step I recognised, not to come further; and, at the
+instant when my eye quitted Hareton, he gave a sudden spring, delivered
+himself from the careless grasp that held him, and fell.
+
+There was scarcely time to experience a thrill of horror before we saw
+that the little wretch was safe.  Heathcliff arrived underneath just at
+the critical moment; by a natural impulse he arrested his descent, and
+setting him on his feet, looked up to discover the author of the
+accident.  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. Earnshaw above.  It expressed, plainer than words could do,
+the intensest anguish at having made himself the instrument of thwarting
+his own revenge.  Had it been dark, I daresay he would have tried to
+remedy the mistake by smashing Hareton's skull on the steps; but, we
+witnessed his salvation; and I was presently below with my precious
+charge pressed to my heart.  Hindley descended more leisurely, sobered
+and abashed.
+
+'It is your fault, Ellen,' he said; 'you should have kept him out of
+sight: you should have taken him from me!  Is he injured anywhere?'
+
+'Injured!' I cried angrily; 'if he is not killed, he'll be an idiot!  Oh!
+I wonder his mother does not rise from her grave to see how you use him.
+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.  At the first finger his father laid
+on him, however, he shrieked again louder than before, and struggled as
+if he would go into convulsions.
+
+'You shall not meddle with him!' I continued.  'He hates you--they all
+hate you--that's the truth!  A happy family you have; and a pretty state
+you're come to!'
+
+'I shall come to a prettier, yet, Nelly,' laughed the misguided man,
+recovering his hardness.  'At present, convey yourself and him away.  And
+hark you, Heathcliff! clear you too quite from my reach and hearing.  I
+wouldn't murder you to-night; unless, perhaps, I set the house on fire:
+but that's as my fancy goes.'
+
+While saying this he took a pint bottle of brandy from the dresser, and
+poured some into a tumbler.
+
+'Nay, don't!' I entreated.  'Mr. Hindley, do take warning.  Have mercy on
+this unfortunate boy, if you care nothing for yourself!'
+
+'Any one will do better for him than I shall,' he answered.
+
+'Have mercy on your own soul!' I said, endeavouring to snatch the glass
+from his hand.
+
+'Not I!  On the contrary, I shall have great pleasure in sending it to
+perdition to punish its Maker,' exclaimed the blasphemer.  '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.
+
+'It's a pity he cannot kill himself with drink,' observed Heathcliff,
+muttering an echo of curses back when the door was shut.  'He's doing his
+very utmost; but his constitution defies him.  Mr. 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.'
+
+I went into the kitchen, and sat down to lull my little lamb to sleep.
+Heathcliff, as I thought, walked through to the barn.  It turned out
+afterwards that he only got as far as the other side the settle, when he
+flung himself on a bench by the wall, removed from the fire and remained
+silent.
+
+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.
+
+She entered and approached the hearth.  I, supposing she was going to say
+something, looked up.  The expression of her face seemed disturbed and
+anxious.  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.  I resumed
+my song; not having forgotten her recent behaviour.
+
+'Where's Heathcliff?' she said, interrupting me.
+
+'About his work in the stable,' was my answer.
+
+He did not contradict me; perhaps he had fallen into a doze.  There
+followed another long pause, during which I perceived a drop or two
+trickle from Catherine's cheek to the flags.  Is she sorry for her
+shameful conduct?--I asked myself.  That will be a novelty: but she may
+come to the point--as she will--I sha'n't help her!  No, she felt small
+trouble regarding any subject, save her own concerns.
+
+'Oh, dear!' she cried at last.  'I'm very unhappy!'
+
+'A pity,' observed I.  '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.
+
+'Is it worth keeping?' I inquired, less sulkily.
+
+'Yes, and it worries me, and I must let it out!  I want to know what I
+should do.  To-day, Edgar Linton has asked me to marry him, and I've
+given him an answer.  Now, before I tell you whether it was a consent or
+denial, you tell me which it ought to have been.'
+
+'Really, Miss Catherine, how can I know?' I replied.  '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.'
+
+'If you talk so, I won't tell you any more,' she returned, peevishly
+rising to her feet.  'I accepted him, Nelly.  Be quick, and say whether I
+was wrong!'
+
+'You accepted him!  Then what good is it discussing the matter?  You have
+pledged your word, and cannot retract.'
+
+'But say whether I should have done so--do!' she exclaimed in an
+irritated tone; chafing her hands together, and frowning.
+
+'There are many things to be considered before that question can be
+answered properly,' I said, sententiously.  'First and foremost, do you
+love Mr. Edgar?'
+
+'Who can help it?  Of course I do,' she answered.
+
+Then I put her through the following catechism: for a girl of twenty-two
+it was not injudicious.
+
+'Why do you love him, Miss Cathy?'
+
+'Nonsense, I do--that's sufficient.'
+
+'By no means; you must say why?'
+
+'Well, because he is handsome, and pleasant to be with.'
+
+'Bad!' was my commentary.
+
+'And because he is young and cheerful.'
+
+'Bad, still.'
+
+'And because he loves me.'
+
+'Indifferent, coming there.'
+
+'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.'
+
+'Worst of all.  And now, say how you love him?'
+
+'As everybody loves--You're silly, Nelly.'
+
+'Not at all--Answer.'
+
+'I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and
+everything he touches, and every word he says.  I love all his looks, and
+all his actions, and him entirely and altogether.  There now!'
+
+'And why?'
+
+'Nay; you are making a jest of it: it is exceedingly ill-natured!  It's
+no jest to me!' said the young lady, scowling, and turning her face to
+the fire.
+
+'I'm very far from jesting, Miss Catherine,' I replied.  'You love Mr.
+Edgar because he is handsome, and young, and cheerful, and rich, and
+loves you.  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.'
+
+'No, to be sure not: I should only pity him--hate him, perhaps, if he
+were ugly, and a clown.'
+
+'But there are several other handsome, rich young men in the world:
+handsomer, possibly, and richer than he is.  What should hinder you from
+loving them?'
+
+'If there be any, they are out of my way: I've seen none like Edgar.'
+
+'You may see some; and he won't always be handsome, and young, and may
+not always be rich.'
+
+'He is now; and I have only to do with the present.  I wish you would
+speak rationally.'
+
+'Well, that settles it: if you have only to do with the present, marry
+Mr. Linton.'
+
+'I don't want your permission for that--I _shall_ marry him: and yet you
+have not told me whether I'm right.'
+
+'Perfectly right; if people be right to marry only for the present.  And
+now, let us hear what you are unhappy about.  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.  All seems smooth and easy:
+where is the obstacle?'
+
+'_Here_! and _here_!' replied Catherine, striking one hand on her
+forehead, and the other on her breast: 'in whichever place the soul
+lives.  In my soul and in my heart, I'm convinced I'm wrong!'
+
+'That's very strange!  I cannot make it out.'
+
+'It's my secret.  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.'
+
+She seated herself by me again: her countenance grew sadder and graver,
+and her clasped hands trembled.
+
+'Nelly, do you never dream queer dreams?' she said, suddenly, after some
+minutes' reflection.
+
+'Yes, now and then,' I answered.
+
+'And so do I.  I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me
+ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me,
+like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.  And this is
+one: I'm going to tell it--but take care not to smile at any part of it.'
+
+'Oh! don't, Miss Catherine!' I cried.  'We're dismal enough without
+conjuring up ghosts and visions to perplex us.  Come, come, be merry and
+like yourself!  Look at little Hareton! _he's_ dreaming nothing dreary.
+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 another as that chubby thing:
+nearly as young and innocent.  However, Nelly, I shall oblige you to
+listen: it's not long; and I've no power to be merry to-night.'
+
+'I won't hear it, I won't hear it!' I repeated, hastily.
+
+I was superstitious about dreams then, and am still; and Catherine had an
+unusual gloom in her aspect, that made me dread something from which I
+might shape a prophecy, and foresee a fearful catastrophe.  She was
+vexed, but she did not proceed.  Apparently taking up another subject,
+she recommenced in a short time.
+
+'If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely miserable.'
+
+'Because you are not fit to go there,' I answered.  'All sinners would be
+miserable in heaven.'
+
+'But it is not for that.  I dreamt once that I was there.'
+
+'I tell you I won't hearken to your dreams, Miss Catherine!  I'll go to
+bed,' I interrupted again.
+
+She laughed, and held me down; for I made a motion to leave my chair.
+
+'This is nothing,' cried she: 'I was only going to say that heaven did
+not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to
+earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the
+middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing
+for joy.  That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other.  I've
+no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and
+if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't
+have thought of it.  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.  Whatever our souls are
+made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a
+moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.'
+
+Ere this speech ended I became sensible of Heathcliff's presence.  Having
+noticed a slight movement, I turned my head, and saw him rise from the
+bench, and steal out noiselessly.  He had listened till he heard
+Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him, and then he stayed to
+hear no further.  My companion, sitting on the ground, was prevented by
+the back of the settle from remarking his presence or departure; but I
+started, and bade her hush!
+
+'Why?' she asked, gazing nervously round.
+
+'Joseph is here,' I answered, catching opportunely the roll of his
+cartwheels up the road; 'and Heathcliff will come in with him.  I'm not
+sure whether he were not at the door this moment.'
+
+'Oh, he couldn't overhear me at the door!' said she.  'Give me Hareton,
+while you get the supper, and when it is ready ask me to sup with you.  I
+want to cheat my uncomfortable conscience, and be convinced that
+Heathcliff has no notion of these things.  He has not, has he?  He does
+not know what being in love is!'
+
+'I see no reason that he should not know, as well as you,' I returned;
+'and if you are his choice, he'll be the most unfortunate creature that
+ever was born!  As soon as you become Mrs. 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.  'Who is to separate us, pray?  They'll meet the fate of
+Milo!  Not as long as I live, Ellen: for no mortal creature.  Every
+Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing before I could
+consent to forsake Heathcliff.  Oh, that's not what I intend--that's not
+what I mean!  I shouldn't be Mrs. Linton were such a price demanded!
+He'll be as much to me as he has been all his lifetime.  Edgar must shake
+off his antipathy, and tolerate him, at least.  He will, when he learns
+my true feelings towards him.  Nelly, I see now you think me a selfish
+wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we
+should be beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to
+rise, and place him out of my brother's power.'
+
+'With your husband's money, Miss Catherine?' I asked.  'You'll find him
+not so pliable as you calculate upon: and, though I'm hardly a judge, I
+think that's the worst motive you've given yet for being the wife of
+young Linton.'
+
+'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.  This
+is for the sake of one who comprehends in his person my feelings to Edgar
+and myself.  I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a
+notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you.  What
+were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here?  My great
+miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and
+felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself.  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
+Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well
+aware, as winter changes the trees.  My love for Heathcliff resembles the
+eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.
+Nelly, I _am_ Heathcliff!  He's always, always in my mind: not as a
+pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own
+being.  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.  I was out of patience with her folly!
+
+'If I can make any sense of your nonsense, Miss,' I said, 'it only goes
+to convince me that you are ignorant of the duties you undertake in
+marrying; or else that you are a wicked, unprincipled girl.  But trouble
+me with no more secrets: I'll not promise to keep them.'
+
+'You'll keep that?' she asked, eagerly.
+
+'No, I'll not promise,' I repeated.
+
+She was about to insist, when the entrance of Joseph finished our
+conversation; and Catherine removed her seat to a corner, and nursed
+Hareton, while I made the supper.  After it was cooked, my fellow-servant
+and I began to quarrel who should carry some to Mr. Hindley; and we
+didn't settle it till all was nearly cold.  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.
+
+'And how isn't that nowt comed in fro' th' field, be this time?  What is
+he about? girt idle seeght!' demanded the old man, looking round for
+Heathcliff.
+
+'I'll call him,' I replied.  'He's in the barn, I've no doubt.'
+
+I went and called, but got no answer.  On returning, I whispered to
+Catherine that he had heard a good part of what she said, I was sure; and
+told how I saw him quit the kitchen just as she complained of her
+brother's conduct regarding him.  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.  She was absent such a while that Joseph proposed we
+should wait no longer.  He cunningly conjectured they were staying away
+in order to avoid hearing his protracted blessing.  They were 'ill eneugh
+for ony fahl manners,' he affirmed.  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!
+
+'I want to speak to him, and I _must_, before I go upstairs,' she said.
+'And the gate is open: he is somewhere out of hearing; for he would not
+reply, though I shouted at the top of the fold as loud as I could.'
+
+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.  Meantime, Catherine paced up and down the floor,
+exclaiming--'I wonder where he is--I wonder where he can be!  What did I
+say, Nelly?  I've forgotten.  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.  I do wish he would!'
+
+'What a noise for nothing!' I cried, though rather uneasy myself.  '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.  I'll engage he's lurking there.  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.
+
+'Yon lad gets war und war!' observed he on re-entering.  '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 play t' devil to-morn, and he'll do weel.  He's patience
+itsseln wi' sich careless, offald craters--patience itsseln he is!  Bud
+he'll not be soa allus--yah's see, all on ye!  Yah mun'n't drive him out
+of his heead for nowt!'
+
+'Have you found Heathcliff, you ass?' interrupted Catherine.  'Have you
+been looking for him, as I ordered?'
+
+'I sud more likker look for th' horse,' he replied.  'It 'ud be to more
+sense.  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.  However,
+Catherine would not be persuaded into tranquillity.  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.  She beat Hareton, or any child, at a good passionate fit of
+crying.
+
+About midnight, while we still sat up, the storm came rattling over the
+Heights in full fury.  There was a violent wind, as well as thunder, and
+either one or the other split a tree off at the corner of the building: a
+huge bough fell across the roof, and knocked down a portion of the east
+chimney-stack, sending a clatter of stones and soot into the
+kitchen-fire.  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.  I felt some sentiment that it must be a
+judgment on us also.  The Jonah, in my mind, was Mr. Earnshaw; and I
+shook the handle of his den that I might ascertain if he were yet living.
+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.  But
+the uproar passed away in twenty minutes, leaving us all unharmed;
+excepting Cathy, who got thoroughly drenched for her obstinacy in
+refusing to take shelter, and standing bonnetless and shawlless to catch
+as much water as she could with her hair and clothes.  She came in and
+lay down on the settle, all soaked as she was, turning her face to the
+back, and putting her hands before it.
+
+'Well, Miss!' I exclaimed, touching her shoulder; 'you are not bent on
+getting your death, are you?  Do you know what o'clock it is?  Half-past
+twelve.  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.  He
+guesses we shouldn't wait for him till this late hour: at least, he
+guesses that only Mr. Hindley would be up; and he'd rather avoid having
+the door opened by the master.'
+
+'Nay, nay, he's noan at Gimmerton,' said Joseph.  'I's niver wonder but
+he's at t' bothom of a bog-hoile.  This visitation worn't for nowt, and I
+wod hev' ye to look out, Miss--yah muh be t' next.  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.'  And he began quoting
+several texts, referring us to chapters and verses where we might find
+them.
+
+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.  I heard Joseph read on a while afterwards; then I
+distinguished his slow step on the ladder, and then I dropped asleep.
+
+Coming down somewhat later than usual, I saw, by the sunbeams piercing
+the chinks of the shutters, Miss Catherine still seated near the
+fireplace.  The house-door was ajar, too; light entered from its unclosed
+windows; Hindley had come out, and stood on the kitchen hearth, haggard
+and drowsy.
+
+'What ails you, Cathy?' he was saying when I entered: 'you look as dismal
+as a drowned whelp.  Why are you so damp and pale, child?'
+
+'I've been wet,' she answered reluctantly, 'and I'm cold, that's all.'
+
+'Oh, she is naughty!' I cried, perceiving the master to be tolerably
+sober.  'She got steeped in the shower of yesterday evening, and there
+she has sat the night through, and I couldn't prevail on her to stir.'
+
+Mr. Earnshaw stared at us in surprise.  'The night through,' he repeated.
+'What kept her up? not fear of the thunder, surely?  That was over hours
+since.'
+
+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.  The morning was fresh and cool; I threw
+back the lattice, and presently the room filled with sweet scents from
+the garden; but Catherine called peevishly to me, 'Ellen, shut the
+window.  I'm starving!'  And her teeth chattered as she shrank closer to
+the almost extinguished embers.
+
+'She's ill,' said Hindley, taking her wrist; 'I suppose that's the reason
+she would not go to bed.  Damn it!  I don't want to be troubled with more
+sickness here.  What took you into the rain?'
+
+'Running after t' lads, as usuald!' croaked Joseph, catching an
+opportunity from our hesitation to thrust in his evil tongue.  '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 a-courting 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 up and bolt into th' house, t' minute yah heard t'
+maister's horse-fit clatter up t' road.'
+
+'Silence, eavesdropper!' cried Catherine; 'none of your insolence before
+me!  Edgar Linton came yesterday by chance, Hindley; and it was _I_ who
+told him to be off: because I knew you would not like to have met him as
+you were.'
+
+'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.  You need not
+be afraid of harming him: though I hate him as much as ever, he did me a
+good turn a short time since that will make my conscience tender of
+breaking his neck.  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.'
+
+'I never saw Heathcliff last night,' answered Catherine, beginning to sob
+bitterly: 'and if you do turn him out of doors, I'll go with him.  But,
+perhaps, you'll never have an opportunity: perhaps, he's gone.'  Here she
+burst into uncontrollable grief, and the remainder of her words were
+inarticulate.
+
+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.  I thought she was going mad, and I begged
+Joseph to run for the doctor.  It proved the commencement of delirium:
+Mr. Kenneth, as soon as he saw her, pronounced her dangerously ill; she
+had a fever.  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.
+
+Though I cannot say I made a gentle nurse, and Joseph and the master were
+no better, and though our patient was as wearisome and headstrong as a
+patient could be, she weathered it through.  Old Mrs. Linton paid us
+several visits, to be sure, and set things to rights, and scolded and
+ordered us all; and when Catherine was convalescent, she insisted on
+conveying her to Thrushcross Grange: for which deliverance we were very
+grateful.  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.
+
+Our young lady returned to us saucier and more passionate, and haughtier
+than ever.  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.  From that period, for several
+months, she ceased to hold any communication with me, save in the
+relation of a mere servant.  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.  Then
+the doctor had said that she would not bear crossing much; she ought to
+have her own way; and it was nothing less than murder in her eyes for any
+one to presume to stand up and contradict her.  From Mr. Earnshaw and his
+companions she kept aloof; and tutored by Kenneth, and serious threats of
+a fit that often attended her rages, her brother allowed her whatever she
+pleased to demand, and generally avoided aggravating her fiery temper.  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 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.
+
+Much against my inclination, I was persuaded to leave Wuthering Heights
+and accompany her here. Little Hareton was nearly five years old, and I
+had just begun to teach him his letters.  We made a sad parting; but
+Catherine's tears were more powerful than ours.  When I refused to go,
+and when she found her entreaties did not move me, she went lamenting to
+her husband and brother.  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.  And so I had but one choice left: to do as I was
+ordered.  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!
+
+* * * * *
+
+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 half-past one.  She would not hear of staying a
+second longer: in truth, I felt rather disposed to defer the sequel of
+her narrative myself.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+A charming introduction to a hermit's life!  Four weeks' torture,
+tossing, and sickness!  Oh, these bleak winds and bitter northern skies,
+and impassable roads, and dilatory country surgeons!  And oh, this dearth
+of the human physiognomy! and, worse than all, the terrible intimation of
+Kenneth that I need not expect to be out of doors till spring!
+
+Mr. Heathcliff has just honoured me with a call.  About seven days ago he
+sent me a brace of grouse--the last of the season.  Scoundrel!  He is not
+altogether guiltless in this illness of mine; and that I had a great mind
+to tell him.  But, alas! how could I offend a man who was charitable
+enough to sit at my bedside a good hour, and talk on some other subject
+than pills and draughts, blisters and leeches?  This is quite an easy
+interval.  I am too weak to read; yet I feel as if I could enjoy
+something interesting.  Why not have up Mrs. Dean to finish her tale?  I
+can recollect its chief incidents, as far as she had gone.  Yes: I
+remember her hero had run off, and never been heard of for three years;
+and the heroine was married.  I'll ring: she'll be delighted to find me
+capable of talking cheerfully.  Mrs. Dean came.
+
+'It wants twenty minutes, sir, to taking the medicine,' she commenced.
+
+'Away, away with it!' I replied; 'I desire to have--'
+
+'The doctor says you must drop the powders.'
+
+'With all my heart!  Don't interrupt me.  Come and take your seat here.
+Keep your fingers from that bitter phalanx of vials.  Draw your knitting
+out of your pocket--that will do--now continue the history of Mr.
+Heathcliff, from where you left off, to the present day.  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. Lockwood; but I
+couldn't give my word for any.  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.  Are you feeling better this morning?'
+
+'Much.'
+
+'That's good news.'
+
+* * * * *
+
+I got Miss Catherine and myself to Thrushcross Grange; and, to my
+agreeable disappointment, she behaved infinitely better than I dared to
+expect.  She seemed almost over-fond of Mr. Linton; and even to his
+sister she showed plenty of affection.  They were both very attentive to
+her comfort, certainly.  It was not the thorn bending to the
+honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn.  There were no
+mutual concessions: one stood erect, and the others yielded: and who can
+be ill-natured and bad-tempered when they encounter neither opposition
+nor indifference?  I observed that Mr. Edgar had a deep-rooted fear of
+ruffling her humour.  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.  He many a time spoke sternly to me
+about my pertness; and averred that the stab of a knife could not inflict
+a worse pang than he suffered at seeing his lady vexed.  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.  Catherine had seasons of gloom and silence now and then:
+they were respected with sympathising silence by her husband, who
+ascribed them to an alteration in her constitution, produced by her
+perilous illness; as she was never subject to depression of spirits
+before.  The return of sunshine was welcomed by answering sunshine from
+him.  I believe I may assert that they were really in possession of deep
+and growing happiness.
+
+It ended.  Well, we _must_ be for ourselves in the long run; the mild and
+generous are only more justly selfish than the domineering; and it ended
+when circumstances caused each to feel that the one's interest was not
+the chief consideration in the other's thoughts.  On a mellow evening in
+September, I was coming from the garden with a heavy basket of apples
+which I had been gathering.  It had got dusk, and the moon looked over
+the high wall of the court, causing undefined shadows to lurk in the
+corners of the numerous projecting portions of the building.  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?'
+
+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.  I turned
+about to discover who spoke, fearfully; for the doors were shut, and I
+had seen nobody on approaching the steps.  Something stirred in the
+porch; and, moving nearer, I distinguished a tall man dressed in dark
+clothes, with dark face and hair.  He leant against the side, and held
+his fingers on the latch as if intending to open for himself.  'Who can
+it be?' I thought.  'Mr. Earnshaw?  Oh, no!  The voice has no resemblance
+to his.'
+
+'I have waited here an hour,' he resumed, while I continued staring; 'and
+the whole of that time all round has been as still as death.  I dared not
+enter.  You do not know me?  Look, I'm not a stranger!'
+
+A ray fell on his features; the cheeks were sallow, and half covered with
+black whiskers; the brows lowering, the eyes deep-set and singular.  I
+remembered the eyes.
+
+'What!' I cried, uncertain whether to regard him as a worldly visitor,
+and I raised my hands in amazement.  '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.
+'Are they at home? where is she?  Nelly, you are not glad! you needn't be
+so disturbed.  Is she here?  Speak!  I want to have one word with
+her--your mistress.  Go, and say some person from Gimmerton desires to
+see her.'
+
+'How will she take it?' I exclaimed.  'What will she do?  The surprise
+bewilders me--it will put her out of her head!  And you _are_ Heathcliff!
+But altered!  Nay, there's no comprehending it.  Have you been for a
+soldier?'
+
+'Go and carry my message,' he interrupted, impatiently.  'I'm in hell
+till you do!'
+
+He lifted the latch, and I entered; but when I got to the parlour where
+Mr. and Mrs. Linton were, I could not persuade myself to proceed.  At
+length I resolved on making an excuse to ask if they would have the
+candles lighted, and I opened the door.
+
+They sat together in a window whose lattice lay back against the wall,
+and displayed, beyond the garden trees, and the wild green park, the
+valley of Gimmerton, with a long line of mist winding nearly to its top
+(for very soon after you pass the chapel, as you may have noticed, the
+sough that runs from the marshes joins a beck which follows the bend of
+the glen).  Wuthering Heights rose above this silvery vapour; but our old
+house was invisible; it rather dips down on the other side.  Both the
+room and its occupants, and the scene they gazed on, looked wondrously
+peaceful.  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.'
+
+'What does he want?' asked Mrs. Linton.
+
+'I did not question him,' I answered.
+
+'Well, close the curtains, Nelly,' she said; 'and bring up tea.  I'll be
+back again directly.'
+
+She quitted the apartment; Mr. Edgar inquired, carelessly, who it was.
+
+'Some one mistress does not expect,' I replied.  'That Heathcliff--you
+recollect him, sir--who used to live at Mr. Earnshaw's.'
+
+'What! the gipsy--the ploughboy?' he cried.  'Why did you not say so to
+Catherine?'
+
+'Hush! you must not call him by those names, master,' I said.  'She'd be
+sadly grieved to hear you.  She was nearly heartbroken when he ran off.  I
+guess his return will make a jubilee to her.'
+
+Mr. Linton walked to a window on the other side of the room that
+overlooked the court.  He unfastened it, and leant out.  I suppose they
+were below, for he exclaimed quickly: 'Don't stand there, love!  Bring
+the person in, if it be anyone particular.'  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, Edgar!' she panted, flinging her arms round his neck.  'Oh,
+Edgar darling!  Heathcliff's come back--he is!'  And she tightened her
+embrace to a squeeze.
+
+'Well, well,' cried her husband, crossly, 'don't strangle me for that!  He
+never struck me as such a marvellous treasure.  There is no need to be
+frantic!'
+
+'I know you didn't like him,' she answered, repressing a little the
+intensity of her delight.  'Yet, for my sake, you must be friends now.
+Shall I tell him to come up?'
+
+'Here,' he said, 'into the parlour?'
+
+'Where else?' she asked.
+
+He looked vexed, and suggested the kitchen as a more suitable place for
+him.  Mrs. Linton eyed him with a droll expression--half angry, half
+laughing at his fastidiousness.
+
+'No,' she added, after a while; 'I cannot sit in the kitchen.  Set two
+tables here, Ellen: one for your master and Miss Isabella, being gentry;
+the other for Heathcliff and myself, being of the lower orders.  Will
+that please you, dear?  Or must I have a fire lighted elsewhere?  If so,
+give directions.  I'll run down and secure my guest.  I'm afraid the joy
+is too great to be real!'
+
+She was about to dart off again; but Edgar arrested her.
+
+'_You_ bid him step up,' he said, addressing me; 'and, Catherine, try to
+be glad, without being absurd.  The whole household need not witness the
+sight of your welcoming a runaway servant as a brother.'
+
+I descended, and found Heathcliff waiting under the porch, evidently
+anticipating an invitation to enter.  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.  But the
+lady's glowed with another feeling when her friend appeared at the door:
+she sprang forward, took both his hands, and led him to Linton; and then
+she seized Linton's reluctant fingers and crushed them into his.  Now,
+fully revealed by the fire and candlelight, I was amazed, more than ever,
+to behold the transformation of Heathcliff.  He had grown a tall,
+athletic, well-formed man; beside whom my master seemed quite slender and
+youth-like.  His upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been
+in the army.  His countenance was much older in expression and decision
+of feature than Mr. Linton's; it looked intelligent, and retained no
+marks of former degradation.  A half-civilised ferocity lurked yet in the
+depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued; and his
+manner was even dignified: quite divested of roughness, though stern for
+grace.  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.
+Heathcliff dropped his slight hand, and stood looking at him coolly till
+he chose to speak.
+
+'Sit down, sir,' he said, at length.  'Mrs. Linton, recalling old times,
+would have me give you a cordial reception; and, of course, I am
+gratified when anything occurs to please her.'
+
+'And I also,' answered Heathcliff, 'especially if it be anything in which
+I have a part.  I shall stay an hour or two willingly.'
+
+He took a seat opposite Catherine, who kept her gaze fixed on him as if
+she feared he would vanish were she to remove it.  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.
+They were too much absorbed in their mutual joy to suffer embarrassment.
+Not so Mr. Edgar: he grew pale with pure annoyance: a feeling that
+reached its climax when his lady rose, and stepping across the rug,
+seized Heathcliff's hands again, and laughed like one beside herself.
+
+'I shall think it a dream to-morrow!' she cried.  'I shall not be able to
+believe that I have seen, and touched, and spoken to you once more.  And
+yet, cruel Heathcliff! you don't deserve this welcome.  To be absent and
+silent for three years, and never to think of me!'
+
+'A little more than you have thought of me,' he murmured.  '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.  Your welcome has put these ideas out of my mind; but beware of
+meeting me with another aspect next time!  Nay, you'll not drive me off
+again.  You were really sorry for me, were you?  Well, there was cause.
+I've fought through a bitter life since I last heard your voice; and you
+must forgive me, for I struggled only for you!'
+
+'Catherine, unless we are to have cold tea, please to come to the table,'
+interrupted Linton, striving to preserve his ordinary tone, and a due
+measure of politeness.  'Mr. Heathcliff will have a long walk, wherever
+he may lodge to-night; and I'm thirsty.'
+
+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.  The
+meal hardly endured ten minutes.  Catherine's cup was never filled: she
+could neither eat nor drink.  Edgar had made a slop in his saucer, and
+scarcely swallowed a mouthful.  Their guest did not protract his stay
+that evening above an hour longer.  I asked, as he departed, if he went
+to Gimmerton?
+
+'No, to Wuthering Heights,' he answered: 'Mr. Earnshaw invited me, when I
+called this morning.'
+
+Mr. Earnshaw invited _him_! and _he_ called on Mr. Earnshaw!  I pondered
+this sentence painfully, after he was gone.  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.
+
+About the middle of the night, I was wakened from my first nap by Mrs.
+Linton gliding into my chamber, taking a seat on my bedside, and pulling
+me by the hair to rouse me.
+
+'I cannot rest, Ellen,' she said, by way of apology.  'And I want some
+living creature to keep me company in my 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.  He always contrives to be sick at the least cross!  I gave a few
+sentences of commendation to Heathcliff, and he, either for a headache or
+a pang of envy, began to cry: so I got up and left him.'
+
+'What use is it praising Heathcliff to him?' I answered.  'As lads they
+had an aversion to each other, and Heathcliff would hate just as much to
+hear him praised: it's human nature.  Let Mr. Linton alone about him,
+unless you would like an open quarrel between them.'
+
+'But does it not show great weakness?' pursued she.  'I'm not envious: I
+never feel hurt at the brightness of Isabella's yellow hair and the
+whiteness of her skin, at her dainty elegance, and the fondness all the
+family exhibit for her.  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.  It pleases her brother to
+see us cordial, and that pleases me.  But they are very much alike: they
+are spoiled children, and fancy the world was made for their
+accommodation; and though I humour both, I think a smart chastisement
+might improve them all the same.'
+
+'You're mistaken, Mrs. Linton,' said I.  'They humour you: I know what
+there would be to do if they did not.  You can well afford to indulge
+their passing whims as long as their business is to anticipate all your
+desires.  You may, however, fall out, at last, over something of equal
+consequence to both sides; and then those you term weak are very capable
+of being as obstinate as you.'
+
+'And then we shall fight to the death, sha'n't we, Nelly?' she returned,
+laughing.  'No! I tell you, I have such faith in Linton's love, that I
+believe I might kill him, and he wouldn't wish to retaliate.'
+
+I advised her to value him the more for his affection.
+
+'I do,' she answered, 'but he needn't resort to whining for trifles.  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 must get accustomed to him,
+and he may as well like him: considering how Heathcliff has reason to
+object to him, I'm sure he behaved excellently!'
+
+'What do you think of his going to Wuthering Heights?' I inquired.  '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.  'I wonder as much as you.  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.  There were some persons sitting at
+cards; Heathcliff joined them; my brother lost some money to him, and,
+finding him plentifully supplied, he requested that he would come again
+in the evening: to which he consented.  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.  But
+Heathcliff affirms his principal reason for resuming a connection with
+his ancient persecutor is a wish to install himself in quarters at walking
+distance from the Grange, and an attachment to the house where we lived
+together; and likewise a hope that I shall have more opportunities of
+seeing him there than I could have if he settled in Gimmerton.  He means
+to offer liberal payment for permission to lodge at the 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.'
+
+'It's a nice place for a young man to fix his dwelling in!' said I.  'Have
+you no fear of the consequences, Mrs. Linton?'
+
+'None for my friend,' she replied: 'his strong head will keep him from
+danger; a little for Hindley: but he can't be made morally worse than he
+is; and I stand between him and bodily harm.  The event of this evening
+has reconciled me to God and humanity!  I had risen in angry rebellion
+against Providence.  Oh, I've endured very, very bitter misery, Nelly!  If
+that creature knew how bitter, he'd be ashamed to cloud its removal with
+idle petulance.  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.  However, it's over,
+and I'll take no revenge on his folly; I can afford to suffer anything
+hereafter!  Should the meanest thing alive slap me on the cheek, I'd not
+only turn the other, but I'd ask pardon for provoking it; and, as a
+proof, I'll go make my peace with Edgar instantly.  Good-night!  I'm an
+angel!'
+
+In this self-complacent conviction she departed; and the success of her
+fulfilled resolution was obvious on the morrow: Mr. Linton had not only
+abjured his peevishness (though his spirits seemed still subdued by
+Catherine's exuberance of vivacity), but he ventured no objection to her
+taking Isabella with her to Wuthering Heights in the afternoon; and she
+rewarded him with such a summer of sweetness and affection in return as
+made the house a paradise for several days; both master and servants
+profiting from the perpetual sunshine.
+
+Heathcliff--Mr. Heathcliff I should say in future--used the liberty of
+visiting at Thrushcross Grange cautiously, at first: he seemed estimating
+how far its owner would bear his intrusion.  Catherine, also, deemed it
+judicious to moderate her expressions of pleasure in receiving him; and
+he gradually established his right to be expected.  He retained a great
+deal of the reserve for which his boyhood was remarkable; and that served
+to repress all startling demonstrations of feeling.  My master's
+uneasiness experienced a lull, and further circumstances diverted it into
+another channel for a space.
+
+His new source of trouble sprang from the not anticipated misfortune of
+Isabella Linton evincing a sudden and irresistible attraction towards the
+tolerated guest.  She 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.  Her brother, who loved her tenderly, was
+appalled at this fantastic preference.  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.  And he
+dreaded that mind: it revolted him: he shrank forebodingly from the idea
+of committing Isabella to its keeping.  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.
+
+We had all remarked, during some time, that Miss Linton fretted and pined
+over something.  She grew cross and wearisome; snapping at and teasing
+Catherine continually, at the imminent risk of exhausting her limited
+patience.  We excused her, to a certain extent, on the plea of
+ill-health: she was dwindling and fading before our eyes.  But one day,
+when she had been peculiarly 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. Linton peremptorily insisted that she
+should get to bed; and, having scolded her heartily, threatened to send
+for the doctor.  Mention of Kenneth caused her to exclaim, instantly,
+that her health was perfect, and it was only Catherine's harshness which
+made her unhappy.
+
+'How can you say I am harsh, you naughty fondling?' cried the mistress,
+amazed at the unreasonable assertion.  'You are surely losing your
+reason.  When have I been harsh, tell me?'
+
+'Yesterday,' sobbed Isabella, 'and now!'
+
+'Yesterday!' said her sister-in-law.  'On what occasion?'
+
+'In our walk along the moor: you told me to ramble where I pleased, while
+you sauntered on with Mr. Heathcliff!'
+
+'And that's your notion of harshness?' said Catherine, laughing.  'It was
+no hint that your company was superfluous?  We didn't care whether you
+kept with us or not; I merely thought Heathcliff's talk would have
+nothing entertaining for your ears.'
+
+'Oh, no,' wept the young lady; 'you wished me away, because you knew I
+liked to be there!'
+
+'Is she sane?' asked Mrs. Linton, appealing to me.  'I'll repeat our
+conversation, word for word, Isabella; and you point out any charm it
+could have had for you.'
+
+'I don't mind the conversation,' she answered: 'I wanted to be with--'
+
+'Well?' said Catherine, perceiving her hesitate to complete the sentence.
+
+'With him: and I won't be always sent off!' she continued, kindling up.
+'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. Linton, in
+surprise.  '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.  'I love him more than ever
+you loved Edgar, and he might love me, if you would let him!'
+
+'I wouldn't be you for a kingdom, then!' Catherine declared,
+emphatically: and she seemed to speak sincerely.  'Nelly, help me to
+convince her of her madness.  Tell her what Heathcliff is: an unreclaimed
+creature, without refinement, without cultivation; an arid wilderness of
+furze and whinstone.  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.  Pray, don't imagine that he conceals
+depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior!  He's not a
+rough diamond--a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic: he's a fierce,
+pitiless, wolfish man.  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.
+I know he couldn't love a Linton; and yet he'd be quite capable of
+marrying your fortune and expectations: avarice is growing with him a
+besetting sin.  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.'
+
+Miss Linton regarded her sister-in-law with indignation.
+
+'For shame! for shame!' she repeated, angrily.  'You are worse than
+twenty foes, you poisonous friend!'
+
+'Ah! you won't believe me, then?' said Catherine.  'You think I speak
+from wicked selfishness?'
+
+'I'm certain you do,' retorted Isabella; 'and I shudder at you!'
+
+'Good!' cried the other.  'Try for yourself, if that be your spirit: I
+have done, and yield the argument to your saucy insolence.'--
+
+'And I must suffer for her egotism!' she sobbed, as Mrs. Linton left the
+room.  'All, all is against me: she has blighted my single consolation.
+But she uttered falsehoods, didn't she?  Mr. 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.  'He's a bird of bad omen:
+no mate for you.  Mrs. Linton spoke strongly, and yet I can't contradict
+her.  She is better acquainted with his heart than I, or any one besides;
+and she never would represent him as worse than he is.  Honest people
+don't hide their deeds.  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. Earnshaw is worse and worse since he came.  They sit 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'.  One on 'em 's a'most getten
+his finger cut off wi' hauding t' other fro' stickin' hisseln loike a
+cawlf.  That's maister, yeah knaw, 'at 's soa up o' going tuh t' grand
+'sizes.  He's noan feared o' t' bench o' judges, norther Paul, nur Peter,
+nur John, nur Matthew, nor noan on 'em, not he!  He fair likes--he langs
+to set his brazened face agean 'em!  And yon bonny lad Heathcliff, yah
+mind, he's a rare 'un.  He can girn a laugh as well 's onybody at a
+raight divil's jest.  Does he niver say nowt of his fine living amang us,
+when he goes to t' Grange?  This is t' way on 't:--up at sun-down: dice,
+brandy, cloised shutters, und can'le-light till next day at noon: then,
+t'fooil gangs banning und raving to his cham'er, makking dacent fowks dig
+thur fingers i' thur lugs fur varry shame; un' the knave, why he can
+caint his brass, un' ate, un' sleep, un' off to his neighbour's to gossip
+wi' t' wife.  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 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.  'I'll not listen to
+your slanders.  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.  The day after, there was a justice-meeting at the next town;
+my master was obliged to attend; and Mr. Heathcliff, aware of his
+absence, called rather earlier than usual.  Catherine and Isabella were
+sitting in the library, on hostile terms, but silent: the latter alarmed
+at her recent indiscretion, and the disclosure she had made of her secret
+feelings in a transient fit of passion; the former, on mature
+consideration, really offended with her companion; and, if she laughed
+again at her pertness, inclined to make it no laughing matter to her.  She
+did laugh as she saw Heathcliff pass the window.  I was sweeping the
+hearth, and I noticed a mischievous smile on her lips.  Isabella,
+absorbed in her meditations, or a book, remained till the door opened;
+and it was too late to attempt an escape, which she would gladly have
+done had it been practicable.
+
+'Come in, that's right!' exclaimed the mistress, gaily, pulling a chair
+to the fire.  '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.
+Heathcliff, I'm proud to show you, at last, somebody that dotes on you
+more than myself.  I expect you to feel flattered.  Nay, it's not Nelly;
+don't look at her!  My poor little sister-in-law is breaking her heart by
+mere contemplation of your physical and moral beauty.  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.  'We were quarrelling like cats about you,
+Heathcliff; and I was fairly beaten in protestations of devotion and
+admiration: and, moreover, I was informed that if I would but have the
+manners to stand aside, my rival, as she will have herself to be, would
+shoot a shaft into your soul that would fix you for ever, and send my
+image into eternal oblivion!'
+
+'Catherine!' said Isabella, calling up her dignity, and disdaining to
+struggle from the tight grasp that held her, 'I'd thank you to adhere to
+the truth and not slander me, even in joke!  Mr. Heathcliff, be kind
+enough to bid this 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.'
+
+As the guest answered nothing, but took his seat, and looked thoroughly
+indifferent what sentiments she cherished concerning him, she turned and
+whispered an earnest appeal for liberty to her tormentor.
+
+'By no means!' cried Mrs. Linton in answer.  'I won't be named a dog in
+the manger again.  You _shall_ stay: now then!  Heathcliff, why don't you
+evince satisfaction at my pleasant news?  Isabella swears that the love
+Edgar has for me is nothing to that she entertains for you.  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.'
+
+'I think you belie her,' said Heathcliff, twisting his chair to face
+them.  '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.
+The poor thing couldn't bear that; she grew white and red in rapid
+succession, and, while tears beaded her lashes, bent the strength of her
+small fingers to loosen the firm clutch of Catherine; and perceiving that
+as fast as she raised one finger off her arm another closed down, and she
+could not remove the whole together, she began to make use of her nails;
+and their sharpness presently ornamented the detainer's with crescents of
+red.
+
+'There's a tigress!' exclaimed Mrs. Linton, setting her free, and shaking
+her hand with pain.  'Begone, for God's sake, and hide your vixen face!
+How foolish to reveal those talons to him.  Can't you fancy the
+conclusions he'll draw?  Look, Heathcliff! they are instruments that will
+do execution--you must beware of your eyes.'
+
+'I'd wrench them off her fingers, if they ever menaced me,' he answered,
+brutally, when the door had closed after her.  'But what did you mean by
+teasing the creature in that manner, Cathy?  You were not speaking the
+truth, were you?'
+
+'I assure you I was,' she returned.  '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.  But don't notice it
+further: I wished to punish her sauciness, that's all.  I like her too
+well, my dear Heathcliff, to let you absolutely seize and devour her up.'
+
+'And I like her too ill to attempt it,' said he, 'except in a very
+ghoulish fashion.  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.'
+
+'Delectably!' observed Catherine.  'They are dove's eyes--angel's!'
+
+'She's her brother's heir, is she not?' he asked, after a brief silence.
+
+'I should be sorry to think so,' returned his companion.  '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.'
+
+'If they were _mine_, they would be none the less that,' said Heathcliff;
+'but though Isabella Linton may be silly, she is scarcely mad; and, in
+short, we'll dismiss the matter, as you advise.'
+
+From their tongues they did dismiss it; and Catherine, probably, from her
+thoughts.  The other, I felt certain, recalled it often in the course of
+the evening.  I saw him smile to himself--grin rather--and lapse into
+ominous musing whenever Mrs. Linton had occasion to be absent from the
+apartment.
+
+I determined to watch his movements.  My heart invariably cleaved to the
+master's, in preference to Catherine's side: with reason I imagined, for
+he was kind, and trustful, and honourable; and she--she could not be
+called _opposite_, yet she seemed to allow herself such wide latitude,
+that I had little faith in her principles, and still less sympathy for
+her feelings.  I wanted something to happen which might have the effect
+of freeing both Wuthering Heights and the Grange of Mr. Heathcliff
+quietly; leaving us as we had been prior to his advent.  His visits were
+a continual nightmare to me; and, I suspected, to my master also.  His
+abode at the Heights was an oppression past explaining.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Sometimes, while meditating on these things in solitude, I've got up in a
+sudden terror, and put on my bonnet to go see how all was at the farm.
+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.
+
+One time I passed the old gate, going out of my way, on a journey to
+Gimmerton. It was about the period that my narrative has reached: a
+bright frosty afternoon; the ground bare, and the road hard and dry. I
+came to a stone where the highway branches off on to the moor at your
+left hand; a rough sand-pillar, with the letters W. H. cut on its north
+side, on the east, G., and on the south-west, T. G. It serves as a
+guide-post to the Grange, the Heights, and village. The sun shone yellow
+on its grey head, reminding me of summer; and I cannot say why, but all
+at once a gush of child's sensations flowed into my heart. Hindley and I
+held it a favourite spot twenty years before. I gazed long at the
+weather-worn block; and, stooping down, perceived a hole near the bottom
+still full of snail-shells and pebbles, which we were fond of storing
+there with more perishable things; and, as fresh as reality, it appeared
+that I beheld my early playmate seated on the withered turf: his dark,
+square head bent forward, and his little hand scooping out the earth
+with a piece of slate. 'Poor Hindley!' I exclaimed, involuntarily. I
+started: my bodily eye was cheated into a momentary belief that the
+child lifted its face and stared straight into mine! It vanished in a
+twinkling; but immediately I felt an irresistible yearning to be at the
+Heights. 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. The apparition had
+outstripped me: it stood looking through the gate. That was my first
+idea on observing an elf-locked, brown-eyed boy setting his ruddy
+countenance against the bars. Further reflection suggested this must be
+Hareton, _my_ Hareton, not altered greatly since I left him, ten months
+since.
+
+'God bless thee, darling!' I cried, forgetting instantaneously my
+foolish fears. 'Hareton, it's Nelly! Nelly, thy nurse.'
+
+He retreated out of arm's length, and picked up a large flint.
+
+'I am come to see thy father, Hareton,' I added, guessing from the
+action that Nelly, if she lived in his memory at all, was not recognised
+as one with me.
+
+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.  You may be certain this grieved more than angered me.  Fit to
+cry, I took an orange from my pocket, and offered it to propitiate him.
+He hesitated, and then snatched it from my hold; as if he fancied I only
+intended to tempt and disappoint him.  I showed another, keeping it out
+of his reach.
+
+'Who has taught you those fine words, my bairn?' I inquired.  'The
+curate?'
+
+'Damn the curate, and thee!  Gie me that,' he replied.
+
+'Tell us where you got your lessons, and you shall have it,' said I.
+'Who's your master?'
+
+'Devil daddy,' was his answer.
+
+'And what do you learn from daddy?' I continued.
+
+He jumped at the fruit; I raised it higher.  'What does he teach you?' I
+asked.
+
+'Naught,' said he, 'but to keep out of his gait.  Daddy cannot bide me,
+because I swear at him.'
+
+'Ah! and the devil teaches you to swear at daddy?' I observed.
+
+'Ay--nay,' he drawled.
+
+'Who, then?'
+
+'Heathcliff.'
+
+'I asked if he liked Mr. Heathcliff.'
+
+'Ay!' he answered again.
+
+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.  He says I mun do as I will.'
+
+'And the curate does not teach you to read and write, then?' I pursued.
+
+'No, I was told the curate should have his--teeth dashed down his--throat,
+if he stepped over the threshold--Heathcliff had promised that!'
+
+I put the orange in his hand, and bade him tell his father that a woman
+called Nelly Dean was waiting to speak with him, by the garden gate.  He
+went up the walk, and entered the house; but, instead of Hindley,
+Heathcliff 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.  This
+is not much connected with Miss Isabella's affair: except that it urged
+me to resolve further on mounting vigilant guard, and doing my utmost to
+check the spread of such bad influence at the Grange: even though I
+should wake a domestic storm, by thwarting Mrs. Linton's pleasure.
+
+The next time Heathcliff came my young lady chanced to be feeding some
+pigeons in the court.  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.  Heathcliff had not the habit of bestowing a
+single unnecessary civility on Miss Linton, I knew.  Now, as soon as he
+beheld her, his first precaution was to take a sweeping survey of the
+house-front.  I was standing by the kitchen-window, but I drew out of
+sight.  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.  She averted her face: he apparently put some
+question which she had no mind to answer.  There was another rapid glance
+at the house, and supposing himself unseen, the scoundrel had the
+impudence to embrace her.
+
+'Judas!  Traitor!' I ejaculated.  'You are a hypocrite, too, are you?  A
+deliberate deceiver.'
+
+'Who is, Nelly?' said Catherine's voice at my elbow: I had been
+over-intent on watching the pair outside to mark her entrance.
+
+'Your worthless friend!' I answered, warmly: 'the sneaking rascal yonder.
+Ah, he has caught a glimpse of us--he is coming in!  I wonder will he
+have the heart to find a plausible excuse for making love to Miss, when
+he told you he hated her?'
+
+Mrs. Linton saw Isabella tear herself free, and run into the garden; and
+a minute after, Heathcliff opened the door.  I couldn't withhold giving
+some loose to my indignation; but Catherine angrily insisted on silence,
+and threatened to order me out of the kitchen, if I dared to be so
+presumptuous as to put in my insolent tongue.
+
+'To hear you, people might think you were the mistress!' she cried.  'You
+want setting down in your right place!  Heathcliff, what are you about,
+raising this stir?  I said you must let Isabella alone!--I beg you will,
+unless you are tired of being received here, and wish Linton to draw the
+bolts against you!'
+
+'God forbid that he should try!' answered the black villain.  I detested
+him just then.  'God keep him meek and patient!  Every day I grow madder
+after sending him to heaven!'
+
+'Hush!' said Catherine, shutting the inner door!  'Don't vex me.  Why
+have you disregarded my request?  Did she come across you on purpose?'
+
+'What is it to you?' he growled.  'I have a right to kiss her, if she
+chooses; and you have no right to object.  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.
+Clear your face: you sha'n't scowl at me!  If you like Isabella, you
+shall marry her.  But do you like her?  Tell the truth, Heathcliff!
+There, you won't answer.  I'm certain you don't.'
+
+'And would Mr. Linton approve of his sister marrying that man?' I
+inquired.
+
+'Mr. Linton should approve,' returned my lady, decisively.
+
+'He might spare himself the trouble,' said Heathcliff: 'I could do as
+well without his approbation. And as to you, Catherine, I have a mind to
+speak a few words now, while we are at it. I want you to be aware that I
+_know_ you have treated me infernally--infernally! Do you hear? And 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. And stand you
+aside!'
+
+'What new phase of his character is this?' exclaimed Mrs. Linton, in
+amazement.  'I've treated you infernally--and you'll take your revenge!
+How will you take it, ungrateful brute?  How have I treated you
+infernally?'
+
+'I seek no revenge on you,' replied Heathcliff, less vehemently.  'That's
+not the plan.  The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn
+against him; they crush those beneath them.  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.  Having
+levelled my palace, don't erect a hovel and complacently admire your own
+charity in giving me that for a home.  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.  'Well,
+I won't repeat my offer of a wife: it is as bad as offering Satan a lost
+soul.  Your bliss lies, like his, in inflicting misery.  You prove it.
+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.  Quarrel with Edgar, if you
+please, Heathcliff, and deceive his sister: you'll hit on exactly the
+most efficient method of revenging yourself on me.'
+
+The conversation ceased.  Mrs. Linton sat down by the fire, flushed and
+gloomy.  The spirit which served her was growing intractable: she could
+neither lay nor control it.  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.
+
+'Ellen,' said he, when I entered, 'have you seen your mistress?'
+
+'Yes; she's in the kitchen, sir,' I answered.  'She's sadly put out by
+Mr. Heathcliff's behaviour: and, indeed, I do think it's time to arrange
+his visits on another footing.  There's harm in being too soft, and now
+it's come to this--.'  And I related the scene in the court, and, as near
+as I dared, the whole subsequent dispute.  I fancied it could not be very
+prejudicial to Mrs. Linton; unless she made it so afterwards, by assuming
+the defensive for her guest.  Edgar Linton had difficulty in hearing me
+to the close.  His first words revealed that he did not clear his wife of
+blame.
+
+'This is insufferable!' he exclaimed.  'It is disgraceful that she should
+own him for a friend, and force his company on me!  Call me two men out
+of the hall, Ellen.  Catherine shall linger no longer to argue with the
+low ruffian--I have humoured her enough.'
+
+He descended, and bidding the servants wait in the passage, went,
+followed by me, to the kitchen.  Its occupants had recommenced their
+angry discussion: Mrs. Linton, at least, was scolding with renewed
+vigour; Heathcliff had moved to the window, and hung his head, somewhat
+cowed by her violent rating apparently.  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.
+
+'How is this?' said Linton, addressing her; 'what notion of propriety
+must you have to remain here, after the language which has been held to
+you by that blackguard?  I suppose, because it is his ordinary talk you
+think nothing of it: you are habituated to his baseness, and, perhaps,
+imagine I can get used to it too!'
+
+'Have you been listening at the door, Edgar?' asked the mistress, in a
+tone particularly calculated to provoke her husband, implying both
+carelessness and contempt of his irritation.  Heathcliff, who had raised
+his eyes at the former speech, gave a sneering laugh at the latter; on
+purpose, it seemed, to draw Mr. Linton's attention to him.  He succeeded;
+but Edgar did not mean to entertain him with any high flights of passion.
+
+'I've been so far forbearing with you, sir,' he said quietly; 'not that I
+was ignorant of your miserable, degraded character, but I felt you were
+only partly responsible for that; and Catherine wishing to keep up your
+acquaintance, I acquiesced--foolishly.  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.  Three
+minutes' delay will render it involuntary and ignominious.'
+
+Heathcliff measured the height and breadth of the speaker with an eye
+full of derision.
+
+'Cathy, this lamb of yours threatens like a bull!' he said.  'It is in
+danger of splitting its skull against my knuckles.  By God!  Mr. Linton,
+I'm mortally sorry that you are not worth knocking down!'
+
+My master glanced towards the passage, and signed me to fetch the men: he
+had no intention of hazarding a personal encounter.  I obeyed the hint;
+but Mrs. Linton, suspecting something, followed; and when I attempted to
+call them, she pulled me back, slammed the door to, and locked it.
+
+'Fair means!' she said, in answer to her husband's look of angry
+surprise.  'If you have not courage to attack him, make an apology, or
+allow yourself to be beaten.  It will correct you of feigning more valour
+than you possess.  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.  He tried to wrest the key from Catherine's grasp, and for safety
+she flung it into the hottest part of the fire; whereupon Mr. Edgar was
+taken with a nervous trembling, and his countenance grew deadly pale.  For
+his life he could not avert that excess of emotion: mingled anguish and
+humiliation overcame him completely.  He leant on the back of a chair,
+and covered his face.
+
+'Oh, heavens!  In old days this would win you knighthood!' exclaimed Mrs.
+Linton.  'We are vanquished! we are vanquished!  Heathcliff would as soon
+lift a finger at you as the king would march his army against a colony of
+mice.  Cheer up! you sha'n't be hurt!  Your type is not a lamb, it's a
+sucking leveret.'
+
+'I wish you joy of the milk-blooded coward, Cathy!' said her friend.  'I
+compliment you on your taste.  And that is the slavering, shivering thing
+you preferred to me!  I would not strike him with my fist, but I'd kick
+him with my foot, and experience considerable satisfaction.  Is he
+weeping, or is he going to faint for fear?'
+
+The fellow approached and gave the chair on which Linton rested a push.
+He'd better have kept his distance: my master quickly sprang erect, and
+struck him full on the throat a blow that would have levelled a slighter
+man.  It took his breath for a minute; and while he choked, Mr. Linton
+walked out by the back door into the yard, and from thence to the front
+entrance.
+
+'There! you've done with coming here,' cried Catherine.  'Get away, now;
+he'll return with a brace of pistols and half-a-dozen assistants.  If he
+did overhear us, of course he'd never forgive you.  You've played me an
+ill turn, Heathcliff!  But go--make haste!  I'd rather see Edgar at bay
+than you.'
+
+'Do you suppose I'm going with that blow burning in my gullet?' he
+thundered.  'By hell, no!  I'll crush his ribs in like a rotten hazel-nut
+before I cross the threshold!  If I don't floor him now, I shall murder
+him some time; so, as you value his existence, let me get at him!'
+
+'He is not coming,' I interposed, framing a bit of a lie.  '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.'
+
+The gardeners and coachman were there: but Linton was with them.  They
+had already entered the court.  Heathcliff, on the second thoughts,
+resolved to avoid a struggle against three underlings: he seized the
+poker, smashed the lock from the inner door, and made his escape as they
+tramped in.
+
+Mrs. Linton, who was very much excited, bade me accompany her up-stairs.
+She did not know my share in contributing to the disturbance, and I was
+anxious to keep her in ignorance.
+
+'I'm nearly distracted, Nelly!' she exclaimed, throwing herself on the
+sofa.  '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.  And, Nelly, say to
+Edgar, if you see him again to-night, that I'm in danger of being
+seriously ill.  I wish it may prove true.  He has startled and distressed
+me shockingly!  I want to frighten him.  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.  What possessed him to
+turn listener?  Heathcliff's talk was outrageous, after you left us; but
+I could soon have diverted him from Isabella, and the rest meant nothing.
+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.  Really, when he
+opened on me in that unreasonable tone of displeasure after I had scolded
+Heathcliff till I was hoarse for him, I did not care hardly what they did
+to each other; especially as I felt that, however the scene closed, we
+should all be driven asunder for nobody knows how long!  Well, if I
+cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend--if Edgar will be mean and jealous,
+I'll try to break their hearts by breaking my own.  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.
+To this point he has been discreet in dreading to provoke me; you must
+represent the peril of quitting that policy, and remind him of my
+passionate temper, verging, when kindled, on frenzy.  I wish you could
+dismiss that apathy out of that countenance, and look rather more anxious
+about me.'
+
+The stolidity with which I received these instructions was, no doubt,
+rather exasperating: for they were delivered in perfect sincerity; but I
+believed a person who could plan the turning of her fits of passion to
+account, beforehand, might, by exerting her will, manage to control
+herself tolerably, even while under their influence; and I did not wish
+to 'frighten' her husband, as she said, and multiply his annoyances for
+the purpose of serving her selfishness.  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.
+He began to speak first.
+
+'Remain where you are, Catherine,' he said; without any anger in his
+voice, but with much sorrowful despondency.  'I shall not stay.  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.'
+
+'To get rid of me, answer my question,' persevered Mr. Linton.  'You must
+answer it; and that violence does not alarm me.  I have found that you
+can be as stoical as anyone, when you please.  Will you give up
+Heathcliff hereafter, or will you give up me?  It is impossible for you
+to be _my_ friend and _his_ at the same time; and I absolutely _require_
+to know which you choose.'
+
+'I require to be let alone!' exclaimed Catherine, furiously.  'I demand
+it!  Don't you see I can scarcely stand?  Edgar, you--you leave me!'
+
+She rang the bell till it broke with a twang; I entered leisurely.  It
+was enough to try the temper of a saint, such senseless, wicked rages!
+There she lay dashing her head against the arm of the sofa, and grinding
+her teeth, so that you might fancy she would crash them to splinters!  Mr.
+Linton stood looking at her in sudden compunction and fear.  He told me
+to fetch some water.  She had no breath for speaking.  I brought a glass
+full; and as she would not drink, I sprinkled it on her face.  In a few
+seconds she stretched herself out stiff, and turned up her eyes, while
+her cheeks, at once blanched and livid, assumed the aspect of death.
+Linton looked terrified.
+
+'There is nothing in the world the matter,' I whispered.  I did not want
+him to yield, though I could not help being afraid in my heart.
+
+'She has blood on her lips!' he said, shuddering.
+
+'Never mind!' I answered, tartly. And I told him how she had resolved,
+previous to his coming, on exhibiting a fit of frenzy. 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. I made up my mind for broken
+bones, at least; but she only glared about her for an instant, and then
+rushed from the room. The master directed me to follow; I did, to her
+chamber-door: she hindered me from going further by securing it against
+me.
+
+As she never offered to descend to breakfast next morning, I went to ask
+whether she would have some carried up.  'No!' she replied, peremptorily.
+The same question was repeated at dinner and tea; and again on the morrow
+after, and received the same answer.  Mr. Linton, on his part, spent his
+time in the library, and did not inquire concerning his wife's
+occupations.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+While Miss Linton moped about the park and garden, always silent, and
+almost always in tears; and her brother shut himself up among books that
+he never opened--wearying, I guessed, with a continual vague expectation
+that Catherine, repenting her conduct, would come of her own accord to
+ask pardon, and seek a reconciliation--and _she_ fasted pertinaciously,
+under the idea, probably, that at every meal Edgar was ready to choke for
+her absence, and pride alone held him from running to cast himself at her
+feet; I went about my household duties, convinced that the Grange had but
+one sensible soul in its walls, and that lodged in my body.  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.  I determined they should come
+about as they pleased for me; and though it was a tiresomely slow
+process, I began to rejoice at length in a faint dawn of its progress: as
+I thought at first.
+
+Mrs. Linton, on the third day, unbarred her door, and having finished the
+water in her pitcher and decanter, desired a renewed supply, and a basin
+of gruel, for she believed she was dying.  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.  She ate and drank eagerly, and
+sank back on her pillow again, clenching her hands and groaning.  'Oh, I
+will die,' she exclaimed, 'since no one cares anything about me.  I wish
+I had not taken that.'  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.
+
+'What is that apathetic being doing?' she demanded, pushing the thick
+entangled locks from her wasted face.  'Has he fallen into a lethargy, or
+is he dead?'
+
+'Neither,' replied I; 'if you mean Mr. Linton.  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.'
+
+I should not have spoken so if I had known her true condition, but I
+could not get rid of the notion that she acted a part of her disorder.
+
+'Among his books!' she cried, confounded.  'And I dying!  I on the brink
+of the grave!  My God! does he know how I'm altered?' continued she,
+staring at her reflection in a mirror hanging against the opposite wall.
+'Is that Catherine Linton?  He imagines me in a pet--in play, perhaps.
+Cannot you inform him that it is frightful earnest?  Nelly, if it be not
+too late, as soon as I learn how he feels, I'll choose between these two:
+either to starve at once--that would be no punishment unless he had a
+heart--or to recover, and leave the country.  Are you speaking the truth
+about him now?  Take care.  Is he actually so utterly indifferent for my
+life?'
+
+'Why, ma'am,' I answered, 'the master has no idea of your being deranged;
+and of course he does not fear that you will let yourself die of hunger.'
+
+'You think not?  Cannot you tell him I will?' she returned.  'Persuade
+him! speak of your own mind: say you are certain I will!'
+
+'No, you forget, Mrs. Linton,' I suggested, 'that you have eaten some
+food with a relish this evening, and to-morrow you will perceive its good
+effects.'
+
+'If I were only sure it would kill him,' she interrupted, 'I'd kill
+myself directly!  These three awful nights I've never closed my lids--and
+oh, I've been tormented!  I've been haunted, Nelly!  But I begin to fancy
+you don't like me.  How strange!  I thought, though everybody hated and
+despised each other, they could not avoid loving me.  And they have all
+turned to enemies in a few hours: they have, I'm positive; the people
+here.  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.  And Edgar standing solemnly by to see
+it over; then offering prayers of thanks to God for restoring peace to
+his house, and going back to his _books_!  What in the name of all that
+feels has he to do with _books_, when I am dying?'
+
+She could not bear the notion which I had put into her head of Mr.
+Linton's philosophical resignation.  Tossing about, she increased her
+feverish bewilderment to madness, and tore the pillow with her teeth;
+then raising herself up all burning, desired that I would open the
+window.  We were in the middle of winter, the wind blew strong from the
+north-east, and I objected.  Both the expressions flitting over her face,
+and the changes of her moods, began to alarm me terribly; and brought to
+my recollection her former illness, and the doctor's injunction that she
+should not be crossed.  A minute previously she was violent; now,
+supported on one arm, and not noticing 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.
+
+'That's a turkey's,' she murmured to herself; 'and this is a wild duck's;
+and this is a pigeon's.  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.  And here is a moor-cock's; and this--I should know it among a
+thousand--it's a lapwing's.  Bonny bird; wheeling over our heads in the
+middle of the moor.  It wanted to get to its nest, for the clouds had
+touched the swells, and it felt rain coming.  This feather was picked up
+from the heath, the bird was not shot: we saw its nest in the winter,
+full of little skeletons.  Heathcliff set a trap over it, and the old
+ones dared not come.  I made him promise he'd never shoot a lapwing after
+that, and he didn't.  Yes, here are more!  Did he shoot my lapwings,
+Nelly?  Are they red, any of them?  Let me look.'
+
+'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 handfuls.  'Lie down and shut your eyes: you're wandering.
+There's a mess!  The down is flying about like snow.'
+
+I went here and there collecting it.
+
+'I see in you, Nelly,' she continued dreamily, 'an aged woman: you have
+grey hair and bent shoulders.  This bed is the fairy cave under Penistone
+crags, and you are gathering elf-bolts to hurt our heifers; pretending,
+while I am near, that they are only locks of wool.  That's what you'll
+come to fifty years hence: I know you are not so now.  I'm not wandering:
+you're mistaken, or else I should believe you really _were_ that withered
+hag, and I should think I _was_ under Penistone Crags; and I'm conscious
+it's night, and there are two candles on the table making the black press
+shine like jet.'
+
+'The black press? where is that?' I asked.  'You are talking in your
+sleep!'
+
+'It's against the wall, as it always is,' she replied.  '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.
+
+'Don't _you_ see that face?' she inquired, gazing earnestly at the
+mirror.
+
+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.
+
+'It's behind there still!' she pursued, anxiously.  'And it stirred.  Who
+is it?  I hope it will not come out when you are gone!  Oh!  Nelly, the
+room is haunted!  I'm afraid of being alone!'
+
+I took her hand in mine, and bid her be composed; for a succession of
+shudders convulsed her frame, and she would keep straining her gaze
+towards the glass.
+
+'There's nobody here!' I insisted.  'It was _yourself_, Mrs. Linton: you
+knew it a while since.'
+
+'Myself!' she gasped, 'and the clock is striking twelve!  It's true,
+then! that's dreadful!'
+
+Her fingers clutched the clothes, and gathered them over her eyes.  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.
+
+'Why, what is the matter?' cried I.  'Who is coward now?  Wake up!  That
+is the glass--the mirror, Mrs. Linton; and you see yourself in it, and
+there am I too by your side.'
+
+Trembling and bewildered, she held me fast, but the horror gradually
+passed from her countenance; its paleness gave place to a glow of shame.
+
+'Oh, dear!  I thought I was at home,' she sighed.  'I thought I was lying
+in my chamber at Wuthering Heights.  Because I'm weak, my brain got
+confused, and I screamed unconsciously.  Don't say anything; but stay
+with me.  I dread sleeping: my dreams appal me.'
+
+'A sound sleep would do you good, ma'am,' I answered: 'and I hope this
+suffering will prevent your trying starving again.'
+
+'Oh, if I were but in my own bed in the old house!' she went on bitterly,
+wringing her hands.  'And that wind sounding in the firs by the lattice.
+Do let me feel it--it comes straight down the moor--do let me have one
+breath!'  To pacify her I held the casement ajar a few seconds.  A cold
+blast rushed through; I closed it, and returned to my post.  She lay
+still now, her face bathed in tears.  Exhaustion of body had entirely
+subdued her spirit: our fiery Catherine was no better than a wailing
+child.
+
+'How long is it since I shut myself in here?' she asked, suddenly
+reviving.
+
+'It was Monday evening,' I replied, 'and this is Thursday night, or
+rather Friday morning, at present.'
+
+'What! of the same week?' she exclaimed.  'Only that brief time?'
+
+'Long enough to live on nothing but cold water and ill-temper,' observed
+I.
+
+'Well, it seems a weary number of hours,' she muttered doubtfully: 'it
+must be more. I remember being in the parlour after they had quarrelled,
+and Edgar being cruelly provoking, and me running into this room
+desperate. As soon as ever I had barred the door, utter blackness
+overwhelmed me, and I fell on the floor. 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. Before I recovered sufficiently to see and hear, it began to
+be dawn, and, Nelly, I'll tell you what I thought, and what has kept
+recurring and recurring till I feared for my reason. 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 pondered, and worried myself to
+discover what it could be, and, most strangely, the whole last seven
+years of my life grew a blank! I did not recall that they had been at
+all. 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 was
+laid alone, for the first time; and, rousing from a dismal doze after a
+night of weeping, I lifted my hand to push the panels aside: it struck
+the table-top! I swept it along the carpet, and then memory burst in: my
+late anguish was swallowed in a paroxysm of despair. I cannot say why I
+felt so wildly wretched: it must have been temporary derangement; for
+there is scarcely cause. But, supposing at twelve years old I had been
+wrenched from the Heights, and every early association, and my all in
+all, as Heathcliff was at that time, and been converted at a stroke into
+Mrs. Linton, the lady of Thrushcross Grange, and the wife of a stranger:
+an exile, and outcast, thenceforth, from what had been my world. You may
+fancy a glimpse of the abyss where I grovelled! Shake your head as you
+will, Nelly, you have helped to unsettle me! You should have spoken to
+Edgar, indeed you should, and compelled him to leave me quiet! Oh, I'm
+burning! I wish I were out of doors! I wish I were a girl again, half
+savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening
+under them! Why am I so changed? why does my blood rush into a hell of
+tumult at a few words? I'm sure I should be myself were I once among the
+heather on those hills. 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.
+
+'You won't give me a chance of life, you mean,' she said, sullenly.
+'However, I'm not helpless yet; I'll open it myself.'
+
+And sliding from the bed before I could hinder her, she crossed the room,
+walking very uncertainly, threw it back, and bent out, careless of the
+frosty air that cut about her shoulders as keen as a knife.  I entreated,
+and finally attempted to force her to retire.  But I soon found her
+delirious strength much surpassed mine (she was delirious, I became
+convinced by her subsequent actions and ravings).  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.
+
+'Look!' she cried eagerly, 'that's my room with the candle in it, and the
+trees swaying before it; and the other candle is in Joseph's garret.
+Joseph sits up late, doesn't he?  He's waiting till I come home that he
+may lock the gate.  Well, he'll wait a while yet.  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.  But, Heathcliff,
+if I dare you now, will you venture?  If you do, I'll keep you.  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.  I never
+will!'
+
+She paused, and resumed with a strange smile.  'He's considering--he'd
+rather I'd come to him!  Find a way, then! not through that kirkyard.  You
+are slow!  Be content, you always followed me!'
+
+Perceiving it vain to argue against her insanity, I was planning how I
+could reach something to wrap about her, without quitting my hold of
+herself (for I could not trust her alone by the gaping lattice), when, to
+my consternation, I heard the rattle of the door-handle, and Mr. Linton
+entered.  He had only then come from the library; and, in passing through
+the lobby, had noticed our talking and been attracted by curiosity, or
+fear, to examine what it signified, at that late hour.
+
+'Oh, sir!' I cried, checking the exclamation risen to his lips at the
+sight which met him, and the bleak atmosphere of the chamber.  'My poor
+mistress is ill, and she quite masters me: I cannot manage her at all;
+pray, come and persuade her to go to bed.  Forget your anger, for she's
+hard to guide any way but her own.'
+
+'Catherine ill?' he said, hastening to us.  'Shut the window, Ellen!
+Catherine! why--'
+
+He was silent.  The haggardness of Mrs. Linton's appearance smote him
+speechless, and he could only glance from her to me in horrified
+astonishment.
+
+'She's been fretting here,' I continued, 'and eating scarcely anything,
+and never complaining: she would admit none of us till this evening, and
+so we couldn't inform you of her state, as we were not aware of it
+ourselves; but it is nothing.'
+
+I felt I uttered my explanations awkwardly; the master frowned.  'It is
+nothing, is it, Ellen Dean?' he said sternly.  '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.
+
+At first she gave him no glance of recognition: he was invisible to her
+abstracted gaze.  The delirium was not fixed, however; having weaned her
+eyes from contemplating the outer darkness, by degrees she centred her
+attention on him, and discovered who it was that held her.
+
+'Ah! you are come, are you, Edgar Linton?' she said, with angry
+animation.  '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.  'Am I nothing to
+you any more?  Do you love that wretch Heath--'
+
+'Hush!' cried Mrs. Linton.  'Hush, this moment!  You mention that name
+and I end the matter instantly by a spring from the window!  What you
+touch at present you may have; but my soul will be on that hill-top
+before you lay hands on me again.  I don't want you, Edgar: I'm past
+wanting you.  Return to your books.  I'm glad you possess a consolation,
+for all you had in me is gone.'
+
+'Her mind wanders, sir,' I interposed.  'She has been talking nonsense
+the whole evening; but let her have quiet, and proper attendance, and
+she'll rally.  Hereafter, we must be cautious how we vex her.'
+
+'I desire no further advice from you,' answered Mr. Linton.  'You knew
+your mistress's nature, and you encouraged me to harass her.  And not to
+give me one hint of how she has been these three days!  It was heartless!
+Months of sickness could not cause such a change!'
+
+I began to defend myself, thinking it too bad to be blamed for another's
+wicked waywardness.  'I knew Mrs. Linton's nature to be headstrong and
+domineering,' cried I: 'but I didn't know that you wished to foster her
+fierce temper!  I didn't know that, to humour her, I should wink at Mr.
+Heathcliff.  I performed the duty of a faithful servant in telling you,
+and I have got a faithful servant's wages!  Well, it will teach me to be
+careful next time.  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.
+
+'You'd rather hear nothing about it, I suppose, then, Mr. Linton?' said
+I.  'Heathcliff has your permission to come a-courting to Miss, and to
+drop in at every opportunity your absence offers, on purpose to poison
+the mistress against you?'
+
+Confused as Catherine was, her wits were alert at applying our
+conversation.
+
+'Ah!  Nelly has played traitor,' she exclaimed, passionately.  'Nelly is
+my hidden enemy.  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.  I felt no inclination to tarry the
+event; and, resolving to seek medical aid on my own responsibility, I
+quitted the chamber.
+
+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.  Notwithstanding my hurry, I
+stayed to examine it, lest ever after I should have the conviction
+impressed on my imagination that it was a creature of the other world.  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 quickly released the animal, and lifted it
+into the garden.  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 treated it so.  While untying the knot round the
+hook, it seemed to me that I repeatedly caught the beat of horses' feet
+galloping at some distance; but there were such a number of things to
+occupy my reflections that I hardly gave the circumstance a thought:
+though it was a strange sound, in that place, at two o'clock in the
+morning.
+
+Mr. Kenneth was fortunately just issuing from his house to see a patient
+in the village as I came up the street; and my account of Catherine
+Linton's malady induced him to accompany me back immediately.  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.
+
+'Nelly Dean,' said he, 'I can't help fancying there's an extra cause for
+this.  What has there been to do at the Grange?  We've odd reports up
+here.  A stout, hearty lass like Catherine does not fall ill for a
+trifle; and that sort of people should not either.  It's hard work
+bringing them through fevers, and such things.  How did it begin?'
+
+'The master will inform you,' I answered; 'but you are acquainted with
+the Earnshaws' violent dispositions, and Mrs. Linton caps them all.  I
+may say this; it commenced in a quarrel.  She was struck during a tempest
+of passion with a kind of fit.  That's her account, at least: for she
+flew off in the height of it, and locked herself up.  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.'
+
+'Mr. Linton will be sorry?' observed Kenneth, interrogatively.
+
+'Sorry? he'll break his heart should anything happen!' I replied.  'Don't
+alarm him more than necessary.'
+
+'Well, I told him to beware,' said my companion; 'and he must bide the
+consequences of neglecting my warning!  Hasn't he been intimate with Mr.
+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.  At present he's discharged from the
+trouble of calling; owing to some presumptuous aspirations after Miss
+Linton which he manifested.  I hardly think he'll be taken in again.'
+
+'And does Miss Linton turn a cold shoulder on him?' was the doctor's next
+question.
+
+'I'm not in her confidence,' returned I, reluctant to continue the
+subject.
+
+'No, she's a sly one,' he remarked, shaking his head.  'She keeps her own
+counsel!  But she's a real little fool.  I have it from good authority
+that last night (and a pretty night it was!) she and Heathcliff were
+walking in the plantation at the back of your house above two hours; and
+he pressed her not to go in again, but just mount his horse and away with
+him!  My informant said she could only put him off by pledging her word
+of honour to be prepared on their first meeting after that: when it was
+to be he didn't hear; but you urge Mr. Linton to look sharp!'
+
+This news filled me with fresh fears; I outstripped Kenneth, and ran most
+of the way back.  The little dog was yelping in the garden yet.  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.  On ascending to
+Isabella's room, my suspicions were confirmed: it was empty.  Had I been
+a few hours sooner Mrs. Linton's illness might have arrested her rash
+step.  But what could be done now?  There was a bare possibility of
+overtaking them if pursued instantly.  _I_ could not pursue them,
+however; and I dared not rouse the family, and fill the place with
+confusion; still less unfold the business to my master, absorbed as he
+was in his present calamity, and having no heart to spare for a second
+grief!  I saw nothing for it but to hold my tongue, and suffer matters to
+take their course; and Kenneth being arrived, I went with a badly
+composed countenance to announce him.  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.
+
+The doctor, on examining the case for himself, spoke hopefully to him of
+its having a favourable termination, if we could only preserve around her
+perfect and constant tranquillity.  To me, he signified the threatening
+danger was not so much death, as permanent alienation of intellect.
+
+I did not close my eyes that night, nor did Mr. 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.  Every one was active but
+Miss Isabella; and they began to remark how sound she slept: her brother,
+too, asked if she had risen, and seemed impatient for her presence, and
+hurt that she showed so little anxiety for her sister-in-law.  I trembled
+lest he should send me to call her; but I was spared the pain of being
+the first proclaimant of her flight.  One of the maids, a thoughtless
+girl, who had been on an early errand to Gimmerton, came panting
+up-stairs, open-mouthed, and dashed into the chamber, crying: 'Oh, dear,
+dear!  What mun we have next?  Master, master, our young lady--'
+
+'Hold your noise!' cried, I hastily, enraged at her clamorous manner.
+
+'Speak lower, Mary--What is the matter?' said Mr. Linton.  'What ails
+your young lady?'
+
+'She's gone, she's gone!  Yon' Heathcliff's run off wi' her!' gasped the
+girl.
+
+'That is not true!' exclaimed Linton, rising in agitation.  'It cannot
+be: how has the idea entered your head?  Ellen Dean, go and seek her.  It
+is incredible: it cannot be.'
+
+As he spoke he took the servant to the door, and then repeated his demand
+to know her reasons for such an assertion.
+
+'Why, I met on the road a lad that fetches milk here,' she stammered,
+'and he asked whether we weren't in trouble at the Grange.  I thought he
+meant for missis's sickness, so I answered, yes.  Then says he, "There's
+somebody gone after 'em, I guess?"  I stared.  He saw I knew nought about
+it, and he told how a gentleman and 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.  And she noticed the
+man--Heathcliff it was, she felt certain: nob'dy could mistake him,
+besides--put a sovereign in her father's hand for payment.  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.  Heathcliff held both
+bridles as they rode on, and they set their faces from the village, and
+went as fast as the rough roads would let them.  The lass said nothing to
+her father, but she told it all over Gimmerton this morning.'
+
+I ran and peeped, for form's sake, into Isabella's room; confirming, when
+I returned, the servant's statement.  Mr. Linton had resumed his seat by
+the bed; on my re-entrance, he raised his eyes, read the meaning of my
+blank aspect, and dropped them without giving an order, or uttering a
+word.
+
+'Are we to try any measures for overtaking and bringing her back,' I
+inquired.  'How should we do?'
+
+'She went of her own accord,' answered the master; 'she had a right to go
+if she pleased.  Trouble me no more about her.  Hereafter she is only my
+sister in name: not because I disown her, but because she has disowned
+me.'
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+For two months the fugitives remained absent; in those two months, Mrs.
+Linton encountered and conquered the worst shock of what was denominated
+a brain fever.  No mother could have nursed an only child more devotedly
+than Edgar tended her.  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.
+
+The first time she left her chamber was at the commencement of the
+following March.  Mr. Linton had put on her pillow, in the morning, a
+handful of golden crocuses; her eye, long stranger to any gleam of
+pleasure, caught them in waking, and shone delighted as she gathered them
+eagerly together.
+
+'These are the earliest flowers at the Heights,' she exclaimed.  'They
+remind me of soft thaw winds, and warm sunshine, and nearly melted snow.
+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.
+Catherine, last spring at this time, I was longing to have you under this
+roof; now, I wish you were a mile or two up those hills: the air blows so
+sweetly, I feel that it would cure you.'
+
+'I shall never be there but once more,' said the invalid; 'and then
+you'll leave me, and I shall remain for ever.  Next spring you'll long
+again to have me under this roof, and you'll look back and think you were
+happy to-day.'
+
+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.  We knew she
+was really better, and, therefore, decided that long confinement to a
+single place produced much of this despondency, and it might be partially
+removed by a change of scene.  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.  By evening she seemed greatly
+exhausted; yet no arguments could persuade her to return to that
+apartment, and I had to arrange the parlour sofa for her bed, till
+another room could be prepared.  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.  Ah, I thought myself, she
+might recover, so waited on as she was.  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. Linton's heart would be gladdened,
+and his lands secured from a stranger's grip, by the birth of an heir.
+
+I should mention that Isabella sent to her brother, some six weeks from
+her departure, a short note, announcing her marriage with Heathcliff.  It
+appeared dry and cold; but at the bottom was dotted in with pencil an
+obscure apology, and an entreaty for kind remembrance and reconciliation,
+if her proceeding had offended him: asserting that she could not help it
+then, and being done, she had now no power to repeal it.  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.  I'll read it: for I keep it yet.  Any relic of the dead is
+precious, if they were valued living.
+
+* * * * *
+
+DEAR ELLEN, it begins,--I came last night to Wuthering Heights, and
+heard, for the first time, that Catherine has been, and is yet, very ill.
+I must not write to her, I suppose, and my brother is either too angry or
+too distressed to answer what I sent him.  Still, I must write to
+somebody, and the only choice left me is you.
+
+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, to lay nothing at the door of my weak will or deficient
+affection.
+
+The remainder of the letter is for yourself alone.  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.
+
+The second question I have great interest in; it is this--Is Mr.
+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.  Don't write, but come, and
+bring me something from Edgar.
+
+Now, you shall hear how I have been received in my new home, as I am led
+to imagine the Heights will be.  It is to amuse myself that I dwell on
+such subjects as the lack of external comforts: they never occupy my
+thoughts, except at the moment when I miss them.  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 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.  He did it with a courtesy that
+redounded to his credit.  His first act was to elevate his torch to a
+level with my face, squint malignantly, project his under-lip, and turn
+away.  Then he took the two horses, and led them into the stables;
+reappearing for the purpose of locking the outer gate, as if we lived in
+an ancient castle.
+
+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.  By the fire stood a ruffianly child, strong in limb
+and dirty in garb, with a look of Catherine in his eyes and about his
+mouth.
+
+'This is Edgar's legal nephew,' I reflected--'mine in a manner; I must
+shake hands, and--yes--I must kiss him.  It is right to establish a good
+understanding at the beginning.'
+
+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.
+
+'Shall you and I be friends, Hareton?' was my next essay at conversation.
+
+An oath, and a threat to set Throttler on me if I did not 'frame off'
+rewarded my perseverance.
+
+'Hey, Throttler, lad!' whispered the little wretch, rousing a half-bred
+bull-dog from its lair in a corner.  'Now, wilt thou be ganging?' he
+asked authoritatively.
+
+Love for my life urged a compliance; I stepped over the threshold to wait
+till the others should enter.  Mr. Heathcliff was nowhere visible; and
+Joseph, whom I followed to the stables, and requested to accompany me in,
+after staring and muttering to himself, screwed up his nose and
+replied--'Mim! mim! mim!  Did iver Christian body hear aught like it?
+Mincing un' munching!  How can I tell whet ye say?'
+
+'I say, I wish you to come with me into the house!' I cried, thinking him
+deaf, yet highly disgusted at his rudeness.
+
+'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.
+
+I walked round the yard, and through a wicket, to another door, at which
+I took the liberty of knocking, in hopes some more civil servant might
+show himself.  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.
+
+'What's your business here?' he demanded, grimly.  'Who are you?'
+
+'My name was Isabella Linton,' I replied.  'You've seen me before, sir.
+I'm lately married to Mr. Heathcliff, and he has brought me here--I
+suppose, by your permission.'
+
+'Is he come back, then?' asked the hermit, glaring like a hungry wolf.
+
+'Yes--we came just now,' I said; 'but he left me by the kitchen door; and
+when I would have gone in, your little boy played sentinel over the
+place, and frightened me off by the help of a bull-dog.'
+
+'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.
+
+I repented having tried this second entrance, and was almost inclined to
+slip away before he finished cursing, but ere I could execute that
+intention, he ordered me in, and shut and re-fastened the door.  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 pewter-dishes,
+which used to attract my gaze when I was a girl, partook of a similar
+obscurity, created by tarnish and dust.  I inquired whether I might call
+the maid, and be conducted to a bedroom!  Mr. Earnshaw vouchsafed no
+answer.  He walked up and down, with his hands in his pockets, apparently
+quite forgetting my presence; and his abstraction was evidently so deep,
+and his whole aspect so misanthropical, that I shrank from disturbing him
+again.
+
+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 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 sat and thought a doleful time: the clock struck eight, and nine, and
+still my companion paced to and fro, his head bent on his breast, and
+perfectly silent, unless a groan or a bitter ejaculation forced itself
+out at intervals.  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.  I was not
+aware how openly I grieved, till Earnshaw halted opposite, in his
+measured walk, and gave me a stare of newly-awakened surprise.  Taking
+advantage of his recovered attention, I exclaimed--'I'm tired with my
+journey, and I want to go to bed!  Where is the maid-servant?  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.
+
+'Joseph will show you Heathcliff's chamber,' said he; 'open that
+door--he's in there.'
+
+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.  'But why, Mr. Earnshaw?'  I did not relish the notion of
+deliberately fastening myself in with Heathcliff.
+
+'Look here!' he replied, pulling from his waistcoat a
+curiously-constructed pistol, having a double-edged spring knife attached
+to the barrel.  '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.  If
+once I find it open he's done for; I do it invariably, even though the
+minute before I have been recalling a hundred reasons that should make me
+refrain: it is some devil that urges me to thwart my own schemes by
+killing him.  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.  A hideous notion struck me: how
+powerful I should be possessing such an instrument!  I took it from his
+hand, and touched the blade.  He looked astonished at the expression my
+face assumed during a brief second: it was not horror, it was
+covetousness.  He snatched the pistol back, jealously; shut the knife,
+and returned it to its concealment.
+
+'I don't care if you tell him,' said he.  'Put him on his guard, and
+watch for him.  You know the terms we are on, I see: his danger does not
+shock you.'
+
+'What has Heathcliff done to you?' I asked.  '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.  He is
+clearly on the verge of madness: he was so last night at least.  I
+shuddered to be near him, and thought on the servant's ill-bred
+moroseness as comparatively agreeable.  He now recommenced his moody
+walk, and I raised the latch, and escaped into the kitchen.  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.  The contents of
+the pan began to boil, and he turned to plunge his hand into the bowl; I
+conjectured that this preparation was probably for our supper, and, being
+hungry, I resolved it should be eatable; so, crying out sharply, '_I'll_
+make the porridge!'  I removed the vessel out of his reach, and proceeded
+to take off my hat and riding-habit.  'Mr. Earnshaw,' I continued,
+'directs me to wait on myself: I will.  I'm not going to act the lady
+among you, for fear I should starve.'
+
+'Gooid Lord!' he muttered, sitting down, and stroking his ribbed
+stockings from the knee to the ankle.  '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.  I niver
+_did_ think to see t' day that I mud lave th' owld place--but I doubt
+it's nigh at hand!'
+
+This lamentation drew no notice from me: I went briskly to work, sighing
+to remember a period when it would have been all merry fun; but compelled
+speedily to drive off the remembrance.  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.  Joseph beheld my style of cookery with growing
+indignation.
+
+'Thear!' he ejaculated.  'Hareton, thou willn't sup thy porridge
+to-neeght; they'll be naught but lumps as big as my neive.  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.  Bang, bang.  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.  I expostulated, and desired that he should have his in a
+mug; affirming that I could not taste the liquid treated so dirtily.  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.
+Meanwhile, the infant ruffian continued sucking; and glowered up at me
+defyingly, as he slavered into the jug.
+
+'I shall have my supper in another room,' I said.  'Have you no place you
+call a parlour?'
+
+'_Parlour_!' he echoed, sneeringly, '_parlour_!  Nay, we've noa
+_parlours_.  If yah dunnut loike wer company, there's maister's; un' if
+yah dunnut loike maister, there's us.'
+
+'Then I shall go up-stairs,' I answered; 'show me a chamber.'
+
+I put my basin on a tray, and went myself to fetch some more milk.  With
+great grumblings, the fellow rose, and preceded me in my ascent: we
+mounted to the garrets; he opened a door, now and then, to look into the
+apartments we passed.
+
+'Here's a rahm,' he said, at last, flinging back a cranky board on
+hinges.  'It's weel eneugh to ate a few porridge in.  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.'
+
+The 'rahm' was a kind of lumber-hole smelling strong of malt and grain;
+various sacks of which articles were piled around, leaving a wide, bare
+space in the middle.
+
+'Why, man,' I exclaimed, facing him angrily, 'this is not a place to
+sleep in.  I wish to see my bed-room.'
+
+'_Bed-rume_!' he repeated, in a tone of mockery. 'Yah's see all t'
+_bed-rumes_ thear is--yon's mine.'
+
+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.
+
+'What do I want with yours?' I retorted.  'I suppose Mr. Heathcliff does
+not lodge at the top of the house, does he?'
+
+'Oh! it's Maister _Hathecliff's_ ye're wanting?' cried he, as if making a
+new discovery.  '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.'
+
+'You've a nice house, Joseph,' I could not refrain from observing, 'and
+pleasant inmates; and I think the concentrated essence of all the madness
+in the world took up its abode in my brain the day I linked my fate with
+theirs!  However, that is not to the present purpose--there are other
+rooms.  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.
+There was a carpet--a good one, but the pattern was obliterated by dust;
+a fireplace hung with cut-paper, dropping to pieces; a handsome
+oak-bedstead with ample crimson curtains of rather expensive material and
+modern make; but they had evidently experienced rough usage: the
+vallances hung in festoons, wrenched from their rings, and the iron rod
+supporting them was bent in an arc on one side, causing the drapery to
+trail upon the floor.  The chairs were also damaged, many of them
+severely; and deep indentations deformed the panels of the walls.  I was
+endeavouring to gather resolution for entering and taking possession,
+when my fool of a guide announced,--'This here is t' maister's.'  My
+supper by this time was cold, my appetite gone, and my patience
+exhausted.  I insisted on being provided instantly with a place of
+refuge, and means of repose.
+
+'Whear the divil?' began the religious elder.  'The Lord bless us!  The
+Lord forgie us!  Whear the _hell_ wold ye gang? ye marred, wearisome
+nowt!  Ye've seen all but Hareton's bit of a cham'er.  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.
+
+'Ech! ech!' exclaimed Joseph.  '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.  Gooid-for-naught
+madling! ye desarve pining fro' this to Chrustmas, flinging t' precious
+gifts o'God under fooit i' yer flaysome rages!  But I'm mista'en if ye
+shew yer sperrit lang.  Will Hathecliff bide sich bonny ways, think ye? I
+nobbut wish he may catch ye i' that plisky.  I nobbut wish he may.'
+
+And so he went on scolding to his den beneath, taking the candle with
+him; and I remained in the dark. The period of reflection succeeding
+this silly action compelled me to admit the necessity of smothering my
+pride and choking my wrath, and bestirring myself to remove its effects.
+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. Hindley. 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 pocket-handkerchief. Our labours were scarcely
+over when I heard Earnshaw's tread in the passage; my assistant tucked
+in his tail, and pressed to the wall; I stole into the nearest doorway.
+The dog's endeavour to avoid him was unsuccessful; as I guessed by a
+scutter down-stairs, and a prolonged, piteous yelping. I had better
+luck: he passed on, entered his chamber, and shut the door. Directly
+after Joseph came up with Hareton, to put him to bed. I had found
+shelter in Hareton's room, and the old man, on seeing me, said,--'They's
+rahm for boath ye un' yer pride, now, I sud think i' the hahse. 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.  My slumber was
+deep and sweet, though over far too soon.  Mr. Heathcliff awoke me; he
+had just come in, and demanded, in his loving manner, what I was doing
+there?  I told him the cause of my staying up so late--that he had the
+key of our room in his pocket.  The adjective _our_ gave mortal offence.
+He swore it was not, nor ever should be, mine; and he'd--but I'll not
+repeat his language, nor describe his habitual conduct: he is ingenious
+and unresting in seeking to gain my abhorrence!  I sometimes wonder at
+him with an intensity that deadens my fear: yet, I assure you, a tiger or
+a venomous serpent could not rouse terror in me equal to that which he
+wakens.  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 do hate him--I am wretched--I have been a fool!  Beware of uttering one
+breath of this to any one at the Grange.  I shall expect you every
+day--don't disappoint me!--ISABELLA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+As soon as I had perused this epistle I went to the master, and informed
+him that his sister had arrived at the Heights, and sent me a letter
+expressing her sorrow for Mrs. 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.
+
+'Forgiveness!' said Linton.  'I have nothing to forgive her, Ellen.  You
+may call at Wuthering Heights this afternoon, if you like, and say that I
+am not angry, but I'm sorry to have lost her; especially as I can never
+think she'll be happy.  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.'
+
+'And you won't write her a little note, sir?' I asked, imploringly.
+
+'No,' he answered.  'It is needless.  My communication with Heathcliff's
+family shall be as sparing as his with mine.  It shall not exist!'
+
+Mr. Edgar's coldness depressed me exceedingly; and all the way from the
+Grange I puzzled my brains how to put 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 daresay she had been on the watch for me since
+morning: I saw her looking through the lattice as I came up the garden
+causeway, and I nodded to her; but she drew back, as if afraid of being
+observed. I entered without knocking. There never was such a dreary,
+dismal scene as the formerly cheerful house presented! I must confess,
+that if I had been in the young lady's place, I would, at least, have
+swept the hearth, and wiped the tables with a duster. But she already
+partook of the pervading spirit of neglect which encompassed her. Her
+pretty face was wan and listless; her hair uncurled: some locks hanging
+lankly down, and some carelessly twisted round her head. Probably she
+had not touched her dress since yester evening. Hindley was not there.
+Mr. Heathcliff sat at a table, turning over some papers in his
+pocket-book; but he rose when I appeared, asked me how I did, quite
+friendly, and offered me a chair. He was the only thing there that
+seemed decent; and I thought he never looked better. So much had
+circumstances altered their positions, that he would certainly have
+struck a stranger as a born and bred gentleman; and his wife as a
+thorough little slattern! She came forward eagerly to greet me, and held
+out one hand to take the expected letter. I shook my head. She wouldn't
+understand the hint, but followed me to a sideboard, where I went to lay
+my bonnet, and importuned me in a whisper to give her directly what I
+had brought. 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. You needn't make a secret of it: we have no
+secrets between us.'
+
+'Oh, I have nothing,' I replied, thinking it best to speak the truth at
+once.  'My master bid me tell his sister that she must not expect either
+a letter or a visit from him at present.  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.'
+
+Mrs. Heathcliff's lip quivered slightly, and she returned to her seat in
+the window.  Her husband took his stand on the hearthstone, near me, and
+began to put questions concerning Catherine.  I told him as much as I
+thought proper of her illness, and he extorted from me, by
+cross-examination, most of the facts connected with its origin.  I blamed
+her, as she deserved, for bringing it all on herself; and ended by hoping
+that he would follow Mr. Linton's example and avoid future interference
+with his family, for good or evil.
+
+'Mrs. 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.  Her appearance is changed greatly,
+her character much more so; and the person who is compelled, of
+necessity, to be her companion, will only sustain his affection hereafter
+by the remembrance of what she once was, by common humanity, and a sense
+of duty!'
+
+'That is quite possible,' remarked Heathcliff, forcing himself to seem
+calm: 'quite possible that your master should have nothing but common
+humanity and a sense of duty to fall back upon.  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?'
+
+'I say, Mr. Heathcliff,' I replied, 'you must not: you never shall,
+through my means.  Another encounter between you and the master would
+kill her altogether.'
+
+'With your aid that may be avoided,' he continued; 'and should there be
+danger of such an event--should he be the cause of adding a single
+trouble more to her existence--why, I think I shall be justified in going
+to extremes!  I wish you had sincerity enough to tell me whether
+Catherine would suffer greatly from his loss: the fear that she would
+restrains me.  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.  You may look incredulous, if you please!  I never would have
+banished him from her society as long as she desired his.  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 has nearly forgotten you, and involving her in
+a new tumult of discord and distress.'
+
+'You suppose she has nearly forgotten me?' he said.  '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.  And then, Linton would be nothing, nor Hindley,
+nor all the dreams that ever I dreamt.  Two words would comprehend my
+future--_death_ and _hell_: existence, after losing her, would be hell.
+Yet I was a fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton's
+attachment more than mine.  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.  And
+Catherine has a heart as deep as I have: the sea could be as readily
+contained in that horse-trough as her whole affection be monopolised by
+him.  Tush!  He is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her
+horse.  It is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him
+what he has not?'
+
+'Catherine and Edgar are as fond of each other as any two people can be,'
+cried Isabella, with sudden vivacity.  '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 turns you adrift on the world with
+surprising alacrity.'
+
+'He is not aware of what I suffer,' she replied.  'I didn't tell him
+that.'
+
+'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.'
+
+'And nothing since?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'My young lady is looking sadly the worse for her change of condition,' I
+remarked.  'Somebody's love comes short in her case, obviously; whose, I
+may guess; but, perhaps, I shouldn't say.'
+
+'I should guess it was her own,' said Heathcliff.  'She degenerates into
+a mere slut!  She is tired of trying to please me uncommonly early.  You'd
+hardly credit it, but the very morrow of our wedding she was weeping to
+go home.  However, she'll suit this house so much the better for not
+being over nice, and I'll take care she does not disgrace me by rambling
+abroad.'
+
+'Well, sir,' returned I, 'I hope you'll consider that Mrs. Heathcliff is
+accustomed to be looked after and waited on; and that she has been
+brought up like an only daughter, whom every one was ready to serve.  You
+must let her have a maid to keep things tidy about her, and you must
+treat her kindly.  Whatever be your notion of Mr. 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.'
+
+'She abandoned them under a delusion,' he answered; 'picturing in me a
+hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous
+devotion.  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.  But, at
+last, I think she begins to know me: I don't perceive the silly smiles
+and grimaces that provoked me at first; and the senseless incapability of
+discerning that I was in earnest when I gave her my opinion of her
+infatuation and herself.  It was a marvellous effort of perspicacity to
+discover that I did not love her.  I believed, at one time, no lessons
+could teach her that!  And yet it is poorly learnt; for this morning she
+announced, as a piece of appalling intelligence, that I had actually
+succeeded in making her hate me!  A positive labour of Hercules, I assure
+you!  If it be achieved, I have cause to return thanks.  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.  But I don't care who knows that the
+passion was wholly on one side: and I never told her a lie about it.  She
+cannot accuse me of showing one bit of deceitful softness.  The first
+thing she saw me do, on coming out of the Grange, was to hang up her
+little dog; and when she pleaded for it, the first words I uttered were a
+wish that I had the hanging of every being belonging to her, except one:
+possibly she took that exception for herself.  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.  She even
+disgraces the name of Linton; and I've sometimes relented, from pure lack
+of invention, in my experiments on what she could endure, and still creep
+shamefully cringing back!  But tell him, also, to set his fraternal and
+magisterial heart at ease: that I keep strictly within the limits of the
+law.  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.  If she desired to go, she might: the nuisance of her presence
+outweighs the gratification to be derived from tormenting her!'
+
+'Mr. 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.  You are not so bewitched, ma'am, are
+you, as to remain with him of your own accord?'
+
+'Take care, Ellen!' answered Isabella, her eyes sparkling irefully; there
+was no misdoubting by their expression the full success of her partner's
+endeavours to make himself detested.  'Don't put faith in a single word
+he speaks.  He's a lying fiend! a monster, and not a human being!  I've
+been told I might leave him before; and I've made the attempt, but I dare
+not repeat it!  Only, Ellen, promise you'll not mention a syllable of his
+infamous conversation to my brother or Catherine.  Whatever he may
+pretend, he wishes to provoke Edgar to desperation: he says he has
+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.  'If you are
+called upon in a court of law, you'll remember her language, Nelly!  And
+take a good look at that countenance: she's near the point which would
+suit me.  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.  Go up-stairs; I have something to say
+to Ellen Dean in private.  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.'
+
+'Do you understand what the word pity means?' I said, hastening to resume
+my bonnet.  'Did you ever feel a touch of it in your life?'
+
+'Put that down!' he interrupted, perceiving my intention to depart.  'You
+are not going yet.  Come here now, Nelly: I must either persuade or
+compel you to aid me in fulfilling my determination to see Catherine, and
+that without delay.  I swear that I meditate no harm: I don't desire to
+cause any disturbance, or to exasperate or insult Mr. 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.  Last night I was in the
+Grange garden six hours, and I'll return there to-night; and every night
+I'll haunt the place, and every day, till I find an opportunity of
+entering.  If Edgar Linton meets me, I shall not hesitate to knock him
+down, and give him enough to insure his quiescence while I stay.  If his
+servants oppose me, I shall threaten them off with these pistols.  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'd warn you when I came, and
+then you might let me in unobserved, as soon as she was alone, and watch
+till I departed, your conscience quite calm: you would be hindering
+mischief.'
+
+I protested against playing that treacherous part in my employer's house:
+and, besides, I urged the cruelty and selfishness of his destroying Mrs.
+Linton's tranquillity for his satisfaction.  'The commonest occurrence
+startles her painfully,' I said.  'She's all nerves, and she couldn't
+bear the surprise, I'm positive.  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.  It is a foolish story to assert that Catherine could not bear
+to see me; and as to surprising her, I don't desire it: you must prepare
+her--ask her if I may come.  You say she never mentions my name, and that
+I am never mentioned to her.  To whom should she mention me if I am a
+forbidden topic in the house?  She thinks you are all spies for her
+husband.  Oh, I've no doubt she's in hell among you!  I guess by her
+silence, as much as anything, what she feels.  You say she is often
+restless, and anxious-looking: is that a proof of tranquillity?  You talk
+of her mind being unsettled.  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
+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. Lockwood, I argued and complained, and flatly refused him fifty
+times; but in the long run he forced me to an agreement.  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.  Was it right or
+wrong?  I fear it was wrong, though expedient.  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. Edgar's stern rebuke of my carrying tales; and I tried to smooth away
+all disquietude on the subject, by affirming, with frequent iteration,
+that that betrayal of trust, if it merited so harsh an appellation,
+should be the last.  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. Linton's hand.
+
+But here is Kenneth; I'll go down, and tell him how much better you are.
+My history is _dree_, as we say, and will serve to while away another
+morning.
+
+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.  But never mind!  I'll extract wholesome medicines from Mrs. Dean's
+bitter herbs; and firstly, let me beware of the fascination that lurks in
+Catherine Heathcliff's brilliant eyes.  I should be in a curious taking
+if I surrendered my heart to that young person, and the daughter turned
+out a second edition of the mother.
+
+
+
+
+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.  I'll
+continue it in her own words, only a little condensed.  She is, on the
+whole, a very fair narrator, and I don't think I could improve her style.
+
+In the evening, she said, the evening of my visit to the Heights, I knew,
+as well as if I saw him, that Mr. 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.  I had made up my mind
+not to give it till my master went somewhere, as I could not guess how
+its receipt would affect Catherine.  The consequence was, that it did not
+reach her before the lapse of three days.  The fourth was Sunday, and I
+brought it into her room after the family were gone to church.  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 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.
+He departed, and I went up-stairs.
+
+Mrs. Linton sat in a loose white dress, with a light shawl over her
+shoulders, in the recess of the open window, as usual.  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.
+Her appearance was altered, as I had told Heathcliff; but when she was
+calm, there seemed unearthly beauty in the change.  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.  Then, the paleness of her face--its haggard aspect having
+vanished as she recovered flesh--and the peculiar expression arising from
+her mental state, though painfully suggestive of their causes, added to
+the touching interest which she awakened; and--invariably to me, I know,
+and to any person who saw her, I should think--refuted more tangible
+proofs of convalescence, and stamped her as one doomed to decay.
+
+A book lay spread on the sill before her, and the scarcely perceptible
+wind fluttered its leaves at intervals.  I believe Linton had laid it
+there: for she never endeavoured to divert herself with reading, or
+occupation of any kind, and he would spend many an hour in trying to
+entice her attention to some subject which had formerly been her
+amusement.  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.  At other times, she would turn petulantly away, and
+hide her face in her hands, or even push him off angrily; and then he
+took care to let her alone, for he was certain of doing no good.
+
+Gimmerton chapel bells were still ringing; and the full, mellow flow of
+the beck in the valley came soothingly on the ear.  It was a sweet
+substitute for the yet absent murmur of the summer foliage, which drowned
+that music about the Grange when the trees were in leaf.  At Wuthering
+Heights it always sounded on quiet days following a great thaw or a
+season of steady rain.  And of Wuthering Heights Catherine was thinking
+as she listened: that is, if she thought or listened at all; but she had
+the vague, distant look I mentioned before, which expressed no
+recognition of material things either by ear or eye.
+
+'There's a letter for you, Mrs. Linton,' I said, gently inserting it in
+one hand that rested on her knee.  'You must read it immediately, because
+it wants an answer.  Shall I break the seal?'  'Yes,' she answered,
+without altering the direction of her eyes.  I opened it--it was very
+short.  'Now,' I continued, 'read it.'  She drew away her hand, and let
+it fall.  I replaced it in her lap, and stood waiting till it should
+please her to glance down; but that movement was so long delayed that at
+last I resumed--'Must I read it, ma'am?  It is from Mr. Heathcliff.'
+
+There was a start and a troubled gleam of recollection, and a struggle to
+arrange her ideas.  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.
+
+'Well, he wishes to see you,' said I, guessing her need of an
+interpreter.  'He's in the garden by this time, and impatient to know
+what answer I shall bring.'
+
+As I spoke, I observed a large dog lying on the sunny grass beneath raise
+its ears as if about to bark, and then smoothing them back, announce, by
+a wag of the tail, that some one approached whom it did not consider a
+stranger.  Mrs. Linton bent forward, and listened breathlessly.  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.  With straining eagerness Catherine gazed towards the entrance
+of her chamber.  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.
+
+He neither spoke nor loosed his hold for some five minutes, during which
+period he bestowed more kisses than ever he gave in his life before, I
+daresay: but then my mistress had kissed him first, and I plainly saw
+that he could hardly bear, for downright agony, to look into her face!
+The same conviction had stricken him as me, from the instant he beheld
+her, that there was no prospect of ultimate recovery there--she was
+fated, sure to die.
+
+'Oh, Cathy!  Oh, my life! how can I bear it?' was the first sentence he
+uttered, in a tone that did not seek to disguise his despair.  And now he
+stared at her so earnestly that I thought the very intensity of his gaze
+would bring tears into his eyes; but they burned with anguish: they did
+not melt.
+
+'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 and Edgar have broken my heart, Heathcliff!  And you both
+come to bewail the deed to me, as if you were the people to be pitied!  I
+shall not pity you, not I.  You have killed me--and thriven on it, I
+think.  How strong you are!  How many years do you mean to live after I
+am gone?'
+
+Heathcliff had knelt on one knee to embrace her; he attempted to rise,
+but she seized his hair, and kept him down.
+
+'I wish I could hold you,' she continued, bitterly, 'till we were both
+dead!  I shouldn't care what you suffered.  I care nothing for your
+sufferings.  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.  I've loved many others since: my
+children are dearer to me than she was; and, at death, I shall not
+rejoice that I am going to her: I shall be sorry that I must leave
+them!"  Will you say so, Heathcliff?'
+
+'Don't torture me till I'm as mad as yourself,' cried he, wrenching his
+head free, and grinding his teeth.
+
+The two, to a cool spectator, made a strange and fearful picture.  Well
+might Catherine deem that heaven would be a land of exile to her, unless
+with her mortal body she cast away her moral character also.  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.  As to her companion, while
+raising himself with one hand, he had taken her arm with the other; and
+so inadequate was his stock of gentleness to the requirements of her
+condition, that on his letting go I saw four distinct impressions left
+blue in the colourless skin.
+
+'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 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.  She said
+nothing further till the paroxysm was over; then she continued, more
+kindly--
+
+'I'm not wishing you greater torment than I have, Heathcliff.  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.  Nay, if you nurse anger, that will be worse to remember
+than my harsh words!  Won't you come here again?  Do!'
+
+Heathcliff went to the back of her chair, and leant over, but not so far
+as to let her see his face, which was livid with emotion.  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.  Mrs.
+Linton's glance followed him suspiciously: every movement woke a new
+sentiment in her.  After a pause and a prolonged gaze, she resumed;
+addressing me in accents of indignant disappointment:--
+
+'Oh, you see, Nelly, he would not relent a moment to keep me out of the
+grave.  _That_ is how I'm loved!  Well, never mind.  That is not _my_
+Heathcliff.  I shall love mine yet; and take him with me: he's in my
+soul.  And,' added she musingly, 'the thing that irks me most is this
+shattered prison, after all.  I'm tired of being enclosed here.  I'm
+wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there: not
+seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of
+an aching heart: but really with it, and in it.  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 sorry for
+_you_.  I shall be incomparably beyond and above you all.  I _wonder_ he
+won't be near me!'  She went on to herself.  'I thought he wished it.
+Heathcliff, dear! you should not be sullen now.  Do come to me,
+Heathcliff.'
+
+In her eagerness she rose and supported herself on the arm of the chair.
+At that earnest appeal he turned to her, looking absolutely desperate.
+His eyes, wide and wet, at last flashed fiercely on her; his breast
+heaved convulsively.  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, to my eyes, she seemed directly insensible.  He
+flung himself into the nearest seat, and on my approaching hurriedly to
+ascertain if she had fainted, he gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad
+dog, and gathered her to him with greedy jealousy.  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.
+
+A movement of Catherine's relieved me a little presently: she put up her
+hand to clasp his neck, and bring her cheek to his as he held her; while
+he, in return, covering her with frantic caresses, said wildly--
+
+'You teach me now how cruel you've been--cruel and false.  _Why_ did you
+despise me?  _Why_ did you betray your own heart, Cathy?  I have not one
+word of comfort.  You deserve this.  You have killed yourself.  Yes, you
+may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears: they'll blight
+you--they'll damn you.  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.  I
+have not broken your heart--_you_ have broken it; and in breaking it, you
+have broken mine.  So much the worse for me that I am strong.  Do I want
+to live?  What kind of living will it be when you--oh, God! would _you_
+like to live with your soul in the grave?'
+
+'Let me alone.  Let me alone,' sobbed Catherine.  'If I've done wrong,
+I'm dying for it.  It is enough!  You left me too: but I won't upbraid
+you!  I forgive you.  Forgive me!'
+
+'It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted
+hands,' he answered.  'Kiss me again; and don't let me see your eyes!  I
+forgive what you have done to me.  I love _my_ murderer--but _yours_!  How
+can I?'
+
+They were silent--their faces hid against each other, and washed by each
+other's tears.  At least, I suppose the weeping was on both sides; as it
+seemed Heathcliff could weep on a great occasion like this.
+
+I grew very uncomfortable, meanwhile; for the afternoon wore fast away,
+the man whom I had sent off returned from his errand, and I could
+distinguish, by the shine of the western sun up the valley, a concourse
+thickening outside Gimmerton chapel porch.
+
+'Service is over,' I announced.  'My master will be here in half an
+hour.'
+
+Heathcliff groaned a curse, and strained Catherine closer: she never
+moved.
+
+Ere long I perceived a group of the servants passing up the road towards
+the kitchen wing.  Mr. Linton was not far behind; he opened the gate
+himself and sauntered slowly up, probably enjoying the lovely afternoon
+that breathed as soft as summer.
+
+'Now he is here,' I exclaimed.  'For heaven's sake, hurry down!  You'll
+not meet any one on the front stairs.  Do be quick; and stay among the
+trees till he is fairly in.'
+
+'I must go, Cathy,' said Heathcliff, seeking to extricate himself from
+his companion's arms.  'But if I live, I'll see you again before you are
+asleep.  I won't stray five yards from your window.'
+
+'You must not go!' she answered, holding him as firmly as her strength
+allowed.  'You _shall_ not, I tell you.'
+
+'For one hour,' he pleaded earnestly.
+
+'Not for one minute,' she replied.
+
+'I _must_--Linton will be up immediately,' persisted the alarmed
+intruder.
+
+He would have risen, and unfixed her fingers by the act--she clung fast,
+gasping: there was mad resolution in her face.
+
+'No!' she shrieked.  'Oh, don't, don't go.  It is the last time!  Edgar
+will not hurt us.  Heathcliff, I shall die!  I shall die!'
+
+'Damn the fool!  There he is,' cried Heathcliff, sinking back into his
+seat.  'Hush, my darling!  Hush, hush, Catherine!  I'll stay.  If he shot
+me so, I'd expire with a blessing on my lips.'
+
+And there they were fast again.  I heard my master mounting the
+stairs--the cold sweat ran from my forehead: I was horrified.
+
+'Are you going to listen to her ravings?' I said, passionately.  'She
+does not know what she says.  Will you ruin her, because she has not wit
+to help herself?  Get up!  You could be free instantly.  That is the most
+diabolical deed that ever you did.  We are all done for--master,
+mistress, and servant.'
+
+I wrung my hands, and cried out; and Mr. Linton hastened his step at the
+noise.  In the midst of my agitation, I was sincerely glad to observe
+that Catherine's arms had fallen relaxed, and her head hung down.
+
+'She's fainted, or dead,' I thought: 'so much the better.  Far better
+that she should be dead, than lingering a burden and a misery-maker to
+all about her.'
+
+Edgar sprang to his unbidden guest, blanched with astonishment and rage.
+What he meant to do I cannot tell; however, the other stopped all
+demonstrations, at once, by placing the lifeless-looking form in his
+arms.
+
+'Look there!' he said.  'Unless you be a fiend, help her first--then you
+shall speak to me!'
+
+He walked into the parlour, and sat down.  Mr. Linton summoned me, and
+with great difficulty, and after resorting to many means, we managed to
+restore her to sensation; but she was all bewildered; she sighed, and
+moaned, and knew nobody.  Edgar, in his anxiety for her, forgot her hated
+friend.  I did not.  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 not refuse to go out of doors,' he answered; 'but I shall stay
+in the garden: and, Nelly, mind you keep your word to-morrow.  I shall be
+under those larch-trees.  Mind! or I pay another visit, whether Linton be
+in or not.'
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+About twelve o'clock that night was born the Catherine you saw at
+Wuthering Heights: a puny, seven-months' child; and two hours after the
+mother died, having never recovered sufficient consciousness to miss
+Heathcliff, or know Edgar.  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.  A great addition, in my eyes, was his being left
+without an heir.  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.  An
+unwelcomed infant it was, poor thing!  It might have wailed out of life,
+and nobody cared a morsel, during those first hours of existence.  We
+redeemed the neglect afterwards; but its beginning was as friendless as
+its end is likely to be.
+
+Next morning--bright and cheerful out of doors--stole softened in through
+the blinds of the silent room, and suffused the couch and its occupant
+with a mellow, tender glow.  Edgar Linton had his head laid on the
+pillow, and his eyes shut.  His young and fair features were almost as
+deathlike as those of the form beside him, and almost as fixed: but _his_
+was the hush of exhausted anguish, and _hers_ of perfect peace.  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.  And I partook
+of the infinite calm in which she lay: my mind was never in a holier
+frame than while I gazed on that untroubled image of Divine rest.  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 see a repose that neither
+earth nor hell can break, and I feel an assurance of the endless and
+shadowless hereafter--the Eternity they have entered--where life is
+boundless in its duration, and love in its sympathy, and joy in its
+fulness.  I noticed on that occasion how much selfishness there is even
+in a love like Mr. Linton's, when he so regretted Catherine's blessed
+release!  To be sure, one might have doubted, after the wayward and
+impatient existence she had led, whether she merited a haven of peace at
+last.  One might doubt in seasons of cold reflection; but not then, in
+the presence of her corpse.  It asserted its own tranquillity, which
+seemed a pledge of equal quiet to its former inhabitant.
+
+Do you believe such people are happy in the other world, sir?  I'd give a
+great deal to know.
+
+I declined answering Mrs. Dean's question, which struck me as something
+heterodox.  She proceeded:
+
+Retracing the course of Catherine Linton, I fear we have no right to
+think she is; but we'll leave her with her Maker.
+
+The master looked asleep, and I ventured soon after sunrise to quit the
+room and steal out to the pure refreshing air.  The servants thought me
+gone to shake off the drowsiness of my protracted watch; in reality, my
+chief motive was seeing Mr. Heathcliff.  If he had remained among the
+larches all night, he would have heard nothing of the stir at the Grange;
+unless, perhaps, he might catch the gallop of the messenger going to
+Gimmerton.  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 wished, yet feared, to find him.
+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 was there--at least, a few yards further
+in the park; leant against an old ash-tree, his hat off, and his hair
+soaked with the dew that had gathered on the budded branches, and fell
+pattering round him.  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.  They flew off at my approach, and he
+raised his eyes and spoke:--'She's dead!' he said; 'I've not waited for
+you to learn that.  Put your handkerchief away--don't snivel before me.
+Damn you all! she wants none of your tears!'
+
+I was weeping as much for him as her: we do sometimes pity creatures that
+have none of the feeling either for themselves or others.  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.
+
+'Yes, she's dead!' I answered, checking my sobs and drying my cheeks.
+'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!'
+
+'Did _she_ take due warning, then?' asked Heathcliff, attempting a sneer.
+'Did she die like a saint?  Come, give me a true history of the event.
+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.
+'How did she die?' he resumed, at last--fain, notwithstanding his
+hardihood, to have a support behind him; for, after the struggle, he
+trembled, in spite of himself, to his very finger-ends.
+
+'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.'
+
+'Quietly as a lamb!' I answered, aloud.  '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.
+
+'Her senses never returned: she recognised nobody from the time you left
+her,' I said.  'She lies with a sweet smile on her face; and her latest
+ideas wandered back to pleasant early days.  Her life closed in a gentle
+dream--may she wake as kindly in the other world!'
+
+'May she wake in torment!' he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping
+his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion.
+'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.  I know that ghosts _have_ wandered on earth.  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.  I observed several splashes of blood about the
+bark of the tree, and his hand and forehead were both stained; probably
+the scene I witnessed was a repetition of others acted during the night.
+It hardly moved my compassion--it appalled me: still, I felt reluctant to
+quit him so.  But the moment he recollected himself enough to notice me
+watching, he thundered a command for me to go, and I obeyed.  He was
+beyond my skill to quiet or console!
+
+Mrs. Linton's funeral was appointed to take place on the Friday following
+her decease; and till then her coffin remained uncovered, and strewn with
+flowers and scented leaves, in the great drawing-room.  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.  I held no communication with him:
+still, I was conscious of his design to enter, if he could; and on the
+Tuesday, a little after dark, when my master, from sheer fatigue, had
+been compelled to retire a couple of hours, I went and opened one of the
+windows; moved by his perseverance to give him a chance of bestowing on
+the faded image of his idol one final adieu.  He did not omit to avail
+himself of the opportunity, cautiously and briefly; too cautiously to
+betray his presence by the slightest noise.  Indeed, I shouldn't have
+discovered that he had been there, except for the disarrangement of the
+drapery about the corpse's face, and for observing on the floor a curl of
+light hair, fastened with a silver thread; which, on examination, I
+ascertained to have been taken from a locket hung round Catherine's neck.
+Heathcliff had opened the trinket and cast out its contents, replacing
+them by a black lock of his own.  I twisted the two, and enclosed them
+together.
+
+Mr. Earnshaw was, of course, invited to attend the remains of his sister
+to the grave; he sent no excuse, but he never came; so that, besides her
+husband, the mourners were wholly composed of tenants and servants.
+Isabella was not asked.
+
+The place of Catherine's interment, to the surprise of the villagers, was
+neither in the chapel under the carved monument of the Lintons, nor yet
+by the tombs of her own relations, outside.  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.  Her husband lies in the same spot now; and they have each a
+simple headstone above, and a plain grey block at their feet, to mark the
+graves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+That Friday made the last of our fine days for a month.  In the evening
+the weather broke: the wind shifted from south to north-east, and brought
+rain first, and then sleet and snow.  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.  And dreary, and
+chill, and dismal, that morrow did creep over!  My master kept his room;
+I took possession of the lonely parlour, converting it into a nursery:
+and there I was, sitting with the moaning doll of a child laid on my
+knee; rocking it to and fro, and watching, meanwhile, the still driving
+flakes build up the uncurtained window, when the door opened, and some
+person entered, out of breath and laughing!  My anger was greater than my
+astonishment for a minute.  I supposed it one of the maids, and I
+cried--'Have done!  How dare you show your giddiness here; What would Mr.
+Linton say if he heard you?'
+
+'Excuse me!' answered a familiar voice; 'but I know Edgar is in bed, and
+I cannot stop myself.'
+
+With that the speaker came forward to the fire, panting and holding her
+hand to her side.
+
+'I have run the whole way from Wuthering Heights!' she continued, after a
+pause; 'except where I've flown.  I couldn't count the number of falls
+I've had.  Oh, I'm aching all over!  Don't be alarmed!  There shall be an
+explanation as soon as I can give it; only just have the goodness to step
+out and order the carriage to take me on to Gimmerton, and tell a servant
+to seek up a few clothes in my wardrobe.'
+
+The intruder was Mrs. Heathcliff.  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.  The frock was of light silk, and clung
+to her with wet, and her feet were protected merely by thin slippers; add
+to this a deep cut under one ear, which only the cold prevented from
+bleeding profusely, a white face scratched and bruised, and a frame
+hardly able to support itself through fatigue; and you may fancy my first
+fright was not much allayed when I had had leisure to examine her.
+
+'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.'
+
+'Certainly I shall,' she said; 'walking or riding: yet I've no objection
+to dress myself decently.  And--ah, see how it flows down my neck now!
+The fire does make it smart.'
+
+She insisted on my fulfilling her directions, before she would let me
+touch her; and not till after the coachman had been instructed to get
+ready, and a maid set to pack up some necessary attire, did I obtain her
+consent for binding the wound and helping to change her garments.
+
+'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.  We parted unreconciled, you remember, and I
+sha'n't forgive myself.  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 from her third
+finger, and threw it on the floor.  'I'll smash it!' she continued,
+striking it with childish spite, 'and then I'll burn it!' and she took
+and dropped the misused article among the coals.  'There! he shall buy
+another, if he gets me back again.  He'd be capable of coming to seek me,
+to tease Edgar.  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.
+Necessity compelled me to seek shelter here; though, if I had not learned
+he was out of the way, I'd have halted at the kitchen, washed my face,
+warmed myself, got you to bring what I wanted, and departed again to
+anywhere out of the reach of my accursed--of that incarnate goblin!  Ah,
+he was in such a fury!  If he had caught me!  It's a pity Earnshaw is not
+his match in strength: I wouldn't have run till I'd seen him all but
+demolished, had Hindley been able to do it!'
+
+'Well, don't talk so fast, Miss!' I interrupted; 'you'll disorder the
+handkerchief I have tied round your face, and make the cut bleed again.
+Drink your tea, and take breath, and give over laughing: laughter is
+sadly out of place under this roof, and in your condition!'
+
+'An undeniable truth,' she replied.  'Listen to that child!  It maintains
+a constant wail--send it out of my hearing for an hour; I sha'n't stay
+any longer.'
+
+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.
+
+'I ought, and I wished to remain,' answered she, 'to cheer Edgar and take
+care of the baby, for two things, and because the Grange is my right
+home.  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.  It is strong enough to make me feel pretty certain that he
+would not chase me over England, supposing I contrived a clear escape;
+and therefore I must get quite away.  I've recovered from my first desire
+to be killed by him: I'd rather he'd kill himself!  He has extinguished
+my love effectually, and so I'm at my ease.  I can recollect yet how I
+loved him; and can dimly imagine that I could still be loving him, if--no,
+no!  Even if he had doted on me, the devilish nature would have revealed
+its existence somehow.  Catherine had an awfully perverted taste to
+esteem him so dearly, knowing him so well.  Monster! would that he could
+be blotted out of creation, and out of my memory!'
+
+'Hush, hush!  He's a human being,' I said.  '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.  I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death, and
+flung it back to me.  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.
+'You asked, what has driven me to flight at last?  I was compelled to
+attempt it, because I had succeeded in rousing his rage a pitch above his
+malignity.  Pulling out the nerves with red hot pincers requires more
+coolness than knocking on the head.  He was worked up to forget the
+fiendish prudence he boasted of, and proceeded to murderous violence.  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.
+
+'Yesterday, you know, Mr. Earnshaw should have been at the funeral.  He
+kept himself sober for the purpose--tolerably sober: not going to bed mad
+at six o'clock and getting up drunk at twelve.  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.
+
+'Heathcliff--I shudder to name him! has been a stranger in the house from
+last Sunday till to-day.  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.  He has just come home at dawn, and gone up-stairs to his chamber;
+locking himself in--as if anybody dreamt of coveting his company!  There
+he has continued, praying like a Methodist: only the deity he implored is
+senseless dust and ashes; and God, when addressed, was curiously
+confounded with his own black father!  After concluding these precious
+orisons--and they lasted generally till he grew hoarse and his voice was
+strangled in his throat--he would be off again; always straight down to
+the Grange!  I wonder Edgar did not send for a constable, and give him
+into custody!  For me, grieved as I was about Catherine, it was
+impossible to avoid regarding this season of deliverance from degrading
+oppression as a holiday.
+
+'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.  You wouldn't think that I should cry at
+anything Joseph could say; but he and Hareton are detestable companions.
+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. Earnshaw may occupy himself; and
+he does not interfere with my arrangements.  He is quieter now than he
+used to be, if no one provokes him: more sullen and depressed, and less
+furious.  Joseph affirms he's sure he's an altered man: that the Lord has
+touched his heart, and he is saved "so as by fire."  I'm puzzled to
+detect signs of the favourable change: but it is not my business.
+
+'Yester-evening I sat in my nook reading some old books till late on
+towards twelve.  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.  Hindley sat
+opposite, his head leant on his hand; perhaps meditating on the same
+subject.  He had ceased drinking at a point below irrationality, and had
+neither stirred nor spoken during two or three hours.  There was no sound
+through the house but the moaning wind, which shook the windows every now
+and then, the faint crackling of the coals, and the click of my snuffers
+as I removed at intervals the long wick of the candle.  Hareton and
+Joseph were probably fast asleep in bed.  It was very, very sad: and
+while I read I sighed, for it seemed as if all joy had vanished from the
+world, never to be restored.
+
+'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.  That entrance was fastened, and we heard
+him coming round to get in by the other.  I rose with an 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.
+
+'"I'll keep him out five minutes," he exclaimed.  "You won't object?"
+
+'"No, you may keep him out the whole night for me," I answered.  "Do! put
+the key in the lock, and draw the bolts."
+
+'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.
+
+'"You, and I," he said, "have each a great debt to settle with the man
+out yonder!  If we were neither of us cowards, we might combine to
+discharge it.  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; they wound those who resort to them
+worse than their enemies."
+
+'"Treachery and violence are a just return for treachery and violence!"
+cried Hindley.  "Mrs. Heathcliff, I'll ask you to do nothing; but sit
+still and be dumb.  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.
+Damn the hellish villain!  He knocks at the door as if he were master
+here already!  Promise to hold your tongue, and before that clock
+strikes--it wants three minutes of one--you're a free woman!"
+
+'He took the implements which I described to you in my letter from his
+breast, and would have turned down the candle.  I snatched it away,
+however, and seized his arm.
+
+'"I'll not hold my tongue!" I said; "you mustn't touch him.  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.  "I'll do you a kindness in spite of yourself, and
+Hareton justice!  And you needn't trouble your head to screen me;
+Catherine is gone.  Nobody alive would regret me, or be ashamed, 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.
+The only resource left me was to run to a lattice and warn his intended
+victim of the fate which awaited him.
+
+'"You'd better seek shelter somewhere else to-night!" I exclaimed, in
+rather a triumphant tone.  "Mr. Earnshaw has a mind to shoot you, if you
+persist in endeavouring to enter."
+
+'"You'd better open the door, you--" he answered, addressing me by some
+elegant term that I don't care to repeat.
+
+'"I shall not meddle in the matter," I retorted again.  "Come in and get
+shot, if you please.  I've done my duty."
+
+'With that I shut the window and returned to my place by the fire; having
+too small a stock of hypocrisy at my command to pretend any anxiety for
+the danger that menaced him.  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.  And I, in my secret heart (and conscience
+never reproached me), thought what a blessing it would be for _him_
+should Heathcliff put him out of misery; and what a blessing for _me_
+should he send Heathcliff to his right abode!  As I sat nursing these
+reflections, the casement behind me was banged on to the floor by a blow
+from the latter individual, and his black countenance looked blightingly
+through.  The stanchions stood too close to suffer his shoulders to
+follow, and I smiled, exulting in my fancied security.  His hair and
+clothes were whitened with snow, and his sharp cannibal teeth, revealed
+by cold and wrath, gleamed through the dark.
+
+'"Isabella, let me in, or I'll make you repent!" he "girned," as Joseph
+calls it.
+
+'"I cannot commit murder," I replied.  "Mr. Hindley stands sentinel with
+a knife and loaded pistol."
+
+'"Let me in by the kitchen door," he said.
+
+'"Hindley will be there before me," I answered: "and that's a poor love
+of yours that cannot bear a shower of snow!  We were left at peace in our
+beds as long as the summer moon shone, but the moment a blast of winter
+returns, you must run for shelter!  Heathcliff, if I were you, I'd go
+stretch myself over her grave and die like a faithful dog.  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."
+
+'"He's there, is he?" exclaimed my companion, rushing to the gap.  "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.  I wouldn't have aided or abetted an attempt on
+even _his_ life for anything.  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.
+
+'The charge exploded, and the knife, in springing back, closed into its
+owner's wrist.  Heathcliff pulled it away by main force, slitting up the
+flesh as it passed on, and thrust it dripping into his pocket.  He then
+took a stone, struck down the division between two windows, and sprang
+in.  His adversary had fallen senseless with excessive pain and the flow
+of blood, that gushed from an artery or a large vein.  The ruffian kicked
+and trampled on him, and dashed his head repeatedly against the flags,
+holding me with one hand, meantime, to prevent me summoning Joseph.  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.  There he tore off the
+sleeve of Earnshaw's coat, and bound up the wound with brutal roughness;
+spitting and cursing during the operation as energetically as he had
+kicked before.  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.
+
+'"What is ther to do, now? what is ther to do, now?"
+
+'"There's this to do," thundered Heathcliff, "that your master's mad; and
+should he last another month, I'll have him to an asylum.  And how the
+devil did you come to fasten me out, you toothless hound?  Don't stand
+muttering and mumbling there.  Come, I'm not going to nurse him.  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.  "If iver I seed a seeght loike this!  May the
+Lord--"
+
+'Heathcliff gave him a push on to his knees in the middle of the blood,
+and flung a towel to him; but instead of proceeding to dry it up, he
+joined his hands and began a prayer, which excited my laughter from its
+odd phraseology.  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.
+
+'"Oh, I forgot you," said the tyrant.  "You shall do that.  Down with
+you.  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.  Mr. Linton was a magistrate, and though he
+had fifty wives dead, he should inquire into this.  He was so obstinate
+in his resolution, that Heathcliff deemed it expedient to compel from my
+lips a recapitulation of what had taken place; standing over me, heaving
+with malevolence, as I reluctantly delivered the account in answer to his
+questions.  It required a great deal of labour to satisfy the old man
+that Heathcliff was not the aggressor; especially with my hardly-wrung
+replies.  However, Mr. 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.
+Heathcliff, aware that his opponent was ignorant of the treatment
+received while insensible, called him deliriously intoxicated; and said
+he should not notice his atrocious conduct further, but advised him to
+get to bed.  To my joy, he left us, after giving this judicious counsel,
+and Hindley stretched himself on the hearthstone.  I departed to my own
+room, marvelling that I had escaped so easily.
+
+'This morning, when I came down, about half an hour before noon, Mr.
+Earnshaw was sitting by the fire, deadly sick; his evil genius, almost as
+gaunt and ghastly, leant against the chimney.  Neither appeared inclined
+to dine, and, having waited till all was cold on the table, I commenced
+alone.  Nothing hindered me from eating heartily, and I experienced a
+certain sense of satisfaction and superiority, as, at intervals, I cast a
+look towards my silent companions, and felt the comfort of a quiet
+conscience within me.  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.
+
+'Heathcliff did not glance my way, and I gazed up, and contemplated his
+features almost as confidently as if they had been turned to stone.  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.  Had it been another, I would have
+covered my face in the presence of such grief.  In _his_ case, I was
+gratified; and, 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.'
+
+'Fie, fie, Miss!' I interrupted.  'One might suppose you had never opened
+a Bible in your life.  If God afflict your enemies, surely that ought to
+suffice you.  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.  Oh, I owe him so much.  On only one
+condition can I hope to forgive him.  It is, if I may take an eye for an
+eye, a tooth for a tooth; for every wrench of agony return a wrench:
+reduce him to my level.  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.  But it is utterly impossible I can ever be revenged, and
+therefore I cannot forgive him.  Hindley wanted some water, and I handed
+him a glass, and asked him how he was.
+
+'"Not as ill as I wish," he replied.  "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.  "Catherine used to boast that she
+stood between you and bodily harm: she meant that certain persons would
+not hurt you for fear of offending her.  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.  "And his mouth watered to tear you with his teeth; because
+he's only half man: not so much, and the rest fiend."
+
+'Mr. Earnshaw looked up, like me, to the countenance of our mutual foe;
+who, absorbed in his anguish, seemed insensible to anything around him:
+the longer he stood, the plainer his reflections revealed their blackness
+through his features.
+
+'"Oh, if God would but give me strength to strangle him in my last agony,
+I'd go to hell with joy," groaned the impatient man, writhing to rise,
+and sinking back in despair, convinced of his inadequacy for the
+struggle.
+
+'"Nay, it's enough that he has murdered one of you," I observed aloud.
+"At the Grange, every one knows your sister would have been living now
+had it not been for Mr. Heathcliff.  After all, it is preferable to be
+hated than loved by him.  When I recollect how happy we were--how happy
+Catherine was before he came--I'm fit to curse the day."
+
+'Most likely, Heathcliff noticed more the truth of what was said, than
+the spirit of the person who said it.  His attention was roused, I saw,
+for his eyes rained down tears among the ashes, and he drew his breath in
+suffocating sighs.  I stared full at him, and laughed scornfully.  The
+clouded windows of hell flashed a moment towards me; the fiend which
+usually looked out, however, was so dimmed and drowned that I did not
+fear to hazard another sound of derision.
+
+'"Get up, and begone out of my sight," said the mourner.
+
+'I guessed he uttered those words, at least, though his voice was hardly
+intelligible.
+
+'"I beg your pardon," I replied.  "But I loved Catherine too; and her
+brother requires attendance, which, for her sake, I shall supply.  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.
+
+'"But then," I continued, holding myself ready to flee, "if poor
+Catherine had trusted you, and assumed the ridiculous, contemptible,
+degrading title of Mrs. 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."
+
+'The back of the settle and Earnshaw's person interposed between me and
+him; so instead of endeavouring to reach me, he snatched a dinner-knife
+from the table and flung it at my head.  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.  The last glimpse I caught of him was a furious rush on his
+part, checked by the embrace of his host; and both fell locked together
+on the hearth.  In my flight through the kitchen I 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.  And far rather would I be condemned to a
+perpetual dwelling in the infernal regions than, even for one night,
+abide beneath the roof of Wuthering Heights again.'
+
+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.  She was
+driven away, never to revisit this neighbourhood: but a regular
+correspondence was established between her and my master when things were
+more settled.  I believe her new abode was in the south, near London;
+there she had a son born a few months subsequent to her escape.  He was
+christened Linton, and, from the first, she reported him to be an ailing,
+peevish creature.
+
+Mr. Heathcliff, meeting me one day in the village, inquired where she
+lived.  I refused to tell.  He remarked that it was not of any moment,
+only she must beware of coming to her brother: she should not be with
+him, if he had to keep her himself.  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.  Still, he didn't molest her:
+for which forbearance she might thank his aversion, I suppose.  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.
+
+'But I'll have it,' he said, 'when I want it.  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.
+
+On the day succeeding Isabella's unexpected visit I had no opportunity of
+speaking to my master: he shunned conversation, and was fit for
+discussing nothing.  When I 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.  So deep
+and sensitive was his aversion, that he refrained from going anywhere
+where he was likely to see or hear of Heathcliff.  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.  But he was too good to be thoroughly
+unhappy long.  _He_ didn't pray for Catherine's soul to haunt him.  Time
+brought resignation, and a melancholy sweeter than common joy.  He
+recalled her memory with ardent, tender love, and hopeful aspiring to the
+better world; where he doubted not she was gone.
+
+And he had earthly consolation and affections also.  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.  It was named Catherine; but he never called it the name in full,
+as he had never called the first Catherine short: probably because
+Heathcliff had a habit of doing so.  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.
+
+I used to draw a comparison between him and Hindley Earnshaw, and perplex
+myself to explain satisfactorily why their conduct was so opposite in
+similar circumstances.  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.  But, I thought in my mind,
+Hindley, with apparently the stronger head, has shown himself sadly the
+worse and the weaker man.  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.  Linton, on the
+contrary, displayed the true courage of a loyal and faithful soul: he
+trusted God; and God comforted him.  One hoped, and the other despaired:
+they chose their own lots, and were righteously doomed to endure them.
+But you'll not want to hear my moralising, Mr. Lockwood; you'll judge, as
+well as I can, all these things: at least, you'll think you will, and
+that's the same.  The end of Earnshaw was what might have been expected;
+it followed fast on his sister's: there were scarcely six months between
+them.  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.  Mr. Kenneth came to announce the event to
+my master.
+
+'Well, Nelly,' said he, riding into the yard one morning, too early not
+to alarm me with an instant presentiment of bad news, 'it's yours and my
+turn to go into mourning at present.  Who's given us the slip now, do you
+think?'
+
+'Who?' I asked in a flurry.
+
+'Why, guess!' he returned, dismounting, and slinging his bridle on a hook
+by the door.  'And nip up the corner of your apron: I'm certain you'll
+need it.'
+
+'Not Mr. Heathcliff, surely?' I exclaimed.
+
+'What! would you have tears for him?' said the doctor.  'No, Heathcliff's
+a tough young fellow: he looks blooming to-day.  I've just seen him.  He's
+rapidly regaining flesh since he lost his better half.'
+
+'Who is it, then, Mr. Kenneth?' I repeated impatiently.
+
+'Hindley Earnshaw!  Your old friend Hindley,' he replied, 'and my wicked
+gossip: though he's been too wild for me this long while.  There!  I said
+we should draw water.  But cheer up!  He died true to his character:
+drunk as a lord.  Poor lad!  I'm sorry, too.  One can't help missing an
+old companion: though he had the worst tricks with him that ever man
+imagined, and has done me many a rascally turn.  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. Linton's
+death: ancient associations lingered round my heart; I sat down in the
+porch and wept as for a blood relation, desiring Mr. Kenneth to get
+another servant to introduce him to the master.  I could not hinder
+myself from pondering on the question--'Had he had fair play?'  Whatever
+I did, that idea would bother me: it was so tiresomely pertinacious that
+I resolved on requesting leave to go to Wuthering Heights, and assist in
+the last duties to the dead.  Mr. Linton was extremely reluctant to
+consent, but I pleaded eloquently for the friendless condition in which
+he lay; and I said my old master and foster-brother had a claim on my
+services as strong as his own.  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
+property was left, and look over the concerns of his brother-in-law.  He
+was unfit for attending to such matters then, but he bid me speak to his
+lawyer; and at length permitted me to go.  His lawyer had been Earnshaw's
+also: I called at the village, and asked him to accompany me.  He shook
+his head, and advised that Heathcliff should be let alone; affirming, if
+the truth were known, Hareton would be found little else than a beggar.
+
+'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.'
+
+When I reached the Heights, I explained that I had come to see everything
+carried on decently; and Joseph, who appeared in sufficient distress,
+expressed satisfaction at my presence.  Mr. Heathcliff said he did not
+perceive that I was wanted; but I might stay and order the arrangements
+for the funeral, if I chose.
+
+'Correctly,' he remarked, 'that fool's body should be buried at the
+cross-roads, without ceremony of any kind. I happened to leave him ten
+minutes yesterday afternoon, and in that interval he fastened the two
+doors of the house against me, and he has spent the night in drinking
+himself to death deliberately! We broke in this morning, for we heard
+him sporting like a horse; and there he was, laid over the settle:
+flaying and scalping would not have wakened him. 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.  Mr. 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.  He maintained a hard,
+careless deportment, indicative of neither joy nor sorrow: if anything,
+it expressed a flinty gratification at a piece of difficult work
+successfully executed.  I observed once, indeed, something like
+exultation in his aspect: it was just when the people were bearing the
+coffin from the house.  He had the hypocrisy to represent a mourner: and
+previous to following with Hareton, he lifted the unfortunate child on to
+the table and muttered, with peculiar gusto, 'Now, my bonny lad, you are
+_mine_!  And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with
+the same wind to twist it!'  The unsuspecting thing was pleased at this
+speech: he played with Heathcliff's whiskers, and stroked his cheek; but
+I divined its meaning, and observed tartly, 'That boy must go back with
+me to Thrushcross Grange, sir.  There is nothing in the world less yours
+than he is!'
+
+'Does Linton say so?' he demanded.
+
+'Of course--he has ordered me to take him,' I replied.
+
+'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.  I don't engage to let Hareton go undisputed; but I'll be pretty sure
+to make the other come!  Remember to tell him.'
+
+This hint was enough to bind our hands.  I repeated its substance on my
+return; and Edgar Linton, little interested at the commencement, spoke no
+more of interfering.  I'm not aware that he could have done it to any
+purpose, had he been ever so willing.
+
+The guest was now the master of Wuthering Heights: he held firm
+possession, and proved to the attorney--who, in his turn, proved it to
+Mr. 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.  In that manner Hareton, who should now be the first gentleman
+in the neighbourhood, was reduced to a state of complete dependence on
+his father's inveterate enemy; and lives in his own house as a servant,
+deprived of the advantage of wages: quite unable to right himself,
+because of his friendlessness, and his ignorance that he has been
+wronged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+The twelve years, continued Mrs. Dean, following that dismal period were
+the happiest of my life: my greatest troubles in their passage rose from
+our little lady's trifling illnesses, which she had to experience in
+common with all children, rich and poor.  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. Linton's
+dust.  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.  Her spirit was high, though not rough, and qualified by a heart
+sensitive and lively to excess in its affections.  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.  However, it must be acknowledged, she
+had faults to foil her gifts.  A propensity to be saucy was one; and a
+perverse will, that indulged children invariably acquire, whether they be
+good tempered or cross.  If a servant chanced to vex her, it was
+always--'I shall tell papa!'  And if he reproved her, even by a look, you
+would have thought it a heart-breaking business: I don't believe he ever
+did speak a harsh word to her.  He took her education entirely on
+himself, and made it an amusement.  Fortunately, curiosity and a quick
+intellect made her an apt scholar: she learned rapidly and eagerly, and
+did honour to his teaching.
+
+Till she reached the age of thirteen she had not once been beyond the
+range of the park by herself.  Mr. Linton would take her with him a mile
+or so outside, on rare occasions; but he trusted her to no one else.
+Gimmerton was an unsubstantial name in her ears; the chapel, the only
+building she had approached or entered, except her own home.  Wuthering
+Heights and Mr. Heathcliff did not exist for her: she was a perfect
+recluse; and, apparently, perfectly contented.  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.'
+
+'And what are those golden rocks like when you stand under them?' she
+once asked.
+
+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.  I explained that
+they were bare masses of stone, with hardly enough earth in their clefts
+to nourish a stunted tree.
+
+'And why are they bright so long after it is evening here?' she pursued.
+
+'Because they are a great deal higher up than we are,' replied I; 'you
+could not climb them, they are too high and steep.  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.  'Then I can go, too,
+when I am a woman.  Has papa been, Ellen?'
+
+'Papa would tell you, Miss,' I answered, hastily, 'that they are not
+worth the trouble of visiting.  The moors, where you ramble with him, are
+much nicer; and Thrushcross Park is the finest place in the world.'
+
+'But I know the park, and I don't know those,' she murmured to herself.
+'And I should delight to look round me from the brow of that tallest
+point: my little pony Minny shall take me some time.'
+
+One of the maids mentioning the Fairy Cave, quite turned her head with a
+desire to fulfil this project: she teased Mr. Linton about it; and he
+promised she should have the journey when she got older.  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.  The road
+thither wound close by Wuthering Heights.  Edgar had not the heart to
+pass it; so she received as constantly the answer, 'Not yet, love: not
+yet.'
+
+I said Mrs. Heathcliff lived above a dozen years after quitting her
+husband.  Her family were of a delicate constitution: she and Edgar both
+lacked the ruddy health that you will generally meet in these parts.  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.  She wrote to inform her
+brother of the probable conclusion of a four-months' indisposition under
+which she had suffered, and entreated him to come to her, if possible;
+for she had much to settle, and she wished to bid him adieu, and deliver
+Linton safely into his hands.  Her hope was that Linton might be left
+with him, as he had been with her: his father, she would fain convince
+herself, had no desire to assume the burden of his maintenance or
+education.  My master hesitated not a moment in complying with her
+request: reluctant as he was to leave home at ordinary calls, he flew to
+answer this; commanding Catherine to my peculiar vigilance, in his
+absence, with reiterated orders that she must not wander out of the park,
+even under my escort he did not calculate on her going unaccompanied.
+
+He was away three weeks.  The first day or two my charge sat in a corner
+of the library, too sad for either reading or playing: in that quiet
+state she caused me little trouble; but it was succeeded by an interval
+of impatient, fretful weariness; and being too busy, and too old then, to
+run up and down amusing her, I hit on a method by which she might
+entertain herself.  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.
+
+The summer shone in full prime; and she took such a taste for this
+solitary rambling that she often contrived to remain out from breakfast
+till tea; and then the evenings were spent in recounting her fanciful
+tales.  I did not fear her breaking bounds; because the gates were
+generally locked, and I thought she would scarcely venture forth alone,
+if they had stood wide open.  Unluckily, my confidence proved misplaced.
+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.  I
+got together good store of dainties, and slung them in a basket on one
+side of the saddle; and she sprang up as gay as a fairy, sheltered by her
+wide-brimmed hat and gauze veil from the July sun, and trotted off with a
+merry laugh, mocking my cautious counsel to avoid galloping, and come
+back early.  The naughty thing never made her appearance at tea.  One
+traveller, the hound, being an old dog and fond of its ease, returned;
+but neither Cathy, nor the pony, nor the two pointers were visible in any
+direction: I despatched emissaries down this path, and that path, and at
+last went wandering in search of her myself.  There was a labourer
+working at a fence round a plantation, on the borders of the grounds.  I
+inquired of him if he had seen our young lady.
+
+'I saw her at morn,' he replied: 'she would have me to cut her a hazel
+switch, and then she leapt her Galloway over the hedge yonder, where it
+is lowest, and galloped out of sight.'
+
+You may guess how I felt at hearing this news.  It struck me directly she
+must have started for Penistone Crags.  'What will become of her?' I
+ejaculated, pushing through a gap which the man was repairing, and making
+straight to the high-road.  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.  The Crags lie about a mile and a half beyond Mr.
+Heathcliff's place, and that is four from the Grange, so I began to fear
+night would fall ere I could reach them.  'And what if she should have
+slipped in clambering among them,' I reflected, 'and been killed, or
+broken some of her bones?'  My suspense was truly painful; and, at first,
+it gave me delightful relief to observe, in hurrying by the farmhouse,
+Charlie, the fiercest of the pointers, lying under a window, with swelled
+head and bleeding ear.  I opened the wicket and ran to the door, knocking
+vehemently for admittance.  A woman whom I knew, and who formerly lived
+at Gimmerton, answered: she had been servant there since the death of Mr.
+Earnshaw.
+
+'Ah,' said she, 'you are come a-seeking your little mistress!  Don't be
+frightened.  She's here safe: but I'm glad it isn't the master.'
+
+'He is not at home then, is he?' I panted, quite breathless with quick
+walking and alarm.
+
+'No, no,' she replied: 'both he and Joseph are off, and I think they
+won't return this hour or more.  Step in and rest you a bit.'
+
+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.  Her hat was
+hung against the wall, and she seemed perfectly at home, laughing and
+chattering, in the best spirits imaginable, to Hareton--now a great,
+strong lad of eighteen--who stared at her with considerable curiosity and
+astonishment: comprehending precious little of the fluent succession of
+remarks and questions which her tongue never ceased pouring forth.
+
+'Very well, Miss!' I exclaimed, concealing my joy under an angry
+countenance.  'This is your last ride, till papa comes back.  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.  'I
+shall have a pretty story to tell to-night; and so you've found me out.
+Have you ever been here in your life before?'
+
+'Put that hat on, and home at once,' said I.  'I'm dreadfully grieved at
+you, Miss Cathy: you've done extremely wrong!  It's no use pouting and
+crying: that won't repay the trouble I've had, scouring the country after
+you.  To think how Mr. Linton charged me to keep you in; and you stealing
+off so!  It shows you are a cunning little fox, and nobody will put faith
+in you any more.'
+
+'What have I done?' sobbed she, instantly checked.  'Papa charged me
+nothing: he'll not scold me, Ellen--he's never cross, like you!'
+
+'Come, come!' I repeated.  'I'll tie the riband.  Now, let us have no
+petulance.  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.
+
+'Nay,' said the servant, 'don't be hard on the bonny lass, Mrs. Dean.  We
+made her stop: she'd fain have ridden forwards, afeard you should be
+uneasy.  Hareton offered to go with her, and I thought he should: it's a
+wild road over the hills.'
+
+Hareton, during the discussion, stood with his hands in his pockets, too
+awkward to speak; though he looked as if he did not relish my intrusion.
+
+'How long am I to wait?' I continued, disregarding the woman's
+interference.  'It will be dark in ten minutes.  Where is the pony, Miss
+Cathy?  And where is Phoenix?  I shall leave you, unless you be quick; so
+please yourself.'
+
+'The pony is in the yard,' she replied, 'and Phoenix is shut in there.
+He's bitten--and so is Charlie.  I was going to tell you all about it;
+but you are in a bad temper, and don't deserve to hear.'
+
+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.  Hareton and the
+woman laughed, and she joined them, and waxed more impertinent still;
+till I cried, in great irritation,--'Well, Miss Cathy, if you were aware
+whose house this is you'd be glad enough to get out.'
+
+'It's _your_ father's, isn't it?' said she, turning to Hareton.
+
+'Nay,' he replied, looking down, and blushing bashfully.
+
+He could not stand a steady gaze from her eyes, though they were just his
+own.
+
+'Whose then--your master's?' she asked.
+
+He coloured deeper, with a different feeling, muttered an oath, and
+turned away.
+
+'Who is his master?' continued the tiresome girl, appealing to me.  'He
+talked about "our house," and "our folk."  I thought he had been the
+owner's son.  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.  I
+silently shook my questioner, and at last succeeded in equipping her for
+departure.
+
+'Now, get my horse,' she said, addressing her unknown kinsman as she
+would one of the stable-boys at the Grange.  'And you may come with me.  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.'
+
+'I'll see thee damned before I be _thy_ servant!' growled the lad.
+
+'You'll see me _what_!' asked Catherine in surprise.
+
+'Damned--thou saucy witch!' he replied.
+
+'There, Miss Cathy! you see you have got into pretty company,' I
+interposed.  'Nice words to be used to a young lady!  Pray don't begin to
+dispute with him.  Come, let us seek for Minny ourselves, and begone.'
+
+'But, Ellen,' cried she, staring fixed in astonishment, 'how dare he
+speak so to me?  Mustn't he be made to do as I ask him?  You wicked
+creature, I shall tell papa what you said.--Now, then!'
+
+Hareton did not appear to feel this threat; so the tears sprang into her
+eyes with indignation.  'You bring the pony,' she exclaimed, turning to
+the woman, 'and let my dog free this moment!'
+
+'Softly, Miss,' answered she addressed; 'you'll lose nothing by being
+civil.  Though Mr. Hareton, there, be not the master's son, he's your
+cousin: and I was never hired to serve you.'
+
+'_He_ my cousin!' cried Cathy, with a scornful laugh.
+
+'Yes, indeed,' responded her reprover.
+
+'Oh, Ellen! don't let them say such things,' she pursued in great
+trouble.  'Papa is gone to fetch my cousin from London: my cousin is a
+gentleman's son.  That my--' she stopped, and wept outright; upset at the
+bare notion of relationship with such a clown.
+
+'Hush, hush!' I whispered; 'people can have many cousins and of all
+sorts, Miss Cathy, without being any the worse for it; only they needn't
+keep their company, if they be disagreeable and bad.'
+
+'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.
+
+I was much vexed at her and the servant for their mutual revelations;
+having no doubt of Linton's approaching arrival, communicated by the
+former, being reported to Mr. 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.
+Hareton, recovering from his disgust at being taken for a servant, seemed
+moved by her distress; and, having fetched the pony round to the door, he
+took, to propitiate her, a fine crooked-legged terrier whelp from the
+kennel, and putting it into her hand, bid her whist! for he meant nought.
+Pausing in her lamentations, she surveyed him with a glance of awe and
+horror, then burst forth anew.
+
+I could scarcely refrain from smiling at this antipathy to the poor
+fellow; who was a well-made, athletic youth, good-looking in features,
+and stout and healthy, but attired in garments befitting his daily
+occupations of working on the farm and lounging among the moors after
+rabbits and game.  Still, I thought I could detect in his physiognomy a
+mind owning better qualities than his father ever possessed.  Good things
+lost amid a wilderness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far
+over-topped their neglected growth; yet, notwithstanding, evidence of a
+wealthy soil, that might yield luxuriant crops under other and favourable
+circumstances.  Mr. Heathcliff, I believe, had not treated him physically
+ill; thanks to his fearless nature, which offered no temptation to that
+course of oppression: he had none of the timid susceptibility that would
+have given zest to ill-treatment, in Heathcliff's judgment.  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 from what I heard, Joseph contributed much to
+his deterioration, by a narrow-minded partiality which prompted him to
+flatter and pet him, as a boy, because he was the head of the old family.
+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 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.  If the lad swore, he wouldn't
+correct him: nor however culpably he behaved.  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.  Hareton's blood
+would be required at his hands; and there lay immense consolation in that
+thought.  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.  I don't pretend to be intimately
+acquainted with the mode of living customary in those days at Wuthering
+Heights: I only speak from hearsay; for I saw little.  The villagers
+affirmed Mr. Heathcliff was _near_, and a cruel hard landlord to his
+tenants; but the house, inside, had regained its ancient aspect of
+comfort under female management, and the scenes of riot common in
+Hindley's time were not now enacted within its walls.  The master was too
+gloomy to seek companionship with any people, good or bad; and he is yet.
+
+This, however, is not making progress with my story.  Miss Cathy rejected
+the peace-offering of the terrier, and demanded her own dogs, Charlie and
+Phoenix.  They came limping and hanging their heads; and we set out for
+home, sadly out of sorts, every one of us.  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.  They
+had a smart battle, before their owners could separate them: that formed
+an introduction.  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.  He opened the mysteries of the Fairy Cave, and twenty
+other queer places.  But, being in disgrace, I was not favoured with a
+description of the interesting objects she saw.  I could gather, however,
+that her guide had been a favourite till she hurt his feelings by
+addressing him as a servant; and Heathcliff's housekeeper hurt hers by
+calling him her cousin.  Then the language he had held to her rankled in
+her heart; she who 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.  I
+explained how he objected to the whole household at the Heights, and how
+sorry he would be to find she had been there; but I insisted most on the
+fact, that if she revealed my negligence of his orders, he would perhaps
+be so angry that I should have to leave; and Cathy couldn't bear that
+prospect: she pledged her word, and kept it for my sake.  After all, she
+was a sweet little girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+A letter, edged with black, announced the day of my master's return.
+Isabella was dead; and he wrote to bid me get mourning for his daughter,
+and arrange a room, and other accommodations, for his youthful nephew.
+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.  The evening of their expected arrival came.  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.
+
+'Linton is just six months younger than I am,' she chattered, as we
+strolled leisurely over the swells and hollows of mossy turf, under
+shadow of the trees.  '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.  I have it carefully
+preserved in a little glass box; and I've often thought what a pleasure
+it would be to see its owner.  Oh! I am happy--and papa, dear, dear papa!
+Come, Ellen, let us run! come, run.'
+
+She ran, and returned and ran again, many times before my sober footsteps
+reached the gate, and then she seated herself on the grassy bank beside
+the path, and tried to wait patiently; but that was impossible: she
+couldn't be still a minute.
+
+'How long they are!' she exclaimed.  'Ah, I see, some dust on the
+road--they are coming!  No!  When will they be here?  May we not go a
+little way--half a mile, Ellen, only just half a mile?  Do say Yes: to
+that clump of birches at the turn!'
+
+I refused staunchly.  At length her suspense was ended: the travelling
+carriage rolled in sight.  Miss Cathy shrieked and stretched out her arms
+as soon as she caught her father's face looking from the window.  He
+descended, nearly as eager as herself; and a considerable interval
+elapsed ere they had a thought to spare for any but themselves.  While
+they exchanged caresses I took a peep in to see after Linton.  He was
+asleep in a corner, wrapped in a warm, fur-lined cloak, as if it had been
+winter.  A pale, delicate, effeminate boy, who might have been taken for
+my master's younger brother, so strong was the resemblance: but there was
+a sickly peevishness in his aspect that Edgar Linton never had.  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.  Cathy
+would fain have taken one glance, but her father told her to come, and
+they walked together up the park, while I hastened before to prepare the
+servants.
+
+'Now, darling,' said Mr. Linton, addressing his daughter, as they halted
+at the bottom of the front steps: 'your cousin is not so strong or so
+merry as you are, and he has lost his mother, remember, a very short time
+since; therefore, don't expect him to play and run about with you
+directly.  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.'
+
+The carriage stopped; and the sleeper being roused, was lifted to the
+ground by his uncle.
+
+'This is your cousin Cathy, Linton,' he said, putting their little hands
+together.  'She's fond of you already; and mind you don't grieve her by
+crying to-night.  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.'
+
+'Let me go to bed, then,' answered the boy, shrinking from Catherine's
+salute; and he put his fingers to remove incipient tears.
+
+'Come, come, there's a good child,' I whispered, leading him in.  'You'll
+make her weep too--see how sorry she is for you!'
+
+I do not know whether it was sorrow for him, but his cousin put on as sad
+a countenance as himself, and returned to her father.  All three entered,
+and mounted to the library, where tea was laid ready.  I proceeded to
+remove Linton's cap and mantle, and placed him on a chair by the table;
+but he was no sooner seated than he began to cry afresh.  My master
+inquired what was the matter.
+
+'I can't sit on a chair,' sobbed the boy.
+
+'Go to the sofa, then, and Ellen shall bring you some tea,' answered his
+uncle patiently.
+
+He had been greatly tried, during the journey, I felt convinced, by his
+fretful ailing charge.  Linton slowly trailed himself off, and lay down.
+Cathy carried a footstool and her cup to his side.  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 tea in her saucer,
+like a baby.  This pleased him, for he was not much better: he dried his
+eyes, and lightened into a faint smile.
+
+'Oh, he'll do very well,' said the master to me, after watching them a
+minute.  'Very well, if we can keep him, Ellen.  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.'
+
+'Ay, if we can keep him!' I mused to myself; and sore misgivings came
+over me that there was slight hope of that.  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.  Our doubts were
+presently decided--even earlier than I expected.  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. Edgar, when a maid stepped out of the kitchen and informed me that
+Mr. Heathcliff's servant Joseph was at the door, and wished to speak with
+the master.
+
+'I shall ask him what he wants first,' I said, in considerable
+trepidation.  'A very unlikely hour to be troubling people, and the
+instant they have returned from a long journey.  I don't think the master
+can see him.'
+
+Joseph had advanced through the kitchen as I uttered these words, and now
+presented himself in the hall.  He was donned in his Sunday garments,
+with his most sanctimonious and sourest face, and, holding his hat in one
+hand, and his stick in the other, he proceeded to clean his shoes on the
+mat.
+
+'Good-evening, Joseph,' I said, coldly.  'What business brings you here
+to-night?'
+
+'It's Maister Linton I mun spake to,' he answered, waving me disdainfully
+aside.
+
+'Mr. Linton is going to bed; unless you have something particular to say,
+I'm sure he won't hear it now,' I continued.  'You had better sit down in
+there, and entrust your message to me.'
+
+'Which is his rahm?' pursued the fellow, surveying the range of closed
+doors.
+
+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.  Mr. 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 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.'
+
+Edgar Linton was silent a minute; an expression of exceeding sorrow
+overcast his features: he would have pitied the child on his own account;
+but, recalling Isabella's hopes and fears, and anxious wishes for her
+son, and her commendations of him to his care, he grieved bitterly at the
+prospect of yielding him up, and searched in his heart how it might be
+avoided.  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.  However, he was not going to rouse him
+from his sleep.
+
+'Tell Mr. Heathcliff,' he answered calmly, 'that his son shall come to
+Wuthering Heights to-morrow.  He is in bed, and too tired to go the
+distance now.  You may also tell him that the mother of Linton desired
+him to remain under my guardianship; and, at present, his health is very
+precarious.'
+
+'Noa!' said Joseph, giving a thud with his prop on the floor, and
+assuming an authoritative air.  'Noa! that means naught.  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.  'Walk down stairs
+at once, and repeat to your master what I have said.  Ellen, show him
+down.  Go--'
+
+And, aiding the indignant elder with a lift by the arm, he rid the room
+of him and closed the door.
+
+'Varrah weell!' shouted Joseph, as he slowly drew off.  'To-morn, he's
+come hisseln, and thrust _him_ out, if ye darr!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+To obviate the danger of this threat being fulfilled, Mr. 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.  Merely tell her his father sent for him suddenly, and
+he has been obliged to leave us.'
+
+Linton was very reluctant to be roused from his bed at five o'clock, and
+astonished to be informed that he must prepare for further travelling;
+but I softened off the matter by stating that he was going to spend some
+time with his father, Mr. Heathcliff, who wished to see him so much, he
+did not like to defer the pleasure till he should recover from his late
+journey.
+
+'My father!' he cried, in strange perplexity.  'Mamma never told me I had
+a father.  Where does he live?  I'd rather stay with uncle.'
+
+'He lives a little distance from the Grange,' I replied; 'just beyond
+those hills: not so far, but you may walk over here when you get hearty.
+And you should be glad to go home, and to see him.  You must try to love
+him, as you did your mother, and then he will love you.'
+
+'But why have I not heard of him before?' asked Linton.  'Why didn't
+mamma and he live together, as other people do?'
+
+'He had business to keep him in the north,' I answered, 'and your
+mother's health required her to reside in the south.'
+
+'And why didn't mamma speak to me about him?' persevered the child.  'She
+often talked of uncle, and I learnt to love him long ago.  How am I to
+love papa?  I don't know him.'
+
+'Oh, all children love their parents,' I said.  'Your mother, perhaps,
+thought you would want to be with him if she mentioned him often to you.
+Let us make haste.  An early ride on such a beautiful morning is much
+preferable to an hour's more sleep.'
+
+'Is _she_ to go with us,' he demanded, 'the little girl I saw yesterday?'
+
+'Not now,' replied I.
+
+'Is uncle?' he continued.
+
+'No, I shall be your companion there,' I said.
+
+Linton sank back on his pillow and fell into a brown study.
+
+'I won't go without uncle,' he cried at length: 'I can't tell where you
+mean to take me.'
+
+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.  The poor thing was finally got off, with several delusive
+assurances that his absence should be short: that Mr. Edgar and Cathy
+would visit him, and other promises, equally ill-founded, which I
+invented and reiterated at intervals throughout the way.  The pure
+heather-scented air, the bright sunshine, and the gentle canter of Minny,
+relieved his despondency after a while.  He began to put questions
+concerning his new home, and its inhabitants, with greater interest and
+liveliness.
+
+'Is Wuthering Heights as pleasant a place as Thrushcross Grange?' he
+inquired, turning to take a last glance into the valley, whence a light
+mist mounted and formed a fleecy cloud on the skirts of the blue.
+
+'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.  You will, perhaps, think the
+building old and dark at first; though it is a respectable house: the
+next best in the neighbourhood.  And you will have such nice rambles on
+the moors.  Hareton Earnshaw--that is, Miss Cathy's other cousin, and so
+yours in a manner--will show you all the sweetest spots; and you can
+bring a book in fine weather, and make a green hollow your study; and,
+now and then, your uncle may join you in a walk: he does, frequently,
+walk out on the hills.'
+
+'And what is my father like?' he asked.  'Is he as young and handsome as
+uncle?'
+
+'He's as young,' said I; 'but he has black hair and eyes, and looks
+sterner; and he is taller and bigger altogether.  He'll not seem to you
+so gentle and kind at first, perhaps, 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.'
+
+'Black hair and eyes!' mused Linton.  'I can't fancy him.  Then I am not
+like him, am I?'
+
+'Not much,' I answered: not a morsel, I thought, surveying with regret
+the white complexion and slim frame of my companion, and his large
+languid eyes--his mother's eyes, save that, unless a morbid touchiness
+kindled them a moment, they had not a vestige of her sparkling spirit.
+
+'How strange that he should never come to see mamma and me!' he murmured.
+'Has he ever seen me?  If he has, I must have been a baby.  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.  It is probable Mr. Heathcliff proposed going
+from summer to summer, but never found a convenient opportunity; and now
+it is too late.  Don't trouble him with questions on the subject: it will
+disturb him, for no good.'
+
+The boy was fully occupied with his own cogitations for the remainder of
+the ride, till we halted before the farmhouse garden-gate.  I watched to
+catch his impressions in his countenance.  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.  But he
+had sense to postpone complaining: there might be compensation within.
+Before he dismounted, I went and opened the door.  It was half-past six;
+the family had just finished breakfast: the servant was clearing and
+wiping down the table.  Joseph stood by his master's chair telling some
+tale concerning a lame horse; and Hareton was preparing for the hayfield.
+
+'Hallo, Nelly!' said Mr. Heathcliff, when he saw me.  'I feared I should
+have to come down and fetch my property myself.  You've brought it, have
+you?  Let us see what we can make of it.'
+
+He got up and strode to the door: Hareton and Joseph followed in gaping
+curiosity.  Poor Linton ran a frightened eye over the faces of the three.
+
+'Sure-ly,' said Joseph after a grave inspection, 'he's swopped wi' ye,
+Maister, an' yon's his lass!'
+
+Heathcliff, having stared his son into an ague of confusion, uttered a
+scornful laugh.
+
+'God! what a beauty! what a lovely, charming thing!' he exclaimed.
+'Hav'n't they reared it on snails and sour milk, Nelly?  Oh, damn my
+soul! but that's worse than I expected--and the devil knows I was not
+sanguine!'
+
+I bid the trembling and bewildered child get down, and enter.  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.  But he clung to me with growing
+trepidation; and on Mr. Heathcliff's taking a seat and bidding him 'come
+hither' he hid his face on my shoulder and wept.
+
+'Tut, tut!' said Heathcliff, stretching out a hand and dragging him
+roughly between his knees, and then holding up his head by the chin.
+'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.
+
+'Do you know me?' asked Heathcliff, having satisfied himself that the
+limbs were all equally frail and feeble.
+
+'No,' said Linton, with a gaze of vacant fear.
+
+'You've heard of me, I daresay?'
+
+'No,' he replied again.
+
+'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.  Now,
+don't wince, and colour up!  Though it is something to see you have not
+white blood.  Be a good lad; and I'll do for you.  Nelly, if you be tired
+you may sit down; if not, get home again.  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.'
+
+'Well,' replied I, 'I hope you'll be kind to the boy, Mr. 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.'
+
+'I'll be very kind to him, you needn't fear,' he said, laughing.  'Only
+nobody else must be kind to him: I'm jealous of monopolising his
+affection.  And, to begin my kindness, Joseph, bring the lad some
+breakfast.  Hareton, you infernal calf, begone to your work.  Yes, Nell,'
+he added, when they had departed, 'my son is prospective owner of your
+place, and I should not wish him to die till I was certain of being his
+successor.  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.  That is the sole consideration
+which can make me endure the whelp: I despise him for himself, and hate
+him for the memories he revives!  But that consideration is sufficient:
+he's as safe with me, and shall be tended as carefully as your master
+tends his own.  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've
+ordered Hareton to obey him: and in fact I've arranged everything with a
+view to preserve the superior and the gentleman in him, above his
+associates.  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. I saw the old
+man-servant shared largely in his master's scorn of the child; though he
+was compelled to retain the sentiment in his heart, because Heathcliff
+plainly meant his underlings to hold him in honour.
+
+'Cannot ate it?' repeated he, peering in Linton's face, and subduing his
+voice to a whisper, for fear of being overheard.  'But Maister Hareton
+nivir ate naught else, when he wer a little 'un; and what wer gooid
+enough for him's gooid enough for ye, I's rayther think!'
+
+'I _sha'n't_ eat it!' answered Linton, snappishly.  'Take it away.'
+
+Joseph snatched up the food indignantly, and brought it to us.
+
+'Is there aught ails th' victuals?' he asked, thrusting the tray under
+Heathcliff's nose.
+
+'What should ail them?' he said.
+
+'Wah!' answered Joseph, 'yon dainty chap says he cannut ate 'em.  But I
+guess it's raight!  His mother wer just soa--we wer a'most too mucky to
+sow t' corn for makking her breead.'
+
+'Don't mention his mother to me,' said the master, angrily.  'Get him
+something that he can eat, that's all.  What is his usual food, Nelly?'
+
+I suggested boiled milk or tea; and the housekeeper received instructions
+to prepare some.  Come, I reflected, his father's selfishness may
+contribute to his comfort.  He perceives his delicate constitution, and
+the necessity of treating him tolerably.  I'll console Mr. Edgar by
+acquainting him with the turn Heathcliff's humour has taken.  Having no
+excuse for lingering longer, I slipped out, while Linton was engaged in
+timidly rebuffing the advances of a friendly sheep-dog.  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.  I mounted Minny, and urged her to a trot; and so my brief
+guardianship ended.
+
+
+
+
+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.  This promise poorly pacified her;
+but time was more potent; and though still at intervals she inquired of
+her father when Linton would return, before she did see him again his
+features had waxed so dim in her memory that she did not recognise him.
+
+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.  I could gather from her that he continued in weak
+health, and was a tiresome inmate.  She said Mr. Heathcliff seemed to
+dislike him ever longer and worse, though he took some trouble to conceal
+it: he had an antipathy to the sound of his voice, and could not do at
+all with his sitting in the same room with him many minutes together.
+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.
+
+'And I never know such a fainthearted creature,' added the woman; 'nor
+one so careful of hisseln. He _will_ go on, if I leave the window open a
+bit late in the evening. Oh! it's killing, a breath of night air! And he
+must have a fire in the middle of summer; and Joseph's bacca-pipe is
+poison; and he must always have sweets and dainties, and always milk,
+milk for ever--heeding naught how the rest of us are pinched in winter;
+and there he'll sit, wrapped in his furred cloak in his chair by the
+fire, with some toast and water or other slop on the hob to sip at; and
+if Hareton, for pity, comes to amuse him--Hareton is not bad-natured,
+though he's rough--they're sure to part, one swearing and the other
+crying. 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. But then
+he won't go into danger of temptation: he never enters the parlour, and
+should Linton show those ways in the house where he is, he sends him
+up-stairs directly.'
+
+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.  Mr. 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.  That housekeeper left, if I recollect rightly, two years
+after he came; and another, whom I did not know, was her successor; she
+lives there still.
+
+Time wore on at the Grange in its former pleasant way till Miss Cathy
+reached sixteen.  On the anniversary of her birth we never manifested any
+signs of rejoicing, because it was also the anniversary of my late
+mistress's death.  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.  Therefore Catherine
+was thrown on her own resources for amusement.  This twentieth of March
+was a beautiful 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. Linton had given her leave, if we
+went only a short distance and were back within the hour.
+
+'So make haste, Ellen!' she cried.  'I know where I wish to go; where a
+colony of moor-game are settled: I want to see whether they have made
+their nests yet.'
+
+'That must be a good distance up,' I answered; 'they don't breed on the
+edge of the moor.'
+
+'No, it's not,' she said.  'I've gone very near with papa.'
+
+I put on my bonnet and sallied out, thinking nothing more of the matter.
+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.
+She was a happy creature, and an angel, in those days.  It's a pity she
+could not be content.
+
+'Well,' said I, 'where are your moor-game, Miss Cathy?  We should be at
+them: the Grange park-fence is a great way off now.'
+
+'Oh, a little further--only a little further, Ellen,' was her answer,
+continually.  'Climb to that hillock, pass that bank, and by the time you
+reach the other side I shall have raised the birds.'
+
+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.  I shouted to her, as she had outstripped me a long way; she
+either did not hear or did not regard, for she still sprang on, and I was
+compelled to follow.  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. Heathcliff himself.
+
+Cathy had been caught in the fact of plundering, or, at least, hunting
+out the nests of the grouse.  The Heights were Heathcliff's land, and he
+was reproving the poacher.
+
+'I've neither taken any nor found any,' she said, as I toiled to them,
+expanding her hands in corroboration of the statement.  'I didn't mean to
+take them; but papa told me there were quantities up here, and I wished
+to see the eggs.'
+
+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. Linton of Thrushcross Grange,' she replied.  'I thought you did not
+know me, or you wouldn't have spoken in that way.'
+
+'You suppose papa is highly esteemed and respected, then?' he said,
+sarcastically.
+
+'And what are you?' inquired Catherine, gazing curiously on the speaker.
+'That man I've seen before.  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.
+
+'Miss Cathy,' I interrupted, 'it will be three hours instead of one that
+we are out, presently.  We really must go back.'
+
+'No, that man is not my son,' answered Heathcliff, pushing me aside.  'But
+I have one, and you have seen him before too; and, though your nurse is
+in a hurry, I think both you and she would be the better for a little
+rest.  Will you just turn this nab of heath, and walk into my house?
+You'll get home earlier for the ease; and you shall receive a kind
+welcome.'
+
+I whispered Catherine that she mustn't, on any account, accede to the
+proposal: it was entirely out of the question.
+
+'Why?' she asked, aloud.  'I'm tired of running, and the ground is dewy:
+I can't sit here.  Let us go, Ellen.  Besides, he says I have seen his
+son.  He's mistaken, I think; but I guess where he lives: at the
+farmhouse I visited in coming from Penistone Crags.  Don't you?'
+
+'I do.  Come, Nelly, hold your tongue--it will be a treat for her to look
+in on us.  Hareton, get forwards with the lass.  You shall walk with me,
+Nelly.'
+
+'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.  Her appointed
+companion did not pretend to escort her: he shied off by the road-side,
+and vanished.
+
+'Mr. Heathcliff, it's very wrong,' I continued: 'you know you mean no
+good.  And there she'll see Linton, and all will be told as soon as ever
+we return; and I shall have the blame.'
+
+'I want her to see Linton,' he answered; 'he's looking better these few
+days; it's not often he's fit to be seen.  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.
+
+'My design is as honest as possible.  I'll inform you of its whole
+scope,' he said.  'That the two cousins may fall in love, and get
+married.  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.'
+
+'If Linton died,' I answered, 'and his life is quite uncertain, Catherine
+would be the heir.'
+
+'No, she would not,' he said.  'There is no clause in the will to secure
+it so: his property would go to me; but, to prevent disputes, I desire
+their union, and am resolved to bring it about.'
+
+'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.
+
+Heathcliff bade me be quiet; and, preceding us up the path, hastened to
+open the door.  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.  Linton stood on the hearth.  He had been out walking in the
+fields, for his cap was on, and he was calling to Joseph to bring him dry
+shoes.  He had grown tall of his age, still wanting some months of
+sixteen.  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.
+
+'Now, who is that?' asked Mr. Heathcliff, turning to Cathy.  'Can you
+tell?'
+
+'Your son?' she said, having doubtfully surveyed, first one and then the
+other.
+
+'Yes, yes,' answered he: 'but is this the only time you have beheld him?
+Think!  Ah! you have a short memory.  Linton, don't you recall your
+cousin, that you used to tease us so with wishing to see?'
+
+'What, Linton!' cried Cathy, kindling into joyful surprise at the name.
+'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.  Catherine had reached her full height; her
+figure was both plump and slender, elastic as steel, and her whole aspect
+sparkling with health and spirits.  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.
+After exchanging numerous marks of fondness with him, his cousin went to
+Mr. 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.
+
+'And you are my uncle, then!' she cried, reaching up to salute him.  'I
+thought I liked you, though you were cross at first.  Why don't you visit
+at the Grange with Linton?  To live all these years such close
+neighbours, and never see us, is odd: what have you done so for?'
+
+'I visited it once or twice too often before you were born,' he answered.
+'There--damn it!  If you have any kisses to spare, give them to Linton:
+they are thrown away on me.'
+
+'Naughty Ellen!' exclaimed Catherine, flying to attack me next with her
+lavish caresses.  'Wicked Ellen! to try to hinder me from entering.  But
+I'll take this walk every morning in future: may I, uncle? and sometimes
+bring papa.  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.  'But
+stay,' he continued, turning towards the young lady.  'Now I think of it,
+I'd better tell you.  Mr. 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.  Therefore, you must not mention it, unless you be careless
+of seeing your cousin hereafter: you may come, if you will, but you must
+not mention it.'
+
+'Why did you quarrel?' asked Catherine, considerably crestfallen.
+
+'He thought me too poor to wed his sister,' answered Heathcliff, 'and was
+grieved that I got her: his pride was hurt, and he'll never forgive it.'
+
+'That's wrong!' said the young lady: 'some time I'll tell him so.  But
+Linton and I have no share in your quarrel.  I'll not come here, then; he
+shall come to the Grange.'
+
+'It will be too far for me,' murmured her cousin: 'to walk four miles
+would kill me.  No, come here, Miss Catherine, now and then: not every
+morning, but once or twice a week.'
+
+The father launched towards his son a glance of bitter contempt.
+
+'I am afraid, Nelly, I shall lose my labour,' he muttered to me.  'Miss
+Catherine, as the ninny calls her, will discover his value, and send him
+to the devil.  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.  But I think he's safe from _her_
+love.  I'll pit him against that paltry creature, unless it bestir itself
+briskly.  We calculate it will scarcely last till it is eighteen.  Oh,
+confound the vapid thing!  He's absorbed in drying his feet, and never
+looks at her.--Linton!'
+
+'Yes, father,' answered the boy.
+
+'Have you nothing to show your cousin anywhere about, not even a rabbit
+or a weasel's nest?  Take her into the garden, before you change your
+shoes; and into the stable to see your horse.'
+
+'Wouldn't you rather sit here?' asked Linton, addressing Cathy in a tone
+which expressed reluctance to move again.
+
+'I don't know,' she replied, casting a longing look to the door, and
+evidently eager to be active.
+
+He kept his seat, and shrank closer to the fire.  Heathcliff rose, and
+went into the kitchen, and from thence to the yard, calling out for
+Hareton.  Hareton responded, and presently the two re-entered.  The young
+man had been washing himself, as was visible by the glow on his cheeks
+and his wetted hair.
+
+'Oh, I'll ask _you_, uncle,' cried Miss Cathy, recollecting the
+housekeeper's assertion.  'That is not my cousin, is he?'
+
+'Yes,' he, replied, 'your mother's nephew.  Don't you like him!'
+
+Catherine looked queer.
+
+'Is he not a handsome lad?' he continued.
+
+The uncivil little thing stood on tiptoe, and whispered a sentence in
+Heathcliff's ear.  He laughed; Hareton darkened: I perceived he was very
+sensitive to suspected slights, and had obviously a dim notion of his
+inferiority.  But his master or guardian chased the frown by exclaiming--
+
+'You'll be the favourite among us, Hareton!  She says you are a--What was
+it?  Well, something very flattering.  Here! you go with her round the
+farm.  And behave like a gentleman, mind!  Don't use any bad words; and
+don't stare when the young lady is not looking at you, and be ready to
+hide your face when she is; and, when you speak, say your words slowly,
+and keep your hands out of your pockets.  Be off, and entertain her as
+nicely as you can.'
+
+He watched the couple walking past the window.  Earnshaw had his
+countenance completely averted from his companion.  He seemed studying
+the familiar landscape with a stranger's and an artist's interest.
+Catherine took a sly look at him, expressing small admiration.  She then
+turned her attention to seeking out objects of amusement for herself, and
+tripped merrily on, lilting a tune to supply the lack of conversation.
+
+'I've tied his tongue,' observed Heathcliff.  'He'll not venture a single
+syllable all the time!  Nelly, you recollect me at his age--nay, some
+years younger.  Did I ever look so stupid: so "gaumless," as Joseph calls
+it?'
+
+'Worse,' I replied, 'because more sullen with it.'
+
+'I've a pleasure in him,' he continued, reflecting aloud. 'He has
+satisfied my expectations. If he were a born fool I should not enjoy it
+half so much. But he's no fool; and I can sympathise with all his
+feelings, having felt them myself. I know what he suffers now, for
+instance, exactly: it is merely a beginning of what he shall suffer,
+though. And he'll never be able to emerge from his bathos of coarseness
+and ignorance. I've got him faster than his scoundrel of a father
+secured me, and lower; for he takes a pride in his brutishness. I've
+taught him to scorn everything extra-animal as silly and weak. Don't you
+think Hindley would be proud of his son, if he could see him? almost as
+proud as I am of mine. 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. _Mine_ has nothing valuable about it; yet I shall have the
+merit of making it go as far as such poor stuff can go. _His_ had
+first-rate qualities, and they are lost: rendered worse than unavailing.
+I have nothing to regret; he would have more than any but I are aware
+of. And the best of it is, Hareton is damnably fond of me! You'll own
+that I've outmatched Hindley there. If the dead villain could rise from
+his grave to abuse me for his offspring's wrongs, I should have the fun
+of seeing the said offspring fight him back again, indignant that he
+should dare to rail at the one friend he has in the world!'
+
+Heathcliff chuckled a fiendish laugh at the idea.  I made no reply,
+because I saw that he expected none.  Meantime, our young companion, who
+sat too removed from us to hear what was said, began to evince symptoms
+of uneasiness, probably repenting that he had denied himself the treat of
+Catherine's society for fear of a little fatigue.  His father remarked
+the restless glances wandering to the window, and the hand irresolutely
+extended towards his cap.
+
+'Get up, you idle boy!' he exclaimed, with assumed heartiness.
+
+'Away after them! they are just at the corner, by the stand of hives.'
+
+Linton gathered his energies, and left the hearth.  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.
+
+'It's some damnable writing,' he answered.  'I cannot read it.'
+
+'Can't read it?' cried Catherine; 'I can read it: it's English.  But I
+want to know why it is there.'
+
+Linton giggled: the first appearance of mirth he had exhibited.
+
+'He does not know his letters,' he said to his cousin.  'Could you
+believe in the existence of such a colossal dunce?'
+
+'Is he all as he should be?' asked Miss Cathy, seriously; 'or is he
+simple: not right?  I've questioned him twice now, and each time he
+looked so stupid I think he does not understand me.  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.
+
+'There's nothing the matter but laziness; is there, Earnshaw?' he said.
+'My cousin fancies you are an idiot.  There you experience the
+consequence of scorning "book-larning," as you would say.  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.  He was about to enlarge further, but the
+two youngsters broke into a noisy fit of merriment: my giddy miss being
+delighted to discover that she might turn his strange talk to matter of
+amusement.
+
+'Where is the use of the devil in that sentence?' tittered Linton.  'Papa
+told you not to say any bad words, and you can't open your mouth without
+one.  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.
+
+Mr. 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.  I began to dislike, more than to compassionate
+Linton, and to excuse his father in some measure for holding him cheap.
+
+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.  As we walked home, I would fain have enlightened
+my charge on the characters of the people we had quitted: but she got it
+into her head that I was prejudiced against them.
+
+'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.  I'm really extremely angry; only I'm
+so pleased I can't show it!  But you must hold your tongue about _my_
+uncle; he's my uncle, remember; and I'll scold papa for quarrelling with
+him.'
+
+And so she ran on, till I relinquished the endeavour to convince her of
+her mistake.  She did not mention the visit that night, because she did
+not see Mr. Linton.  Next day it all came out, sadly to my chagrin; and
+still I was not altogether sorry: I thought the burden of directing and
+warning would be more efficiently borne by him than me.  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.
+
+'Papa!' she exclaimed, after the morning's salutations, 'guess whom I saw
+yesterday, in my walk on the moors.  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 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.  Then he drew her to him, and asked if she knew
+why he had concealed Linton's near neighbourhood from her?  Could she
+think it was to deny her a pleasure that she might harmlessly enjoy?
+
+'It was because you disliked Mr. Heathcliff,' she answered.
+
+'Then you believe I care more for my own feelings than yours, Cathy?' he
+said.  'No, it was not because I disliked Mr. Heathcliff, but because 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
+knew that you could not keep up an acquaintance with your cousin without
+being brought into contact with him; and I knew he would detest you on my
+account; so for your own good, and nothing else, I took precautions that
+you should not see Linton again.  I meant to explain this some time as
+you grew older, and I'm sorry I delayed it.'
+
+'But Mr. 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.  And you won't.  _You_ are the one to be blamed: he is willing
+to let us be friends, at least; Linton and I; and you are not.'
+
+My master, perceiving that she would not take his word for her
+uncle-in-law's evil disposition, gave a hasty sketch of his conduct to
+Isabella, and the manner in which Wuthering Heights became his property.
+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. Linton's
+death. '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. Miss Cathy--conversant with no bad deeds except her own slight
+acts of disobedience, injustice, and passion, arising from hot temper
+and thoughtlessness, and repented of on the day they were committed--was
+amazed at the blackness of spirit that could brood on and cover revenge
+for years, and deliberately prosecute its plans without a visitation of
+remorse. 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. Edgar deemed it unnecessary to pursue the subject. 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.'
+
+Catherine kissed her father, and sat down quietly to her lessons for a
+couple of hours, according to custom; then she accompanied him into the
+grounds, and the whole day passed as usual: but in the evening, when she
+had retired to her room, and I went to help her to undress, I found her
+crying, on her knees by the bedside.
+
+'Oh, fie, silly child!' I exclaimed.  'If you had any real griefs you'd
+be ashamed to waste a tear on this little contrariety.  You never had one
+shadow of substantial sorrow, Miss Catherine.  Suppose, for a minute,
+that master and I were dead, and you were by yourself in the world: how
+would you feel, then?  Compare the present occasion with such an
+affliction as that, and be thankful for the friends you have, instead of
+coveting more.'
+
+'I'm not crying for myself, Ellen,' she answered, 'it's for him.  He
+expected to see me again to-morrow, and there he'll be so disappointed:
+and he'll wait for me, and I sha'n't come!'
+
+'Nonsense!' said I, 'do you imagine he has thought as much of you as you
+have of him?  Hasn't he Hareton for a companion?  Not one in a hundred
+would weep at losing a relation they had just seen twice, for two
+afternoons.  Linton will conjecture how it is, and trouble himself no
+further about you.'
+
+'But may I not write a note to tell him why I cannot come?' she asked,
+rising to her feet.  '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.  May I not, Ellen?'
+
+'No, indeed! no, indeed!' replied I with decision.  'Then he would write
+to you, and there'd never be an end of it.  No, Miss Catherine, the
+acquaintance must be dropped entirely: so papa expects, and I shall see
+that it is done.'
+
+'But how can one little note--?' she recommenced, putting on an imploring
+countenance.
+
+'Silence!' I interrupted.  'We'll not begin with your little notes.  Get
+into bed.'
+
+She threw at me a very naughty look, so naughty that I would not kiss her
+good-night at first: I covered her up, and shut her door, in great
+displeasure; but, repenting half-way, 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.
+
+'You'll get nobody to take that, Catherine,' I said, 'if you write it;
+and at present I shall put out your candle.'
+
+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.  The letter was
+finished and forwarded to its destination by a milk-fetcher who came from
+the village; but that I didn't learn till some time afterwards.  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.  She also got a trick of coming down early in the
+morning and lingering about the kitchen, as if she were expecting the
+arrival of something; and she had a small drawer in a cabinet in the
+library, which she would trifle over for hours, and whose key she took
+special care to remove when she left it.
+
+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.  My curiosity and suspicions were roused; I determined to
+take a peep at her mysterious treasures; so, at night, as soon as she and
+my master were safe upstairs, I searched, and readily found among my
+house keys one that would fit the lock.  Having opened, I emptied the
+whole contents into my apron, and took them with me to examine at leisure
+in my own chamber.  Though I could not but suspect, I was still surprised
+to discover that they were a mass of correspondence--daily almost, it
+must have been--from Linton Heathcliff: answers to documents forwarded by
+her.  The earlier dated were embarrassed and short; gradually, however,
+they expanded into copious love-letters, 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.  Some of them struck me as
+singularly odd compounds of ardour and flatness; commencing in strong
+feeling, and concluding in the affected, wordy style that a schoolboy
+might use to a fancied, incorporeal sweetheart.  Whether they satisfied
+Cathy I don't know; but they appeared very worthless trash to me.  After
+turning over as many as I thought proper, I tied them in a handkerchief
+and set them aside, relocking the vacant drawer.
+
+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.  I went round by the
+garden, and laid wait for the messenger; who fought valorously to defend
+his trust, and we spilt the milk between us; but I succeeded in
+abstracting the epistle; and, threatening serious consequences if he did
+not look sharp home, I remained under the wall and perused Miss Cathy's
+affectionate composition.  It was more simple and more eloquent than her
+cousin's: very pretty and very silly.  I shook my head, and went
+meditating into the house.  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.  Her father
+sat reading at the table; and I, on purpose, had sought a bit of work in
+some unripped fringes of the window-curtain, keeping my eye steadily
+fixed on her proceedings.  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, than she by her
+single 'Oh!' and the change that transfigured her late happy countenance.
+Mr. Linton looked up.
+
+'What is the matter, love?  Have you hurt yourself?' he said.
+
+His tone and look assured her _he_ had not been the discoverer of the
+hoard.
+
+'No, papa!' she gasped.  'Ellen! Ellen! come up-stairs--I'm sick!'
+
+I obeyed her summons, and accompanied her out.
+
+'Oh, Ellen! you have got them,' she commenced immediately, dropping on
+her knees, when we were enclosed alone.  'Oh, give them to me, and I'll
+never, never do so again!  Don't tell papa.  You have not told papa,
+Ellen? say you have not?  I've been exceedingly naughty, but I won't do
+it any more!'
+
+With a grave severity in my manner I bade her stand up.
+
+'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 shall keep your
+ridiculous secrets.  For shame! and you must have led the way in writing
+such absurdities: he would not have thought of beginning, I'm certain.'
+
+'I didn't!  I didn't!' sobbed Cathy, fit to break her heart.  'I didn't
+once think of loving him till--'
+
+'_Loving_!' cried I, as scornfully as I could utter the word.  '_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.  Pretty loving, indeed! and
+both times together you have seen Linton hardly four hours in your life!
+Now here is the babyish trash.  I'm going with it to the library; and
+we'll see what your father says to such _loving_.'
+
+She sprang at her precious epistles, but I held them above my head; and
+then she poured out further frantic entreaties that I would burn them--do
+anything rather than show them.  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?'
+
+'We don't send playthings,' cried Catherine, her pride overcoming her
+shame.
+
+'Nor anything at all, then, my lady?' I said.  'Unless you will, here I
+go.'
+
+'I promise, Ellen!' she cried, catching my dress.  '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.  She earnestly supplicated that I would spare her
+one or two.
+
+'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.
+
+'I will have one, you cruel wretch!' she screamed, darting her hand into
+the fire, and drawing forth some half-consumed fragments, at the expense
+of her fingers.
+
+'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.
+
+She emptied her blackened pieces into the flames, and motioned me to
+finish the immolation.  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.  I descended to tell my
+master that the young lady's qualm of sickness was almost gone, but I
+judged it best for her to lie down a while.  She wouldn't dine; but she
+reappeared at tea, pale, and red about the eyes, and marvellously subdued
+in outward aspect.  Next morning I answered the letter by a slip of
+paper, inscribed, 'Master Heathcliff is requested to send no more notes
+to Miss Linton, as she will not receive them.'  And, henceforth, the
+little boy came with vacant pockets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Summer drew to an end, and early autumn: it was past Michaelmas, but the
+harvest was late that year, and a few of our fields were still uncleared.
+Mr. Linton and his daughter would frequently walk out among the reapers;
+at the carrying of the last sheaves they stayed till dusk, and the
+evening happening to be chill and damp, my master caught a bad cold, that
+settled obstinately on his lungs, and confined him indoors throughout the
+whole of the winter, nearly without intermission.
+
+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.  She had his companionship no
+longer; I esteemed it a duty to supply its lack, as much as possible,
+with mine: an inefficient substitute; for I could only spare two or three
+hours, from my numerous diurnal occupations, to follow her footsteps, and
+then my society was obviously less desirable than his.
+
+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 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.  She refused; and I unwillingly donned a cloak, and took my
+umbrella to accompany her on a stroll to the bottom of the park: a formal
+walk which she generally affected if low-spirited--and that she
+invariably was when Mr. 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.  She went sadly
+on: there was no running or bounding now, though the chill wind might
+well have tempted her to race.  And often, from the side of my eye, I
+could detect her raising a hand, and brushing something off her cheek.  I
+gazed round for a means of diverting her thoughts.  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.  In summer
+Miss Catherine delighted to climb along these trunks, and sit in the
+branches, swinging twenty feet above the ground; and I, pleased with her
+agility and her light, childish heart, still considered it proper to
+scold every time I caught her at such an elevation, but so that she knew
+there was no necessity for descending.  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.
+
+'Look, Miss!' I exclaimed, pointing to a nook under the roots of one
+twisted tree.  'Winter is not here yet.  There's a little flower up
+yonder, the last bud from the multitude of bluebells that clouded those
+turf steps in July with a lilac mist.  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.  You're so low, I daresay I
+shall keep up with you.'
+
+'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.
+
+'Catherine, why are you crying, love?' I asked, approaching and putting
+my arm over her shoulder.  'You mustn't cry because papa has a cold; be
+thankful it is nothing worse.'
+
+She now put no further restraint on her tears; her breath was stifled by
+sobs.
+
+'Oh, it will be something worse,' she said.  'And what shall I do when
+papa and you leave me, and I am by myself?  I can't forget your words,
+Ellen; they are always in my ear.  How life will be changed, how dreary
+the world will be, when papa and you are dead.'
+
+'None can tell whether you won't die before us,' I replied.  'It's wrong
+to anticipate evil.  We'll hope there are years and years to come before
+any of us go: master is young, and I am strong, and hardly forty-five.  My
+mother lived till eighty, a canty dame to the last.  And suppose Mr.
+Linton were spared till he saw sixty, that would be more years than you
+have counted, Miss.  And would it not be foolish to mourn a calamity
+above twenty years beforehand?'
+
+'But Aunt Isabella was younger than papa,' she remarked, gazing up with
+timid hope to seek further consolation.
+
+'Aunt Isabella had not you and me to nurse her,' I replied.  'She wasn't
+as happy as Master: she hadn't as much to live for.  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 fret about nothing on earth except papa's illness,' answered my
+companion.  'I care for nothing in comparison with papa.  And I'll
+never--never--oh, never, while I have my senses, do an act or say a word
+to vex him.  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.'
+
+'Good words,' I replied.  'But deeds must prove it also; and after he is
+well, remember you don't forget resolutions formed in the hour of fear.'
+
+As we talked, we neared a door that opened on the road; and my young
+lady, lightening into sunshine again, climbed up and seated herself on
+the top of the wall, reaching over to gather some hips that bloomed
+scarlet on the summit branches of the wild-rose trees shadowing the
+highway side: the lower fruit had disappeared, but only birds could touch
+the upper, except from Cathy's present station.  In stretching to pull
+them, her hat fell off; and as the door was locked, she proposed
+scrambling down to recover it.  I bid her be cautious lest she got a
+fall, and she nimbly disappeared.  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,
+like a fool, didn't recollect that, till I heard her laughing and
+exclaiming--'Ellen! you'll have to fetch the key, or else I must run
+round to the porter's lodge.  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.'
+
+Catherine amused herself with dancing to and fro before the door, while I
+tried all the large keys in succession.  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.  It was the trot of a horse; Cathy's dance stopped
+also.
+
+'Who is that?' I whispered.
+
+'Ellen, I wish you could open the door,' whispered back my companion,
+anxiously.
+
+'Ho, Miss Linton!' cried a deep voice (the rider's), 'I'm glad to meet
+you.  Don't be in haste to enter, for I have an explanation to ask and
+obtain.'
+
+'I sha'n't speak to you, Mr. Heathcliff,' answered Catherine.  'Papa says
+you are a wicked man, and you hate both him and me; and Ellen says the
+same.'
+
+'That is nothing to the purpose,' said Heathcliff.  (He it was.)  'I
+don't hate my son, I suppose; and it is concerning him that I demand your
+attention.  Yes; you have cause to blush.  Two or three months since,
+were you not in the habit of writing to Linton? making love in play, eh?
+You deserved, both of you, flogging for that!  You especially, the elder;
+and less sensitive, as it turns out.  I've got your letters, and if you
+give me any pertness I'll send them to your father.  I presume you grew
+weary of the amusement and dropped it, didn't you?  Well, you dropped
+Linton with it into a Slough of Despond.  He was in earnest: in love,
+really.  As true as I live, he's dying for you; breaking his heart at
+your fickleness: not figuratively, but actually.  Though Hareton has made
+him a standing jest for six weeks, and I have used more serious measures,
+and 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.  'Pray ride on!  How can you deliberately get up such paltry
+falsehoods?  Miss Cathy, I'll knock the lock off with a stone: you won't
+believe that vile nonsense.  You can feel in yourself it is impossible
+that a person should die for love of a stranger.'
+
+'I was not aware there were eavesdroppers,' muttered the detected
+villain. 'Worthy Mrs. Dean, I like you, but I don't like your
+double-dealing,' he added aloud. '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. I swear, on my salvation, he's going to his grave, and none
+but you can save him!'
+
+The lock gave way and I issued out.
+
+'I swear Linton is dying,' repeated Heathcliff, looking hard at me.  'And
+grief and disappointment are hastening his death.  Nelly, if you won't
+let her go, you can walk over yourself.  But I shall not return till this
+time next week; and I think your master himself would scarcely object to
+her visiting her cousin.'
+
+'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.
+
+He pushed his horse close, and, bending down, observed--'Miss Catherine,
+I'll own to you that I have little patience with Linton; and Hareton and
+Joseph have less.  I'll own that he's with a harsh set.  He pines for
+kindness, as well as love; and a kind word from you would be his best
+medicine.  Don't mind Mrs. Dean's cruel cautions; but be generous, and
+contrive to see him.  He dreams of you day and night, and cannot be
+persuaded that you don't hate him, since you neither write nor call.'
+
+I closed the door, and rolled a stone to assist the loosened lock in
+holding it; and spreading my umbrella, I drew my charge underneath: for
+the rain began to drive through the moaning branches of the trees, and
+warned us to avoid delay.  Our hurry prevented any comment on the
+encounter with Heathcliff, as we stretched towards home; but I divined
+instinctively that Catherine's heart was clouded now in double darkness.
+Her features were so sad, they did not seem hers: she evidently regarded
+what she had heard as every syllable true.
+
+The master had retired to rest before we came in.  Cathy stole to his
+room to inquire how he was; he had fallen asleep.  She returned, and
+asked me to sit with her in the library.  We took our tea together; and
+afterwards she lay down on the rug, and told me not to talk, for she was
+weary.  I got a book, and pretended to read.  As soon as she supposed me
+absorbed in my occupation, she recommenced her silent weeping: it
+appeared, at present, her favourite diversion.  I suffered her to enjoy
+it a while; then I expostulated: deriding and ridiculing all Mr.
+Heathcliff's assertions about his son, as if I were certain she would
+coincide.  Alas!  I hadn't skill to counteract the effect his account had
+produced: it was just what he intended.
+
+'You may be right, Ellen,' she answered; 'but I shall never feel at ease
+till I know.  And I must tell Linton it is not my fault that I don't
+write, and convince him that I shall not change.'
+
+What use were anger and protestations against her silly credulity?  We
+parted that night--hostile; but next day beheld me on the road to
+Wuthering Heights, by the side of my wilful young mistress's pony.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+The rainy night had ushered in a misty morning--half frost, half
+drizzle--and temporary brooks crossed our path--gurgling from the
+uplands.  My feet were thoroughly wetted; I was cross and low; exactly
+the humour suited for making the most of these disagreeable things.  We
+entered the farm-house by the kitchen way, to ascertain whether Mr.
+Heathcliff were really absent: because I put slight faith in his own
+affirmation.
+
+Joseph seemed sitting in a sort of elysium alone, beside a roaring fire;
+a quart of ale on the table near him, bristling with large pieces of
+toasted oat-cake; and his black, short pipe in his mouth.  Catherine ran
+to the hearth to warm herself.  I asked if the master was in?  My
+question remained so long unanswered, that I thought the old man had
+grown deaf, and repeated it louder.
+
+'Na--ay!' he snarled, or rather screamed through his nose.  'Na--ay! yah
+muh goa back whear yah coom frough.'
+
+'Joseph!' cried a peevish voice, simultaneously with me, from the inner
+room.  'How often am I to call you?  There are only a few red ashes now.
+Joseph! come this moment.'
+
+Vigorous puffs, and a resolute stare into the grate, declared he had no
+ear for this appeal.  The housekeeper and Hareton were invisible; one
+gone on an errand, and the other at his work, probably.  We knew Linton's
+tones, and entered.
+
+'Oh, I hope you'll die in a garret, starved to death!' said the boy,
+mistaking our approach for that of his negligent attendant.
+
+He stopped on observing his error: his cousin flew to him.
+
+'Is that you, Miss Linton?' he said, raising his head from the arm of the
+great chair, in which he reclined.  'No--don't kiss me: it takes my
+breath.  Dear me!  Papa said you would call,' continued he, after
+recovering a little from Catherine's embrace; while she stood by looking
+very contrite.  'Will you shut the door, if you please? you left it open;
+and those--those _detestable_ creatures won't bring coals to the fire.
+It's so cold!'
+
+I stirred up the cinders, and fetched a scuttleful myself.  The invalid
+complained of being covered with ashes; but he had a tiresome cough, and
+looked feverish and ill, so I did not rebuke his temper.
+
+'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.  'You should have come, instead
+of writing.  It tired me dreadfully writing those long letters.  I'd far
+rather have talked to you.  Now, I can neither bear to talk, nor anything
+else.  I wonder where Zillah is!  Will you' (looking at me) 'step into
+the kitchen and see?'
+
+I had received no thanks for my other service; and being unwilling to run
+to and fro at his behest, I replied--'Nobody is out there but Joseph.'
+
+'I want to drink,' he exclaimed fretfully, turning away.  'Zillah is
+constantly gadding off to Gimmerton since papa went: it's miserable!  And
+I'm obliged to come down here--they resolved never to hear me up-stairs.'
+
+'Is your father attentive to you, Master Heathcliff?' I asked, perceiving
+Catherine to be checked in her friendly advances.
+
+'Attentive?  He makes them a little more attentive at least,' he cried.
+'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.'
+
+Cathy began searching for some water; she lighted on a pitcher in the
+dresser, filled a tumbler, and brought it.  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.
+
+'And are you glad to see me?' asked she, reiterating her former question
+and pleased to detect the faint dawn of a smile.
+
+'Yes, I am.  It's something new to hear a voice like yours!' he replied.
+'But I have been vexed, because you wouldn't come.  And papa swore it was
+owing to me: he called me a pitiful, shuffling, worthless thing; and said
+you despised me; and if he had been in my place, he would be more the
+master of the Grange than your father by this time.  But you don't
+despise me, do you, Miss--?'
+
+'I wish you would say Catherine, or Cathy,' interrupted my young lady.
+'Despise you?  No!  Next to papa and Ellen, I love you better than
+anybody living.  I don't love Mr. Heathcliff, though; and I dare not come
+when he returns: will he stay away many days?'
+
+'Not many,' answered Linton; 'but he goes on to the moors frequently,
+since the shooting season commenced; and you might spend an hour or two
+with me in his absence.  Do say you will.  I think I should not be
+peevish with you: you'd not provoke me, and you'd always be ready to help
+me, wouldn't you?'
+
+'Yes,' said Catherine, stroking his long soft hair: 'if I could only get
+papa's consent, I'd spend half my time with you.  Pretty Linton!  I wish
+you were my brother.'
+
+'And then you would like me as well as your father?' observed he, more
+cheerfully.  '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.'
+
+'No, I should never love anybody better than papa,' she returned gravely.
+'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.'
+
+Linton denied that people ever hated their wives; but Cathy affirmed they
+did, and, in her wisdom, instanced his own father's aversion to her aunt.
+I endeavoured to stop her thoughtless tongue.  I couldn't succeed till
+everything she knew was out.  Master Heathcliff, much irritated, asserted
+her relation was false.
+
+'Papa told me; and papa does not tell falsehoods,' she answered pertly.
+
+'_My_ papa scorns yours!' cried Linton.  'He calls him a sneaking fool.'
+
+'Yours is a wicked man,' retorted Catherine; 'and you are very naughty to
+dare to repeat what he says.  He must be wicked to have made Aunt
+Isabella leave him as she did.'
+
+'She didn't leave him,' said the boy; 'you sha'n't contradict me.'
+
+'She did,' cried my young lady.
+
+'Well, I'll tell you something!' said Linton.  'Your mother hated your
+father: now then.'
+
+'Oh!' exclaimed Catherine, too enraged to continue.
+
+'And she loved mine,' added he.
+
+'You little liar!  I hate you now!' she panted, and her face grew red
+with passion.
+
+'She did! she did!' sang Linton, sinking into the recess of his chair,
+and leaning back his head to enjoy the agitation of the other disputant,
+who stood behind.
+
+'Hush, Master Heathcliff!' I said; 'that's your father's tale, too, I
+suppose.'
+
+'It isn't: you hold your tongue!' he answered.  '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.  He was immediately seized by a suffocating cough
+that soon ended his triumph.  It lasted so long that it frightened even
+me.  As to his cousin, she wept with all her might, aghast at the
+mischief she had done: though she said nothing.  I held him till the fit
+exhausted itself.  Then he thrust me away, and leant his head down
+silently.  Catherine quelled her lamentations also, took a seat opposite,
+and looked solemnly into the fire.
+
+'How do you feel now, Master Heathcliff?' I inquired, after waiting ten
+minutes.
+
+'I wish _she_ felt as I do,' he replied: 'spiteful, cruel thing! Hareton
+never touches me: he never struck me in his life. And I was better
+to-day: and there--' his voice died in a whimper.
+
+'_I_ didn't strike you!' muttered Cathy, chewing her lip to prevent
+another burst of emotion.
+
+He sighed and moaned like one under great suffering, and kept it up for a
+quarter of an hour; on purpose to distress his cousin apparently, for
+whenever he caught a stifled sob from her he put renewed pain and pathos
+into the inflexions of his voice.
+
+'I'm sorry I hurt you, Linton,' she said at length, racked beyond
+endurance.  'But I couldn't have been hurt by that little push, and I had
+no idea that you could, either: you're not much, are you, Linton?  Don't
+let me go home thinking I've done you harm.  Answer! speak to me.'
+
+'I can't speak to you,' he murmured; 'you've hurt me so that I shall lie
+awake all night choking with this cough.  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.  I wonder how you would like to pass those fearful nights!'  And
+he began to wail aloud, for very pity of himself.
+
+'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.
+However, she shall not disturb you again; and perhaps you'll get quieter
+when we leave you.'
+
+'Must I go?' asked Catherine dolefully, bending over him.  'Do you want
+me to go, Linton?'
+
+'You can't alter what you've done,' he replied pettishly, shrinking from
+her, 'unless you alter it for the worse by teasing me into a fever.'
+
+'Well, then, I must go?' she repeated.
+
+'Let me alone, at least,' said he; 'I can't bear your talking.'
+
+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.  We were recalled by a scream.  Linton had slid
+from his seat on 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.  I thoroughly gauged his disposition
+from his behaviour, and saw at once it would be folly to attempt
+humouring him.  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 shall lift him on to the settle,' I said, 'and he may roll about as he
+pleases: we can't stop to watch him.  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.  Now, then, there he
+is!  Come away: as soon as he knows there is nobody by to care for his
+nonsense, he'll be glad to lie still.'
+
+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.  She tried to put it more comfortably.
+
+'I can't do with that,' he said; 'it's not high enough.'
+
+Catherine brought another to lay above it.
+
+'That's too high,' murmured the provoking thing.
+
+'How must I arrange it, then?' she asked despairingly.
+
+He twined himself up to her, as she half knelt by the settle, and
+converted her shoulder into a support.
+
+'No, that won't do,' I said.  'You'll be content with the cushion, Master
+Heathcliff.  Miss has wasted too much time on you already: we cannot
+remain five minutes longer.'
+
+'Yes, yes, we can!' replied Cathy.  'He's good and patient now.  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.  Tell the truth about it, Linton; for I musn't come, if I have
+hurt you.'
+
+'You must come, to cure me,' he answered.  'You ought to come, because
+you have hurt me: you know you have extremely!  I was not as ill when you
+entered as I am at present--was I?'
+
+'But you've made yourself ill by crying and being in a passion.--I didn't
+do it all,' said his cousin.  'However, we'll be friends now.  And you
+want me: you would wish to see me sometimes, really?'
+
+'I told you I did,' he replied impatiently.  'Sit on the settle and let
+me lean on your knee.  That's as mamma used to do, whole afternoons
+together.  Sit quite still and don't talk: but you may sing a song, if
+you can sing; or you may say a nice long interesting ballad--one of those
+you promised to teach me; or a story.  I'd rather have a ballad, though:
+begin.'
+
+Catherine repeated the longest she could remember.  The employment
+pleased both mightily.  Linton would have another, and after that
+another, notwithstanding my strenuous objections; and so they went on
+until the clock struck twelve, and we heard Hareton in the court,
+returning for his dinner.
+
+'And to-morrow, Catherine, will you be here to-morrow?' asked young
+Heathcliff, holding her frock as she rose reluctantly.
+
+'No,' I answered, 'nor next day neither.'  She, however, gave a different
+response evidently, for his forehead cleared as she stooped and whispered
+in his ear.
+
+'You won't go to-morrow, recollect, Miss!' I commenced, when we were out
+of the house.  'You are not dreaming of it, are you?'
+
+She smiled.
+
+'Oh, I'll take good care,' I continued: 'I'll have that lock mended, and
+you can escape by no way else.'
+
+'I can get over the wall,' she said laughing.  'The Grange is not a
+prison, Ellen, and you are not my gaoler.  And besides, I'm almost
+seventeen: I'm a woman.  And I'm certain Linton would recover quickly if
+he had me to look after him.  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.  He's a pretty little darling when he's good.  I'd make
+such a pet of him, if he were mine.  We should never quarrel, should we
+after we were used to each other?  Don't you like him, Ellen?'
+
+'Like him!' I exclaimed.  'The worst-tempered bit of a sickly slip that
+ever struggled into its teens.  Happily, as Mr. Heathcliff conjectured,
+he'll not win twenty.  I doubt whether he'll see spring, indeed.  And
+small loss to his family whenever he drops off.  And lucky it is for us
+that his father took him: the kinder he was treated, the more tedious and
+selfish he'd be.  I'm glad you have no chance of having him for a
+husband, Miss Catherine.'
+
+My companion waxed serious at hearing this speech.  To speak of his death
+so regardlessly wounded her feelings.
+
+'He's younger than I,' she answered, after a protracted pause of
+meditation, 'and he ought to live the longest: he will--he must live as
+long as I do.  He's as strong now as when he first came into the north;
+I'm positive of that.  It's only a cold that ails him, the same as papa
+has.  You say papa will get better, and why shouldn't he?'
+
+'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. Linton,
+and, unless he allow it, the intimacy with your cousin must not be
+revived.'
+
+'It has been revived,' muttered Cathy, sulkily.
+
+'Must not be continued, then,' I said.
+
+'We'll see,' was her reply, and she set off at a gallop, leaving me to
+toil in the rear.
+
+We both reached home before our dinner-time; my master supposed we had
+been wandering through the park, and therefore he demanded no explanation
+of our absence.  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.  On the succeeding morning I was laid up, and during three
+weeks I remained incapacitated for attending to my duties: a calamity
+never experienced prior to that period, and never, I am thankful to say,
+since.
+
+My little mistress behaved like an angel in coming to wait on me, and
+cheer my solitude; the confinement brought me exceedingly low.  It is
+wearisome, to a stirring active body: but few have slighter reasons for
+complaint than I had.  The moment Catherine left Mr. Linton's room she
+appeared at my bedside.  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.  She must have had a warm
+heart, when she loved her father so, to give so much to me.  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.
+Poor thing!  I never considered what she did with herself after tea.  And
+though frequently, when she looked in to bid me good-night, 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+At the close of three weeks I was able to quit my chamber and move about
+the house.  And on the first occasion of my sitting up in the evening I
+asked Catherine to read to me, because my eyes were weak.  We were in the
+library, the master having gone to bed: she consented, rather
+unwillingly, I fancied; and imagining my sort of books did not suit her,
+I bid her please herself in the choice of what she perused.  She selected
+one of her own favourites, and got forward steadily about an hour; then
+came frequent questions.
+
+'Ellen, are not you tired?  Hadn't you better lie down now?  You'll be
+sick, keeping up so long, Ellen.'
+
+'No, no, dear, I'm not tired,' I returned, continually.
+
+Perceiving me immovable, she essayed another method of showing her
+disrelish for her occupation.  It changed to yawning, and stretching,
+and--
+
+'Ellen, I'm tired.'
+
+'Give over then and talk,' I answered.
+
+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, heavy look, and the constant rubbing she
+inflicted on her eyes.  The following night she seemed more impatient
+still; and on the third from recovering my company she complained of a
+headache, and left me.  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 up-stairs
+in the dark.  No Catherine could I discover up-stairs, and none below.
+The servants affirmed they had not seen her.  I listened at Mr. Edgar's
+door; all was silence.  I returned to her apartment, extinguished my
+candle, and seated myself in the window.
+
+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.  I did detect a figure creeping along
+the inner fence of the park; but it was not my young mistress: on its
+emerging into the light, I recognised one of the grooms.  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.  The man took his charge stealthily
+across the grass towards the stable.  Cathy entered by the
+casement-window of the drawing-room, and glided noiselessly up to where I
+awaited her.  She put the door gently too, slipped off her snowy shoes,
+untied her hat, and was proceeding, unconscious of my espionage, to lay
+aside her mantle, when I suddenly rose and revealed myself.  The surprise
+petrified her an instant: she uttered an inarticulate exclamation, and
+stood fixed.
+
+'My dear Miss Catherine,' I began, too vividly impressed by her recent
+kindness to break into a scold, 'where have you been riding out at this
+hour?  And why should you try to deceive me by telling a tale?  Where
+have you been?  Speak!'
+
+'To the bottom of the park,' she stammered.  'I didn't tell a tale.'
+
+'And nowhere else?' I demanded.
+
+'No,' was the muttered reply.
+
+'Oh, Catherine!' I cried, sorrowfully.  'You know you have been doing
+wrong, or you wouldn't be driven to uttering an untruth to me.  That does
+grieve me.  I'd rather be three months ill, than hear you frame a
+deliberate lie.'
+
+She sprang forward, and bursting into tears, threw her arms round my
+neck.
+
+'Well, Ellen, I'm so afraid of you being angry,' she said.  'Promise not
+to be angry, and you shall know the very truth: I hate to hide it.'
+
+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 gave Michael books and pictures to prepare Minny every evening,
+and to put her back in the stable: you mustn't scold him either, mind.  I
+was at the Heights by half-past six, and generally stayed till half-past
+eight, and then galloped home.  It was not to amuse myself that I went: I
+was often wretched all the time.  Now and then I was happy: once in a
+week perhaps.  At first, I expected there would be sad work persuading
+you to let me keep my word to Linton: for I had engaged to call again
+next day, when we quitted him; but, as you stayed up-stairs on the
+morrow, I escaped that trouble.  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 about the pony.  He is fond of reading, and he
+thinks of leaving soon to get married; so he offered, if I would lend him
+books out of the library, to do what I wished: but I preferred giving him
+my own, and that satisfied him better.
+
+'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.  She brought me some warm wine and gingerbread,
+and appeared exceedingly good-natured, and Linton sat in the arm-chair,
+and I in the little rocking chair on the hearth-stone, and we laughed and
+talked so merrily, and found so much to say: we planned where we would
+go, and what we would do in summer.  I needn't repeat that, because you
+would call it silly.
+
+'One time, however, we were near quarrelling.  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 and cloudlessly.  That
+was his most perfect idea of heaven's happiness: mine was rocking in a
+rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright white clouds
+flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but throstles, and
+blackbirds, and linnets, and cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and
+the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool dusky dells; but close by
+great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze; and woods
+and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy.  He
+wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and
+dance in a glorious jubilee.  I said his heaven would be only half alive;
+and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and
+he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish.  At
+last, we agreed to try both, as soon as the right weather came; and then
+we kissed each other and were friends.
+
+'After sitting still an hour, I looked at the great room with its smooth
+uncarpeted floor, and thought how nice it would be to play in, if we
+removed the table; and I asked Linton to call Zillah in to help us, and
+we'd have a game at blindman's-buff; she should try to catch us: you used
+to, you know, Ellen.  He wouldn't: there was no pleasure in it, he said;
+but he consented to play at ball with me.  We found two in a cupboard,
+among a heap of old toys, tops, and hoops, and battledores and
+shuttlecocks.  One was marked C., and the other H.; I wished to have the
+C., because that stood for Catherine, and the H. might be for Heathcliff,
+his name; but the bran came out of H., and Linton didn't like it.  I beat
+him constantly: and he got cross again, and coughed, and returned to his
+chair.  That night, though, he easily recovered his good humour: he was
+charmed with two or three pretty songs--_your_ songs, Ellen; and when I
+was obliged to go, he begged and entreated me to come the following
+evening; and I promised.  Minny and I went flying home as light as air;
+and I dreamt of Wuthering Heights and my sweet, darling cousin, till
+morning.
+
+'On the morrow I was sad; partly because you were poorly, and partly that
+I wished my father knew, and approved of my excursions: but it was
+beautiful moonlight after tea; and, as I rode on, the gloom cleared.  I
+shall have another happy evening, I thought to myself; and what delights
+me more, my pretty Linton will.  I trotted up their garden, and was
+turning round to the back, when that fellow Earnshaw met me, took my
+bridle, and bid me go in by the front entrance.  He patted Minny's neck,
+and said she was a bonny beast, and appeared as if he wanted me to speak
+to him.  I only told him to leave my horse alone, or else it would kick
+him.  He answered in his vulgar accent, "It wouldn't do mitch hurt if it
+did;" and surveyed its legs with a smile.  I was half inclined to make it
+try; however, he moved off to open the door, and, as he raised the latch,
+he looked up to the inscription above, and said, with a stupid mixture of
+awkwardness and elation: "Miss Catherine!  I can read yon, now."
+
+'"Wonderful," I exclaimed.  "Pray let us hear you--you _are_ grown
+clever!"
+
+'He spelt, and drawled over by syllables, the name--"Hareton Earnshaw."
+
+'"And the figures?" I cried, encouragingly, perceiving that he came to a
+dead halt.
+
+'"I cannot tell them yet," he answered.
+
+'"Oh, you dunce!" I said, laughing heartily at his failure.
+
+'The fool stared, with a grin hovering about his lips, and a scowl
+gathering over his eyes, as if uncertain whether he might not join in my
+mirth: whether it were not pleasant familiarity, or what it really was,
+contempt.  I settled his doubts, by suddenly retrieving my gravity and
+desiring him to walk away, for I came to see Linton, not him.  He
+reddened--I saw that by the moonlight--dropped his hand from the latch,
+and skulked off, a picture of mortified vanity.  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.'
+
+'Stop, Miss Catherine, dear!'--I interrupted.  'I shall not scold, but I
+don't like your conduct there.  If you had remembered that Hareton was
+your cousin as much as Master Heathcliff, you would have felt how
+improper it was to behave in that way.  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.  To sneer at his imperfect attempt was very bad breeding.  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.'
+
+'Well, Ellen, you won't cry about it, will you?' she exclaimed, surprised
+at my earnestness.  '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
+entered; Linton was lying on the settle, and half got up to welcome me.
+
+'"I'm ill to-night, Catherine, love," he said; "and you must have all the
+talk, and let me listen.  Come, and sit by me.  I was sure you wouldn't
+break your word, and I'll make you promise again, before you go."
+
+'I knew now that I mustn't tease him, as he was ill; and I spoke softly
+and put no questions, and avoided irritating him in any way.  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.  He advanced direct to us, seized Linton
+by the arm, and swung him off the seat.
+
+'"Get to thy own room!" he said, in a voice almost inarticulate with
+passion; and his face looked swelled and furious.  "Take her there if she
+comes to see thee: thou shalln't keep me out of this.  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 was afraid for a moment, and I let one
+volume fall; he kicked it after me, and shut us out.  I heard a
+malignant, crackly laugh by the fire, and turning, beheld that odious
+Joseph standing rubbing his bony hands, and quivering.
+
+'"I wer sure he'd sarve ye out!  He's a grand lad!  He's getten t' raight
+sperrit in him!  _He_ knaws--ay, he knaws, as weel as I do, who sud be t'
+maister yonder--Ech, ech, ech!  He made ye skift properly!  Ech, ech,
+ech!"
+
+'"Where must we go?" I asked of my cousin, disregarding the old wretch's
+mockery.
+
+'Linton was white and trembling.  He was not pretty then, Ellen: oh, no!
+he looked frightful; for his thin face and large eyes were wrought into
+an expression of frantic, powerless fury.  He grasped the handle of the
+door, and shook it: it was fastened inside.
+
+'"If you don't let me in, I'll kill you!--If you don't let me in, I'll
+kill you!" he rather shrieked than said.  "Devil! devil!--I'll kill
+you--I'll kill you!"
+
+Joseph uttered his croaking laugh again.
+
+'"Thear, that's t' father!" he cried.  "That's father!  We've allas
+summut o' either side in us.  Niver heed, Hareton, lad--dunnut be
+'feard--he cannot get at thee!"
+
+'I took hold of Linton's hands, and tried to pull him away; but he
+shrieked so shockingly that I dared not proceed.  At last his cries were
+choked by a dreadful fit of coughing; blood gushed from his mouth, and he
+fell on the ground.  I ran into the yard, sick with terror; and called
+for Zillah, as loud as I could.  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.  Earnshaw had come out to examine the mischief
+he had caused, and he was then conveying the poor thing up-stairs.  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.  I exclaimed that he had killed
+Linton, and I _would_ enter.  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."  I stood crying till the housekeeper reappeared.  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.
+
+'Ellen, I was ready to tear my hair off my head!  I sobbed and wept so
+that my eyes were almost blind; and the ruffian you have such sympathy
+with stood opposite: presuming every now and then to bid me "wisht," and
+denying that it was his fault; and, finally, frightened by my assertions
+that I would tell papa, and that he should be put in prison and hanged,
+he commenced blubbering himself, and hurried out to hide his cowardly
+agitation.  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.
+
+'"Miss Catherine, I'm ill grieved," he began, "but it's rayther too bad--"
+
+'I gave him a cut with my whip, thinking perhaps he would murder me.  He
+let go, thundering one of his horrid curses, and I galloped home more
+than half out of my senses.
+
+'I didn't bid you good-night that evening, and I didn't go to Wuthering
+Heights the next: I wished to go exceedingly; but I was strangely
+excited, and dreaded to hear that Linton was dead, sometimes; and
+sometimes shuddered at the thought of encountering Hareton.  On the third
+day I took courage: at least, I couldn't bear longer suspense, and stole
+off once more.  I went at five o'clock, and walked; fancying I might
+manage to creep into the house, and up to Linton's room, unobserved.
+However, the dogs gave notice of my approach.  Zillah received me, and
+saying "the lad was mending nicely," showed me into a small, tidy,
+carpeted apartment, where, to my inexpressible joy, I beheld Linton laid
+on a little sofa, reading one of my books.  But he would neither speak to
+me nor look at me, through a whole hour, Ellen: he has such an unhappy
+temper.  And what quite confounded me, when he did open his mouth, it was
+to utter the falsehood that I had occasioned the uproar, and Hareton was
+not to blame!  Unable to reply, except passionately, I got up and walked
+from the room.  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.  But it was so miserable going to bed and getting up, and never
+hearing anything about him, that my resolution melted into air before it
+was properly formed.  It had appeared wrong to take the journey once; now
+it seemed wrong to refrain.  Michael came to ask if he must saddle Minny;
+I said "Yes," and considered myself doing a duty as she bore me over the
+hills.  I was forced to pass the front windows to get to the court: it
+was no use trying to conceal my presence.
+
+'"Young master is in the house," said Zillah, as she saw me making for
+the parlour.  I went in; Earnshaw was there also, but he quitted the room
+directly.  Linton sat in the great arm-chair half asleep; walking up to
+the fire, I began in a serious tone, partly meaning it to be true--
+
+'"As you don't like me, Linton, and as you think I come on purpose to
+hurt you, and pretend that I do so every time, this is our last meeting:
+let us say good-bye; and tell Mr. Heathcliff that you have no wish to see
+me, and that he mustn't invent any more falsehoods on the subject."
+
+'"Sit down and take your hat off, Catherine," he answered.  "You are so
+much happier than I am, you ought to be better.  Papa talks enough of my
+defects, and shows enough scorn of me, to make it natural I should doubt
+myself.  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.  Only,
+Catherine, do me this justice: believe that if I might be as sweet, and
+as kind, and as good as you are, I would be; as willingly, and more so,
+than as happy and as healthy.  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 forgive him again.  We were
+reconciled; but we cried, both of us, the whole time I stayed: not
+entirely for sorrow; yet I _was_ sorry Linton had that distorted nature.
+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.
+
+'About three times, I think, we have been merry and hopeful, as we were
+the first evening; the rest of my visits were dreary and troubled: now
+with his selfishness and spite, and now with his sufferings: but I've
+learned to endure the former with nearly as little resentment as the
+latter.  Mr. Heathcliff purposely avoids me: I have hardly seen him at
+all.  Last Sunday, indeed, coming earlier than usual, I heard him abusing
+poor Linton cruelly for his conduct of the night before.  I can't tell
+how he knew of it, unless he listened.  Linton had certainly behaved
+provokingly: however, it was the business of nobody but me, and I
+interrupted Mr. Heathcliff's lecture by entering and telling him so.  He
+burst into a laugh, and went away, saying he was glad I took that view of
+the matter.  Since then, I've told Linton he must whisper his bitter
+things.  Now, Ellen, you have heard all.  I can't be prevented from going
+to Wuthering Heights, except by inflicting misery on two people; whereas,
+if you'll only not tell papa, my going need disturb the tranquillity of
+none.  You'll not tell, will you?  It will be very heartless, if you do.'
+
+'I'll make up my mind on that point by to-morrow, Miss Catherine,' I
+replied.  'It requires some study; and so I'll leave you to your rest,
+and go think it over.'
+
+I thought it over aloud, in my master's presence; walking straight from
+her room to his, and relating the whole story: with the exception of her
+conversations with her cousin, and any mention of Hareton.  Mr. Linton
+was alarmed and distressed, more than he would acknowledge to me.  In the
+morning, Catherine learnt my betrayal of her confidence, and she learnt
+also that her secret visits were to end.  In vain she wept and writhed
+against the interdict, and implored her father to have pity on Linton:
+all she got to comfort her was a promise that he would write and give him
+leave to come to the Grange when he pleased; but explaining that he must
+no longer expect to see Catherine at Wuthering Heights.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+'These things happened last winter, sir,' said Mrs. Dean; 'hardly more
+than a year ago.  Last winter, I did not think, at another twelve months'
+end, I should be amusing a stranger to the family with relating them!
+Yet, who knows how long you'll be a stranger?  You're too young to rest
+always contented, living by yourself; and I some way fancy no one could
+see Catherine Linton and not love her.  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.  'It may be very possible that _I_
+should love her; but would she love me?  I doubt it too much to venture
+my tranquillity by running into temptation: and then my home is not here.
+I'm of the busy world, and to its arms I must return.  Go on.  Was
+Catherine obedient to her father's commands?'
+
+'She was,' continued the housekeeper.  'Her affection for him was still
+the chief sentiment in her heart; and he spoke without anger: he spoke in
+the deep tenderness of one about to leave his treasure amid perils and
+foes, where his remembered words would be the only aid that he could
+bequeath to guide her.  He said to me, a few days afterwards, "I wish my
+nephew would write, Ellen, or call.  Tell me, sincerely, what you think
+of him: is he changed for the better, or is there a prospect of
+improvement, as he grows a man?"
+
+'"He's very delicate, sir," I replied; "and scarcely likely to reach
+manhood: but this I can say, he does not resemble his father; and if Miss
+Catherine had the misfortune to marry him, he would not be beyond her
+control: unless she were extremely and foolishly indulgent.  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."'
+
+Edgar sighed; and, walking to the window, looked out towards Gimmerton
+Kirk. 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
+sparely-scattered gravestones.
+
+'I've prayed often,' he half soliloquised, 'for the approach of what is
+coming; and now I begin to shrink, and fear it.  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!  Ellen, I've been very happy
+with my little Cathy: through winter nights and summer days she was a
+living hope at my side.  But I've been as happy musing by myself among
+those stones, under that old church: lying, through the long June
+evenings, on the green mound of her mother's grave, and wishing--yearning
+for the time when I might lie beneath it.  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.
+I'd not care that Heathcliff gained his ends, and triumphed in robbing me
+of my last blessing!  But should Linton be unworthy--only a feeble tool
+to his father--I cannot abandon her to him!  And, hard though it be to
+crush her buoyant spirit, I must persevere in making her sad while I
+live, and leaving her solitary when I die.  Darling!  I'd rather resign
+her to God, and lay her in the earth before me.'
+
+'Resign her to God as it is, sir,' I answered, 'and if we should lose
+you--which may He forbid--under His providence, I'll stand her friend and
+counsellor to the last.  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.'
+
+Spring advanced; yet my master gathered no real strength, though he
+resumed his walks in the grounds with his daughter.  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.
+On her seventeenth birthday, he did not visit the churchyard: it was
+raining, and I observed--'You'll surely not go out to-night, sir?'
+
+He answered,--'No, I'll defer it this year a little longer.'  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.  As it was, being instructed, he returned an answer,
+intimating that Mr. 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.
+
+That part of his letter was simple, and probably his own.  Heathcliff
+knew he could plead eloquently for Catherine's company, then.
+
+'I do not ask,' he said, 'that she may visit here; but am I never to see
+her, because my father forbids me to go to her home, and you forbid her
+to come to mine?  Do, now and then, ride with her towards the Heights;
+and let us exchange a few words, in your presence!  We have done nothing
+to deserve this separation; and you are not angry with me: you have no
+reason to dislike me, you allow, yourself.  Dear uncle! send me a kind
+note to-morrow, and leave to join you anywhere you please, except at
+Thrushcross Grange.  I believe an interview would convince you that my
+father's character is not mine: he affirms I am more your nephew than his
+son; and though I have faults which render me unworthy of Catherine, she
+has excused them, and for her sake, you should also.  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.  He said, in summer,
+perhaps, they might meet: meantime, he wished him to continue writing at
+intervals, and engaged to give him what advice and comfort he was able by
+letter; being well aware of his hard position in his family.  Linton
+complied; and had he been unrestrained, would probably have spoiled all
+by filling his epistles with complaints and lamentations: but his father
+kept a sharp watch over him; and, of course, insisted on every line that
+my master sent being shown; so, instead of penning his peculiar personal
+sufferings and distresses, the themes constantly uppermost in his
+thoughts, he harped on the cruel obligation of being held asunder from
+his friend and love; and gently intimated that Mr. Linton must allow an
+interview soon, or he should fear he was purposely deceiving him with
+empty promises.
+
+Cathy was a powerful ally at home; and between them they at length
+persuaded my master to acquiesce in their having a ride or a walk
+together about once a week, under my guardianship, and on the moors
+nearest the Grange: for June found him still declining.  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, for my part, began to fancy my
+forebodings were false, and that he must be actually rallying, when he
+mentioned riding and walking on the moors, and seemed so earnest in
+pursuing his object.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Summer was already past its prime, when Edgar reluctantly yielded his
+assent to their entreaties, and Catherine and I set out on our first ride
+to join her cousin.  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 cross-roads.  On
+arriving there, however, a little herd-boy, despatched as a messenger,
+told us that,--'Maister Linton wer just o' this side th' Heights: and
+he'd be mitch obleeged to us to gang on a bit further.'
+
+'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.'
+
+'Well, we'll turn our horses' heads round when we reach him,' answered my
+companion; 'our excursion shall lie towards home.'
+
+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.  He lay on the heath, awaiting our approach, and
+did not rise till we came within a few yards.  Then he walked so feebly,
+and looked so pale, that I immediately exclaimed,--'Why, Master
+Heathcliff, you are not fit for enjoying a ramble this morning.  How ill
+you do look!'
+
+Catherine surveyed him with grief and astonishment: she changed the
+ejaculation of joy on her lips to one of alarm; and the congratulation on
+their long-postponed meeting to an anxious inquiry, whether he were worse
+than usual?
+
+'No--better--better!' he panted, trembling, and retaining her hand as if
+he needed its support, while his large blue eyes wandered timidly over
+her; the hollowness round them transforming to haggard wildness the
+languid expression they once possessed.
+
+'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.  'It is too hot for walking, let
+us rest here.  And, in the morning, I often feel sick--papa says I grow
+so fast.'
+
+Badly satisfied, Cathy sat down, and he reclined beside her.
+
+'This is something like your paradise,' said she, making an effort at
+cheerfulness.  'You recollect the two days we agreed to spend in the
+place and way each thought pleasantest?  This is nearly yours, only there
+are clouds; but then they are so soft and mellow: it is nicer than
+sunshine.  Next week, if you can, we'll ride down to the Grange Park, and
+try mine.'
+
+Linton did not appear to remember what she talked of and he had evidently
+great difficulty in sustaining any kind of conversation.  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.  An indefinite alteration had come over his
+whole person and manner.  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 good-humoured mirth of others as an
+insult.  Catherine perceived, as well as I did, that he held it rather a
+punishment, than a gratification, to endure our company; and she made no
+scruple of proposing, presently, to depart.  That proposal, unexpectedly,
+roused Linton from his lethargy, and threw him into a strange state of
+agitation.  He glanced fearfully towards the Heights, begging she would
+remain another half-hour, at least.
+
+'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.'
+
+'Stay to rest yourself,' he replied.  '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.  Tell
+uncle I'm in tolerable health, will you?'
+
+'I'll tell him that _you_ say so, Linton.  I couldn't affirm that you
+are,' observed my young lady, wondering at his pertinacious assertion of
+what was evidently an untruth.
+
+'And be here again next Thursday,' continued he, shunning her puzzled
+gaze.  'And give him my thanks for permitting you to come--my best
+thanks, Catherine.  And--and, if you _did_ meet my father, and he asked
+you about me, don't lead him to suppose that I've been extremely silent
+and stupid: don't look sad and downcast, as you are doing--he'll be
+angry.'
+
+'I care nothing for his anger,' exclaimed Cathy, imagining she would be
+its object.
+
+'But I do,' said her cousin, shuddering.  '_Don't_ provoke him against
+me, Catherine, for he is very hard.'
+
+'Is he severe to you, Master Heathcliff?' I inquired.  '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.
+
+'Is it half-an-hour now, Ellen?' she whispered in my ear, at last.  'I
+can't tell why we should stay.  He's asleep, and papa will be wanting us
+back.'
+
+'Well, we must not leave him asleep,' I answered; 'wait till he wakes,
+and be patient.  You were mighty eager to set off, but your longing to
+see poor Linton has soon evaporated!'
+
+'Why did _he_ wish to see me?' returned Catherine.  'In his crossest
+humours, formerly, I liked him better than I do in his present curious
+mood.  It's just as if it were a task he was compelled to perform--this
+interview--for fear his father should scold him.  But I'm hardly going to
+come to give Mr. Heathcliff pleasure; whatever reason he may have for
+ordering Linton to undergo this penance.  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.'
+
+'You think _he is_ better in health, then?' I said.
+
+'Yes,' she answered; 'because he always made such a great deal of his
+sufferings, you know.  He is not tolerably well, as he told me to tell
+papa; but he's better, very likely.'
+
+'There you differ with me, Miss Cathy,' I remarked; 'I should conjecture
+him to be far worse.'
+
+Linton here started from his slumber in bewildered terror, and asked if
+any one had called his name.
+
+'No,' said Catherine; 'unless in dreams.  I cannot conceive how you
+manage to doze out of doors, in the morning.'
+
+'I thought I heard my father,' he gasped, glancing up to the frowning nab
+above us.  'You are sure nobody spoke?'
+
+'Quite sure,' replied his cousin.  'Only Ellen and I were disputing
+concerning your health.  Are you truly stronger, Linton, than when we
+separated in winter?  If you be, I'm certain one thing is not
+stronger--your regard for me: speak,--are you?'
+
+The tears gushed from Linton's eyes as he answered, 'Yes, yes, I am!'
+And, still under the spell of the imaginary voice, his gaze wandered up
+and down to detect its owner.
+
+Cathy rose.  'For to-day we must part,' she said.  '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. Heathcliff.'
+
+'Hush,' murmured Linton; 'for God's sake, hush!  He's coming.'  And he
+clung to Catherine's arm, striving to detain her; but at that
+announcement she hastily disengaged herself, and whistled to Minny, who
+obeyed her like a dog.
+
+'I'll be here next Thursday,' she cried, springing to the saddle.
+'Good-bye. Quick, Ellen!'
+
+And so we left him, scarcely conscious of our departure, so absorbed was
+he in anticipating his father's approach.
+
+Before we reached home, Catherine's displeasure softened into a perplexed
+sensation of pity and regret, largely blended with vague, uneasy doubts
+about Linton's actual circumstances, physical and social: in which I
+partook, though I counselled her not to say much; for a second journey
+would make us better judges.  My master requested an account of our
+ongoings.  His nephew's offering of thanks was duly delivered, Miss Cathy
+gently touching on the rest: I also threw little light on his inquiries,
+for I hardly knew what to hide and what to reveal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+Seven days glided away, every one marking its course by the henceforth
+rapid alteration of Edgar Linton's state.  The havoc that months had
+previously wrought was now emulated by the inroads of hours.  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 had not the heart to
+mention her ride, when Thursday came round; I mentioned it for her, and
+obtained permission to order her out of doors: for the library, where her
+father stopped a short time daily--the brief period he could bear to sit
+up--and his chamber, had become her whole world.  She grudged each moment
+that did not find her bending over his pillow, or seated by his side.  Her
+countenance grew wan with watching and sorrow, and my master gladly
+dismissed her to what he flattered himself would be a happy change of
+scene and society; drawing comfort from the hope that she would not now
+be left entirely alone after his death.
+
+He had a fixed idea, I guessed by several observations he let fall, that,
+as his nephew resembled him in person, he would resemble him in mind; for
+Linton's letters bore few or no indications of his defective character.
+And I, through pardonable weakness, refrained from correcting the error;
+asking myself what good there would be in disturbing his last moments
+with information that he had neither power nor opportunity to turn to
+account.
+
+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.  Catherine's face was
+just like the landscape--shadows and sunshine flitting over it in rapid
+succession; but the shadows rested longer, and the sunshine was more
+transient; and her poor little heart reproached itself for even that
+passing forgetfulness of its cares.
+
+We discerned Linton watching at the same spot he had selected before.  My
+young mistress alighted, and told me that, as she was resolved to stay a
+very little while, I had better hold the pony and remain on horseback;
+but I dissented: I wouldn't risk losing sight of the charge committed to
+me a minute; so we climbed the slope of heath together.  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.
+
+'It is late!' he said, speaking short and with difficulty.  'Is not your
+father very ill?  I thought you wouldn't come.'
+
+'_Why_ won't you be candid?' cried Catherine, swallowing her greeting.
+'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.
+
+'My father _is_ very ill,' she said; 'and why am I called from his
+bedside?  Why didn't you send to absolve me from my promise, when you
+wished I wouldn't keep it?  Come!  I desire an explanation: playing and
+trifling are completely banished out of my mind; and I can't dance
+attendance on your affectations now!'
+
+'My affectations!' he murmured; 'what are they?  For heaven's sake,
+Catherine, don't look so angry!  Despise me as much as you please; I am a
+worthless, cowardly wretch: I can't be scorned enough; but I'm too mean
+for your anger.  Hate my father, and spare me for contempt.'
+
+'Nonsense!' cried Catherine in a passion.  'Foolish, silly boy!  And
+there! he trembles: as if I were really going to touch him!  You needn't
+bespeak contempt, Linton: anybody will have it spontaneously at your
+service.  Get off!  I shall return home: it is folly dragging you from
+the hearth-stone, and pretending--what do we pretend?  Let go my frock!
+If I pitied you for crying and looking so very frightened, you should
+spurn such pity.  Ellen, tell him how disgraceful this conduct is.  Rise,
+and don't degrade yourself into an abject reptile--_don't_!'
+
+With streaming face and an expression of agony, Linton had thrown his
+nerveless frame along the ground: he seemed convulsed with exquisite
+terror.
+
+'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.  You'll not go, then? kind,
+sweet, good Catherine!  And perhaps you _will_ consent--and he'll let me
+die with you!'
+
+My young lady, on witnessing his intense anguish, stooped to raise him.
+The old feeling of indulgent tenderness overcame her vexation, and she
+grew thoroughly moved and alarmed.
+
+'Consent to what?' she asked.  'To stay! tell me the meaning of this
+strange talk, and I will.  You contradict your own words, and distract
+me!  Be calm and frank, and confess at once all that weighs on your
+heart.  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.'
+
+'But my father threatened me,' gasped the boy, clasping his attenuated
+fingers, 'and I dread him--I dread him!  I _dare_ not tell!'
+
+'Oh, well!' said Catherine, with scornful compassion, 'keep your secret:
+_I'm_ no coward.  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.  I was
+cogitating what the mystery might be, and determined Catherine should
+never suffer to benefit him or any one else, by my good will; when,
+hearing a rustle among the ling, I looked up and saw Mr. Heathcliff
+almost close upon us, descending the Heights.  He didn't cast a glance
+towards my companions, though they were sufficiently near for Linton's
+sobs to be audible; but hailing me in the almost hearty tone he assumed
+to none besides, and the sincerity of which I couldn't avoid doubting, he
+said--
+
+'It is something to see you so near to my house, Nelly.  How are you at
+the Grange?  Let us hear.  The rumour goes,' he added, in a lower tone,
+'that Edgar Linton is on his death-bed: perhaps they exaggerate his
+illness?'
+
+'No; my master is dying,' I replied: 'it is true enough.  A sad thing it
+will be for us all, but a blessing for him!'
+
+'How long will he last, do you think?' he asked.
+
+'I don't know,' I said.
+
+'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.  Is he pretty
+lively with Miss Linton generally?'
+
+'Lively? no--he has shown the greatest distress,' I answered.  '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.'
+
+'He shall be, in a day or two,' muttered Heathcliff.  'But first--get up,
+Linton!  Get up!' he shouted.  'Don't grovel on the ground there up, this
+moment!'
+
+Linton had sunk prostrate again in another paroxysm of helpless fear,
+caused by his father's glance towards him, I suppose: there was nothing
+else to produce such humiliation.  He made several efforts to obey, but
+his little strength was annihilated for the time, and he fell back again
+with a moan.  Mr. Heathcliff advanced, and lifted him to lean against a
+ridge of turf.
+
+'Now,' said he, with curbed ferocity, 'I'm getting angry and if you don't
+command that paltry spirit of yours--_damn_ you! get up directly!'
+
+'I will, father,' he panted.  'Only, let me alone, or I shall faint.  I've
+done as you wished, I'm sure.  Catherine will tell you that I--that
+I--have been cheerful.  Ah! keep by me, Catherine; give me your hand.'
+
+'Take mine,' said his father; 'stand on your feet.  There now--she'll
+lend you her arm: that's right, look at her.  You would imagine I was the
+devil himself, Miss Linton, to excite such horror.  Be so kind as to walk
+home with him, will you?  He shudders if I touch him.'
+
+'Linton dear!' whispered Catherine, 'I can't go to Wuthering Heights:
+papa has forbidden me.  He'll not harm you: why are you so afraid?'
+
+'I can never re-enter that house,' he answered.  'I'm _not_ to re-enter
+it without you!'
+
+'Stop!' cried his father.  'We'll respect Catherine's filial scruples.
+Nelly, take him in, and I'll follow your advice concerning the doctor,
+without delay.'
+
+'You'll do well,' replied I.  'But I must remain with my mistress: to
+mind your son is not my business.'
+
+'You are very stiff,' said Heathcliff, 'I know that: but you'll force me
+to pinch the baby and make it scream before it moves your charity.  Come,
+then, my hero.  Are you willing to return, escorted by me?'
+
+He approached once more, and made as if he would seize the fragile being;
+but, shrinking back, Linton clung to his cousin, and implored her to
+accompany him, with a frantic importunity that admitted no denial.
+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 grip, and any addition
+seemed capable of shocking him into idiotcy.  We reached the threshold;
+Catherine walked in, and I stood waiting till she had conducted the
+invalid to a chair, expecting her out immediately; when Mr. 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.'
+
+He shut and locked it also.  I started.
+
+'You shall have tea before you go home,' he added.  'I am by myself.
+Hareton is gone with some cattle to the Lees, and Zillah and Joseph are
+off on a journey of pleasure; and, though I'm used to being alone, I'd
+rather have some interesting company, if I can get it.  Miss Linton, take
+your seat by _him_.  I give you what I have: the present is hardly worth
+accepting; but I have nothing else to offer.  It is Linton, I mean.  How
+she does stare!  It's odd what a savage feeling I have to anything that
+seems afraid of me!  Had I been born where laws are less strict and
+tastes less dainty, I should treat myself to a slow vivisection of those
+two, as an evening's amusement.'
+
+He drew in his breath, struck the table, and swore to himself, 'By hell!
+I hate them.'
+
+'I am not afraid of you!' exclaimed Catherine, who could not hear the
+latter part of his speech.  She stepped close up; her black eyes flashing
+with passion and resolution.  'Give me that key: I will have it!' she
+said.  'I wouldn't eat or drink here, if I were starving.'
+
+Heathcliff had the key in his hand that remained on the table.  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.  She snatched at the instrument, and half succeeded in getting it out
+of his loosened fingers: but her action recalled him to the present; he
+recovered it speedily.
+
+'Now, Catherine Linton,' he said, 'stand off, or I shall knock you down;
+and, that will make Mrs. Dean mad.'
+
+Regardless of this warning, she captured his closed hand and its contents
+again.  'We _will_ go!' she repeated, exerting her utmost efforts to cause
+the iron muscles to relax; and finding that her nails made no impression,
+she applied her teeth pretty sharply.  Heathcliff glanced at me a glance
+that kept me from interfering a moment.  Catherine was too intent on his
+fingers to notice his face.  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.
+
+At this diabolical violence I rushed on him furiously. '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. The scene was over in two minutes; Catherine, released,
+put her two hands to her temples, and looked just as if she were not
+sure whether her ears were off or on. She trembled like a reed, poor
+thing, and leant against the table perfectly bewildered.
+
+'I know how to chastise children, you see,' said the scoundrel, grimly,
+as he stooped to repossess himself of the key, which had dropped to the
+floor.  '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.  You can bear plenty; you're no weakling:
+you shall have a daily taste, if I catch such a devil of a temper in your
+eyes again!'
+
+Cathy ran to me instead of Linton, and knelt down and put her burning
+cheek on my lap, weeping aloud.  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.  Mr. Heathcliff,
+perceiving us all confounded, rose, and expeditiously made the tea
+himself.  The cups and saucers were laid ready.  He poured it out, and
+handed me a cup.
+
+'Wash away your spleen,' he said.  'And help your own naughty pet and
+mine.  It is not poisoned, though I prepared it.  I'm going out to seek
+your horses.'
+
+Our first thought, on his departure, was to force an exit somewhere.  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.
+
+'Master Linton,' I cried, seeing we were regularly imprisoned, 'you know
+what your diabolical father is after, and you shall tell us, or I'll box
+your ears, as he has done your cousin's.'
+
+'Yes, Linton, you must tell,' said Catherine.  'It was for your sake I
+came; and it will be wickedly ungrateful if you refuse.'
+
+'Give me some tea, I'm thirsty, and then I'll tell you,' he answered.
+'Mrs. Dean, go away.  I don't like you standing over me.  Now, Catherine,
+you are letting your tears fall into my cup.  I won't drink that.  Give
+me another.'  Catherine pushed another to him, and wiped her face.  I
+felt disgusted at the little wretch's composure, since he was no longer
+in terror for himself.  The anguish he had exhibited on the moor subsided
+as soon as ever he entered Wuthering Heights; so I guessed he had been
+menaced with an awful visitation of wrath if he failed in decoying us
+there; and, that accomplished, he had no further immediate fears.
+
+'Papa wants us to be married,' he continued, after sipping some of the
+liquid.  'And he knows your papa wouldn't let us marry now; and he's
+afraid of my dying if we wait; so we are to be married in the morning,
+and you are to stay here all night; and, if you do as he wishes, you
+shall return home next day, and take me with you.'
+
+'Take you with her, pitiful changeling!' I exclaimed.  '_You_ marry?  Why,
+the man is mad! or he thinks us fools, every one.  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.'
+
+I did give him a slight shaking; but it brought on the cough, and he took
+to his ordinary resource of moaning and weeping, and Catherine rebuked
+me.
+
+'Stay all night?  No,' she said, looking slowly round.  'Ellen, I'll burn
+that door down but I'll get out.'
+
+And she would have commenced the execution of her threat directly, but
+Linton was up in alarm for his dear self again.  He clasped her in his
+two feeble arms sobbing:--'Won't you have me, and save me? not let me
+come to the Grange?  Oh, darling Catherine! you mustn't go and leave,
+after all.  You _must_ obey my father--you _must_!'
+
+'I must obey my own,' she replied, 'and relieve him from this cruel
+suspense.  The whole night!  What would he think?  He'll be distressed
+already.  I'll either break or burn a way out of the house.  Be quiet!
+You're in no danger; but if you hinder me--Linton, I love papa better
+than you!'  The mortal terror he felt of Mr. Heathcliff's anger restored
+to the boy his coward's eloquence.  Catherine was near distraught: still,
+she persisted that she must go home, and tried entreaty in her turn,
+persuading him to subdue his selfish agony.  While they were thus
+occupied, our jailor re-entered.
+
+'Your beasts have trotted off,' he said, 'and--now Linton! snivelling
+again?  What has she been doing to you?  Come, come--have done, and get
+to bed.  In a month or two, my lad, you'll be able to pay her back her
+present tyrannies with a vigorous hand.  You're pining for pure love, are
+you not? nothing else in the world: and she shall have you!  There, to
+bed!  Zillah won't be here to-night; you must undress yourself.  Hush!
+hold your noise!  Once in your own room, I'll not come near you: you
+needn't fear.  By chance, you've managed tolerably.  I'll look to the
+rest.'
+
+He spoke these words, holding the door open for his son to pass, and the
+latter achieved his exit exactly as a spaniel might which suspected the
+person who attended on it of designing a spiteful squeeze.  The lock was
+re-secured.  Heathcliff approached the fire, where my mistress and I
+stood silent.  Catherine looked up, and instinctively raised her hand to
+her cheek: his neighbourhood revived a painful sensation.  Anybody else
+would have been incapable of regarding the childish act with sternness,
+but he scowled on her and muttered--'Oh! you are not afraid of me?  Your
+courage is well disguised: you seem damnably afraid!'
+
+'I _am_ afraid now,' she replied, 'because, if I stay, papa will be
+miserable: and how can I endure making him miserable--when he--when
+he--Mr. Heathcliff, let _me_ go home!  I promise to marry Linton: papa
+would like me to: and I love him.  Why should you wish to force me to do
+what I'll willingly do of myself?'
+
+'Let him dare to force you,' I cried.  'There's law in the land, thank
+God! there is; though we be in an out-of-the-way place.  I'd inform if he
+were my own son: and it's felony without benefit of clergy!'
+
+'Silence!' said the ruffian.  'To the devil with your clamour!  I don't
+want _you_ to speak.  Miss Linton, I shall enjoy myself remarkably in
+thinking your father will be miserable: I shall not sleep for
+satisfaction.  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.  As to your promise to marry Linton,
+I'll take care you shall keep it; for you shall not quit this place till
+it is fulfilled.'
+
+'Send Ellen, then, to let papa know I'm safe!' exclaimed Catherine,
+weeping bitterly.  'Or marry me now.  Poor papa!  Ellen, he'll think
+we're lost.  What shall we do?'
+
+'Not he!  He'll think you are tired of waiting on him, and run off for a
+little amusement,' answered Heathcliff.  'You cannot deny that you
+entered my house of your own accord, in contempt of his injunctions to
+the contrary.  And it is quite natural that you should desire amusement
+at your age; and that you would weary of nursing a sick man, and that man
+_only_ your father.  Catherine, his happiest days were over when your
+days began.  He cursed you, I dare say, for coming into the world (I did,
+at least); and it would just do if he cursed you as _he_ went out of it.
+I'd join him.  I don't love you!  How should I?  Weep away.  As far as I
+can see, it will be your chief diversion hereafter; unless Linton make
+amends for other losses: and your provident parent appears to fancy he
+may.  His letters of advice and consolation entertained me vastly.  In
+his last he recommended my jewel to be careful of his; and kind to her
+when he got her.  Careful and kind--that's paternal.  But Linton requires
+his whole stock of care and kindness for himself.  Linton can play the
+little tyrant well.  He'll undertake to torture any number of cats, if
+their teeth be drawn and their claws pared.  You'll be able to tell his
+uncle fine tales of his _kindness_, when you get home again, I assure
+you.'
+
+'You're right there!' I said; 'explain your son's character.  Show his
+resemblance to yourself: and then, I hope, Miss Cathy will think twice
+before she takes the cockatrice!'
+
+'I don't much mind speaking of his amiable qualities now,' he answered;
+'because she must either accept him or remain a prisoner, and you along
+with her, till your master dies.  I can detain you both, quite concealed,
+here.  If you doubt, encourage her to retract her word, and you'll have
+an opportunity of judging!'
+
+'I'll not retract my word,' said Catherine.  'I'll marry him within this
+hour, if I may go to Thrushcross Grange afterwards.  Mr. Heathcliff,
+you're a cruel man, but you're not a fiend; and you won't, from _mere_
+malice, destroy irrevocably all my happiness.  If papa thought I had left
+him on purpose, and if he died before I returned, could I bear to live?
+I've given over crying: but I'm going to kneel here, at your knee; and
+I'll not get up, and I'll not take my eyes from your face till you look
+back at me!  No, don't turn away! _do look_! you'll see nothing to
+provoke you.  I don't hate you.  I'm not angry that you struck me.  Have
+you never loved _anybody_ in all your life, uncle? _never_?  Ah! you must
+look once.  I'm so wretched, you can't help being sorry and pitying me.'
+
+'Keep your eft's fingers off; and move, or I'll kick you!' cried
+Heathcliff, brutally repulsing her.  'I'd rather be hugged by a snake.
+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.  But I was rendered dumb
+in the middle of the first sentence, by a threat that I should be shown
+into a room by myself the very next syllable I uttered.  It was growing
+dark--we heard a sound of voices at the garden-gate.  Our host hurried
+out instantly: _he_ had his wits about him; _we_ had not.  There was a
+talk of two or three minutes, and he returned alone.
+
+'I thought it had been your cousin Hareton,' I observed to Catherine.  '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.  'You should have opened a lattice and called
+out: but I could swear that chit is glad you didn't.  She's glad to be
+obliged to stay, I'm certain.'
+
+At learning the chance we had missed, we both gave vent to our grief
+without control; and he allowed us to wail on till nine o'clock.  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.  The window,
+however, was narrow, like those below, and the garret trap was safe from
+our attempts; for we were fastened in as before.  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.  I seated myself in a
+chair, and rocked to and fro, passing harsh judgment on my many
+derelictions of duty; from which, it struck me then, all the misfortunes
+of my employers sprang.  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.
+
+At seven o'clock he came, and inquired if Miss Linton had risen.  She ran
+to the door immediately, and answered, 'Yes.'  'Here, then,' he said,
+opening it, and pulling her out.  I rose to follow, but he turned the
+lock again.  I demanded my release.
+
+'Be patient,' he replied; 'I'll send up your breakfast in a while.'
+
+I thumped on the panels, and rattled the latch angrily and Catherine
+asked why I was still shut up?  He answered, I must try to endure it
+another hour, and they went away.  I endured it two or three hours; at
+length, I heard a footstep: not Heathcliff's.
+
+'I've brought you something to eat,' said a voice; 'oppen t' door!'
+
+Complying eagerly, I beheld Hareton, laden with food enough to last me
+all day.
+
+'Tak' it,' he added, thrusting the tray into my hand.
+
+'Stay one minute,' I began.
+
+'Nay,' cried he, and retired, regardless of any prayers I could pour
+forth to detain him.
+
+And there I remained enclosed the whole day, and the whole of the next
+night; and another, and another.  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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+On the fifth morning, or rather afternoon, a different step
+approached--lighter and shorter; and, this time, the person entered the
+room.  It was Zillah; donned in her scarlet shawl, with a black silk
+bonnet on her head, and a willow-basket swung to her arm.
+
+'Eh, dear!  Mrs. Dean!' she exclaimed.  'Well! there is a talk about you
+at Gimmerton.  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. Dean?  But you're not so
+thin--you've not been so poorly, have you?'
+
+'Your master is a true scoundrel!' I replied.  'But he shall answer for
+it.  He needn't have raised that tale: it shall all be laid bare!'
+
+'What do you mean?' asked Zillah.  '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. Hareton, happened since I
+went off.  It's a sad pity of that likely young lass, and cant Nelly
+Dean."  He stared.  I thought he had not heard aught, so I told him the
+rumour.  The master listened, and he just smiled to himself, and said,
+"If they have been in the marsh, they are out now, Zillah.  Nelly Dean is
+lodged, at this minute, in your room.  You can tell her to flit, when you
+go up; here is the key.  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.  You can bid her go to the Grange at once, if she be able, and
+carry a message from me, that her young lady will follow in time to
+attend the squire's funeral."'
+
+'Mr. Edgar is not dead?' I gasped.  'Oh! Zillah, Zillah!'
+
+'No, no; sit you down, my good mistress,' she replied; 'you're right
+sickly yet.  He's not dead; Doctor Kenneth thinks he may last another
+day.  I met him on the road and asked.'
+
+Instead of sitting down, I snatched my outdoor things, and hastened
+below, for the way was free.  On entering the house, I looked about for
+some one to give information of Catherine.  The place was filled with
+sunshine, and the door stood wide open; but nobody seemed at hand.  As I
+hesitated whether to go off at once, or return and seek my mistress, a
+slight cough drew my attention to the hearth.  Linton lay on the settle,
+sole tenant, sucking a stick of sugar-candy, and pursuing my movements
+with apathetic eyes.  'Where is Miss Catherine?' I demanded sternly,
+supposing I could frighten him into giving intelligence, by catching him
+thus, alone.  He sucked on like an innocent.
+
+'Is she gone?' I said.
+
+'No,' he replied; 'she's upstairs: she's not to go; we won't let her.'
+
+'You won't let her, little idiot!' I exclaimed.  'Direct me to her room
+immediately, or I'll make you sing out sharply.'
+
+'Papa would make you sing out, if you attempted to get there,' he
+answered.  'He says I'm not to be soft with Catherine: she's my wife, and
+it's shameful that she should wish to leave me.  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.
+
+'Master Heathcliff,' I resumed, 'have you forgotten all Catherine's
+kindness to you last winter, when you affirmed you loved her, and when
+she brought you books and sung you songs, and came many a time through
+wind and snow to see you?  She wept to miss one evening, because you
+would be disappointed; and you felt then that she was a hundred times too
+good to you: and now you believe the lies your father tells, though you
+know he detests you both.  And you join him against her.  That's fine
+gratitude, is it not?'
+
+The corner of Linton's mouth fell, and he took the sugar-candy from his
+lips.
+
+'Did she come to Wuthering Heights because she hated you?' I continued.
+'Think for yourself!  As to your money, she does not even know that you
+will have any.  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.  Ah! you're a heartless,
+selfish boy!'
+
+'I can't stay with her,' he answered crossly.  'I'll not stay by myself.
+She cries so I can't bear it.  And she won't give over, though I say I'll
+call my father.  I did call him once, and he threatened to strangle her
+if she was not quiet; but she began again the instant he left the room,
+moaning and grieving all night long, though I screamed for vexation that
+I couldn't sleep.'
+
+'Is Mr. Heathcliff out?' I inquired, perceiving that the wretched
+creature had no power to sympathize with his cousin's mental tortures.
+
+'He's in the court,' he replied, 'talking to Doctor Kenneth; who says
+uncle is dying, truly, at last.  I'm glad, for I shall be master of the
+Grange after him.  Catherine always spoke of it as her house.  It isn't
+hers!  It's mine: papa says everything she has is mine.  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 were all, all mine.  And then
+she cried, and took a little picture from her neck, and said I should
+have that; two pictures in a gold case, on one side her mother, and on
+the other uncle, when they were young.  That was yesterday--I said they
+were mine, too; and tried to get them from her.  The spiteful thing
+wouldn't let me: she pushed me off, and hurt me.  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.  He took the one I had away, and ordered her to resign hers to me;
+she refused, and he--he struck her down, and wrenched it off the chain,
+and crushed it with his foot.'
+
+'And were you pleased to see her struck?' I asked: having my designs in
+encouraging his talk.
+
+'I winked,' he answered: 'I wink to see my father strike a dog or a
+horse, he does it so hard.  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.
+I don't like to think so; but she's a naughty thing for crying
+continually; and she looks so pale and wild, I'm afraid of her.'
+
+'And you can get the key if you choose?' I said.
+
+'Yes, when I am up-stairs,' he answered; 'but I can't walk up-stairs
+now.'
+
+'In what apartment is it?' I asked.
+
+'Oh,' he cried, 'I shan't tell _you_ where it is.  It is our secret.
+Nobody, neither Hareton nor Zillah, is to know.  There! you've tired
+me--go away, go away!'  And he turned his face on to his arm, and shut
+his eyes again.
+
+I considered it best to depart without seeing Mr. Heathcliff, and bring a
+rescue for my young lady from the Grange.  On reaching it, the
+astonishment of my fellow-servants to see me, and their joy also, was
+intense; and when they heard that their little mistress was safe, two or
+three were about to hurry up and shout the news at Mr. Edgar's door: but
+I bespoke the announcement of it myself.  How changed I found him, even
+in those few days!  He lay an image of sadness and resignation awaiting
+his death.  Very young he looked: though his actual age was thirty-nine,
+one would have called him ten years younger, at least.  He thought of
+Catherine; for he murmured her name.  I touched his hand, and spoke.
+
+'Catherine is coming, dear master!' I whispered; 'she is alive and well;
+and will be here, I hope, to-night.'
+
+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.  As
+soon as he recovered, I related our compulsory visit, and detention at
+the Heights.  I said Heathcliff forced me to go in: which was not quite
+true.  I uttered as little as possible against Linton; nor did I describe
+all his father's brutal conduct--my intentions being to add no
+bitterness, if I could help it, to his already over-flowing cup.
+
+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.
+However, he felt that his will had better be altered: instead of leaving
+Catherine's fortune at her own disposal, he determined to put it in the
+hands of trustees for her use during life, and for her children, if she
+had any, after her.  By that means, it could not fall to Mr. Heathcliff
+should Linton die.
+
+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.  Both parties were delayed very late.  The single servant
+returned first.  He said Mr. 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. Green told him he had a little business in the village that must be
+done; but he would be at Thrushcross Grange before morning.  The four men
+came back unaccompanied also.  They brought word that Catherine was ill:
+too ill to quit her room; and Heathcliff would not suffer them to see
+her.  I scolded the stupid fellows well for listening to that tale, which
+I would not 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.  Her father _shall_ see her, I vowed, and
+vowed again, if that devil be killed on his own doorstones in trying to
+prevent it!
+
+Happily, I was spared the journey and the trouble.  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.  'Oh! it is Green,' I said, recollecting myself--'only
+Green,' and I went on, intending to send somebody else to open it; but
+the knock was repeated: not loud, and still importunately.  I put the jug
+on the banister and hastened to admit him myself.  The harvest moon shone
+clear outside.  It was not the attorney.  My own sweet little mistress
+sprang on my neck sobbing, 'Ellen, Ellen!  Is papa alive?'
+
+'Yes,' I cried: 'yes, my angel, he is, God be thanked, you are safe with
+us again!'
+
+She wanted to run, breathless as she was, up-stairs to Mr. 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.  Then
+I said I must go first, and tell of her arrival; imploring her to say,
+she should be happy with young Heathcliff.  She stared, but soon
+comprehending why I counselled her to utter the falsehood, she assured me
+she would not complain.
+
+I couldn't abide to be present at their meeting.  I stood outside the
+chamber-door a quarter of an hour, and hardly ventured near the bed,
+then.  All was composed, however: Catherine's despair was as silent as
+her father's joy.  She supported him calmly, in appearance; and he fixed
+on her features his raised eyes that seemed dilating with ecstasy.
+
+He died blissfully, Mr. Lockwood: he died so.  Kissing her cheek, he
+murmured,--'I am going to her; and you, darling child, shall come to us!'
+and never stirred or spoke again; but continued that rapt, radiant gaze,
+till his pulse imperceptibly stopped and his soul departed.  None could
+have noticed the exact minute of his death, it was so entirely without a
+struggle.
+
+Whether Catherine had spent her tears, or whether the grief were too
+weighty to let them flow, she sat there dry-eyed till the sun rose: she
+sat till noon, and would still have remained brooding over that deathbed,
+but I insisted on her coming away and taking some repose.  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.  He
+had sold himself to Mr. Heathcliff: that was the cause of his delay in
+obeying my master's summons.  Fortunately, no thought of worldly affairs
+crossed the latter's mind, to disturb him, after his daughter's arrival.
+
+Mr. Green took upon himself to order everything and everybody about the
+place.  He gave all the servants but me, notice to quit.  He would have
+carried his delegated authority to the point of insisting that Edgar
+Linton should not be buried beside his wife, but in the chapel, with his
+family.  There was the will, however, to hinder that, and my loud
+protestations against any infringement of its directions.  The funeral
+was hurried over; Catherine, Mrs. Linton Heathcliff now, was suffered to
+stay at the Grange till her father's corpse had quitted it.
+
+She told me that her anguish had at last spurred Linton to incur the risk
+of liberating her.  She heard the men I sent disputing at the door, and
+she gathered the sense of Heathcliff's answer.  It drove her desperate.
+Linton who had been conveyed up to the little parlour soon after I left,
+was terrified into fetching the key before his father re-ascended.  He
+had the cunning to unlock and re-lock the door, without shutting it; and
+when he should have gone to bed, he begged to sleep with Hareton, and his
+petition was granted for once.  Catherine stole out before break of day.
+She dared not try the doors lest the dogs should raise an alarm; she
+visited the empty chambers and examined their windows; and, luckily,
+lighting on her mother's, she got easily out of its lattice, and on to
+the ground, by means of the fir-tree close by.  Her accomplice suffered
+for his share in the escape, notwithstanding his timid contrivances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+The evening after the funeral, my young lady and I were seated in the
+library; now musing mournfully--one of us despairingly--on our loss, now
+venturing conjectures as to the gloomy future.
+
+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.
+That seemed rather too favourable an arrangement to be hoped for; and yet
+I did hope, and began to cheer up under the prospect of retaining my home
+and my employment, and, above all, my beloved young mistress; when a
+servant--one of the discarded ones, not yet departed--rushed hastily in,
+and said 'that devil Heathcliff' was coming through the court: should he
+fasten the door in his face?
+
+If we had been mad enough to order that proceeding, we had not time.  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.  The sound of our informant's voice directed him to the
+library; he entered and motioning him out, shut the door.
+
+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.  We had not yet lighted a candle, but all the
+apartment was visible, even to the portraits on the wall: the splendid
+head of Mrs. Linton, and the graceful one of her husband.  Heathcliff
+advanced to the hearth.  Time had little altered his person either.  There
+was the same man: his dark face rather sallower and more composed, his
+frame a stone or two heavier, perhaps, and no other difference.  Catherine
+had risen with an impulse to dash out, when she saw him.
+
+'Stop!' he said, arresting her by the arm.  '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 was
+embarrassed how to punish him when I discovered his part in the business:
+he's such a cobweb, a pinch would annihilate him; but you'll see by his
+look that he has received his due!  I brought him down one evening, the
+day before yesterday, and just set him in a chair, and never touched him
+afterwards.  I sent Hareton out, and we had the room to ourselves.  In
+two hours, I called Joseph to carry him up again; and since then my
+presence is as potent on his nerves as a ghost; and I fancy he sees me
+often, though I am not near.  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.'
+
+'Why not let Catherine continue here,' I pleaded, 'and send Master Linton
+to her?  As you hate them both, you'd not miss them: they can only be a
+daily plague to your unnatural heart.'
+
+'I'm seeking a tenant for the Grange,' he answered; 'and I want my
+children about me, to be sure.  Besides, that lass owes me her services
+for her bread.  I'm not going to nurture her in luxury and idleness after
+Linton is gone.  Make haste and get ready, now; and don't oblige me to
+compel you.'
+
+'I shall,' said Catherine.  'Linton is all I have to love in the world,
+and though you have done what you could to make him hateful to me, and me
+to him, you cannot make us hate each other.  And I defy you to hurt him
+when I am by, and I defy you to frighten me!'
+
+'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.  It is not I who will make him hateful to you--it is
+his own sweet spirit.  He's as bitter as gall at your desertion and its
+consequences: don't expect thanks for this noble devotion.  I heard him
+draw a pleasant picture to Zillah of what he would do if he were as
+strong as I: the inclination is there, and his very weakness will sharpen
+his wits to find a substitute for strength.'
+
+'I know he has a bad nature,' said Catherine: 'he's your son.  But I'm
+glad I've a better, to forgive it; and I know he loves me, and for that
+reason I love him.  Mr. Heathcliff _you_ have _nobody_ to love you; and,
+however miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of
+thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery.  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.
+
+'You shall be sorry to be yourself presently,' said her father-in-law,
+'if you stand there another minute.  Begone, witch, and get your things!'
+
+She scornfully withdrew.  In her absence I began to beg for Zillah's
+place at the Heights, offering to resign mine to her; but he would suffer
+it on no account.  He bid me be silent; and then, for the first time,
+allowed himself a glance round the room and a look at the pictures.
+Having studied Mrs. Linton's, he said--'I shall have that home.  Not
+because I need it, but--'  He turned abruptly to the fire, and continued,
+with what, for lack of a better word, I must call a smile--'I'll tell you
+what I did yesterday!  I got the sexton, who was digging Linton's grave,
+to remove the earth off her coffin lid, and I opened it.  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.  And
+I bribed the sexton to pull it away when I'm laid there, and slide mine
+out too; I'll have it made so: and then by the time Linton gets to us
+he'll not know which is which!'
+
+'You were very wicked, Mr. Heathcliff!' I exclaimed; 'were you not
+ashamed to disturb the dead?'
+
+'I disturbed nobody, Nelly,' he replied; 'and I gave some ease to myself.
+I shall be a great deal more comfortable now; and you'll have a better
+chance of keeping me underground, when I get there.  Disturbed her?  No!
+she has disturbed me, night and day, through eighteen
+years--incessantly--remorselessly--till yesternight; and yesternight I
+was tranquil.  I dreamt I was sleeping the last sleep by that sleeper,
+with my heart stopped and my cheek frozen against hers.'
+
+'And if she had been dissolved into earth, or worse, what would you have
+dreamt of then?' I said.
+
+'Of dissolving with her, and being more happy still!' he answered.  '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.  Besides, unless I had received a distinct
+impression of her passionless features, that strange feeling would hardly
+have been removed.  It began oddly.  You know I was wild after she died;
+and eternally, from dawn to dawn, praying her to return to me her spirit!
+I have a strong faith in ghosts: I have a conviction that they can, and
+do, exist among us!  The day she was buried, there came a fall of snow.
+In the evening I went to the churchyard.  It blew bleak as winter--all
+round was solitary.  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.  Being alone, and conscious two yards of loose earth was the sole
+barrier between us, I said to myself--"I'll have her in my arms again!  If
+she be cold, I'll think it is this north wind that chills _me_; and if
+she be motionless, it is sleep."  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.  "If I
+can only get this off," I muttered, "I wish they may shovel in the earth
+over us both!" and I wrenched at it more desperately still.  There was
+another sigh, close at my ear.  I appeared to feel the warm breath of it
+displacing the sleet-laden wind.  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.  A sudden
+sense of relief flowed from my heart through every limb.  I relinquished
+my labour of agony, and turned consoled at once: unspeakably consoled.
+Her presence was with me: it remained while I re-filled the grave, and
+led me home.  You may laugh, if you will; but I was sure I should see her
+there.  I was sure she was with me, and I could not help talking to her.
+Having reached the Heights, I rushed eagerly to the door.  It was
+fastened; and, I remember, that accursed Earnshaw and my wife opposed my
+entrance.  I remember stopping to kick the breath out of him, and then
+hurrying up-stairs, to my room and hers.  I looked round impatiently--I
+felt her by me--I could _almost_ see her, and yet I _could not_!  I ought
+to have sweat blood then, from the anguish of my yearning--from the
+fervour of my supplications to have but one glimpse!  I had not one.  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 sat in the house with Hareton, it seemed
+that on going out I should meet her; when I walked on the moors I should
+meet her coming in.  When I went from home I hastened to return; she
+_must_ be somewhere at the Heights, I was certain!  And when I slept in
+her chamber--I was beaten out of that.  I couldn't lie there; for the
+moment I closed my eyes, she was either outside the window, or sliding
+back the panels, or entering the room, or even resting her darling head
+on the same pillow as she did when a child; and I must open my lids to
+see.  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.  Now, since I've seen her, I'm pacified--a little.  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. Heathcliff paused and wiped his forehead; his hair clung to it, wet
+with perspiration; his eyes were fixed on the red embers of the fire, the
+brows not contracted, but raised next the temples; diminishing the grim
+aspect of his countenance, but imparting a peculiar look of trouble, and
+a painful appearance of mental tension towards one absorbing subject.  He
+only half addressed me, and I maintained silence.  I didn't like to hear
+him talk!  After a short period he resumed his meditation on the picture,
+took it down and leant it against the sofa to contemplate it at better
+advantage; and while so occupied Catherine entered, announcing that she
+was ready, when her pony should be saddled.
+
+'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.  Come along.'
+
+'Good-bye, Ellen!' whispered my dear little mistress.
+
+As she kissed me, her lips felt like ice.  'Come and see me, Ellen; don't
+forget.'
+
+'Take care you do no such thing, Mrs. Dean!' said her new father.  'When
+I wish to speak to you I'll come here.  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.  I watched them, from the window, walk down the garden.
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+
+I have paid a visit to the Heights, but I have not seen her since she
+left: Joseph held the door in his hand when I called to ask after her,
+and wouldn't let me pass.  He said Mrs. Linton was 'thrang,' and the
+master was not in.  Zillah has told me something of the way they go on,
+otherwise I should hardly know who was dead and who living.  She thinks
+Catherine haughty, and does not like her, I can guess by her talk.  My
+young lady asked some aid of her when she first came; but Mr. Heathcliff
+told her to follow her own business, and let his daughter-in-law look
+after herself; and Zillah willingly acquiesced, being a narrow-minded,
+selfish woman.  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.  I had a
+long talk with Zillah about six weeks ago, a little before you came, one
+day when we foregathered on the moor; and this is what she told me.
+
+'The first thing Mrs. Linton did,' she said, 'on her arrival at the
+Heights, was to run up-stairs, without even wishing good-evening to me
+and Joseph; she shut herself into Linton's room, and remained till
+morning.  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.
+
+'"We know that!" answered Heathcliff; "but his life is not worth a
+farthing, and I won't spend a farthing on him."
+
+'"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."
+
+'Then she began to bother me, and I said I'd had enough plague with the
+tiresome thing; we each had our tasks, and hers was to wait on Linton:
+Mr. Heathcliff bid me leave that labour to her.
+
+'How they managed together, I can't tell.  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.  She sometimes came
+into the kitchen all wildered like, and looked as if she would fain beg
+assistance; but I was not going to disobey the master: I never dare
+disobey him, Mrs. Dean; and, though I thought 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.  Once or twice, after we had
+gone to bed, I've happened to open my door again and seen her sitting
+crying on the stairs'-top; and then I've shut myself in quick, for fear
+of being moved to interfere.  I did pity her then, I'm sure: still I
+didn't wish to lose my place, you know.
+
+'At last, one night she came boldly into my chamber, and frightened me
+out of my wits, by saying, "Tell Mr. Heathcliff that his son is dying--I'm
+sure he is, this time.  Get up, instantly, and tell him."
+
+'Having uttered this speech, she vanished again.  I lay a quarter of an
+hour listening and trembling.  Nothing stirred--the house was quiet.
+
+'She's mistaken, I said to myself.  He's got over it.  I needn't disturb
+them; and I began to doze.  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.
+
+'I delivered Catherine's message.  He cursed to himself, and in a few
+minutes came out with a lighted candle, and proceeded to their room.  I
+followed.  Mrs. Heathcliff was seated by the bedside, with her hands
+folded on her knees.  Her father-in-law went up, held the light to
+Linton's face, looked at him, and touched him; afterwards he turned to
+her.
+
+'"Now--Catherine," he said, "how do you feel?"
+
+'She was dumb.
+
+'"How do you feel, Catherine?" he repeated.
+
+'"He's safe, and I'm free," she answered: "I should feel well--but," she
+continued, with a bitterness she couldn't conceal, "you have left me so
+long to struggle against death alone, that I feel and see only death!  I
+feel like death!"
+
+'And she looked like it, too!  I gave her a little wine.  Hareton and
+Joseph, who had been wakened by the ringing and the sound of feet, and
+heard our talk from outside, now entered.  Joseph was fain, I believe, of
+the lad's removal; Hareton seemed a thought bothered: though he was more
+taken up with staring at Catherine than thinking of Linton.  But the
+master bid him get off to bed again: we didn't want his help.  He
+afterwards made Joseph remove the body to his chamber, and told me to
+return to mine, and Mrs. Heathcliff remained by herself.
+
+'In the morning, he sent me to tell her she must come down to breakfast:
+she had undressed, and appeared going to sleep, and said she was ill; at
+which I hardly wondered.  I informed Mr. Heathcliff, and he
+replied,--"Well, let her be till after the funeral; and go up now and
+then to get her what is needful; and, as soon as she seems better, tell
+me."'
+
+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.
+
+Heathcliff went up once, to show her Linton's will.  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.  The lands, being a minor, he
+could not meddle with.  However, Mr. Heathcliff has claimed and kept them
+in his wife's right and his also: I suppose legally; at any rate,
+Catherine, destitute of cash and friends, cannot disturb his possession.
+
+'Nobody,' said Zillah, 'ever approached her door, except that once, but
+I; and nobody asked anything about her.  The first occasion of her coming
+down into the house was on a Sunday afternoon.  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 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.
+
+'Joseph and I generally go to chapel on Sundays:' the kirk, you know, has
+no minister now, explained Mrs. Dean; and they call the Methodists' or
+Baptists' place (I can't say which it is) at Gimmerton, a chapel.  'Joseph
+had gone,' she continued, 'but I thought proper to bide at home.  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.  I let him
+know that his cousin would very likely sit with us, and she had been
+always used to see the Sabbath respected; so he had as good leave his
+guns and bits of indoor work alone, while she stayed.  He coloured up at
+the news, and cast his eyes over his hands and clothes.  The train-oil
+and gunpowder were shoved out of sight in a minute.  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.  He grew
+sullen, and began to swear.
+
+'Now, Mrs. Dean,' Zillah went on, seeing me not pleased by her manner,
+'you happen think your young lady too fine for Mr. Hareton; and happen
+you're right: but I own I should love well to bring her pride a peg
+lower.  And what will all her learning and her daintiness do for her,
+now?  She's as poor as you or I: poorer, I'll be bound: you're saying,
+and I'm doing my little all that road.'
+
+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.
+
+'Missis walked in,' she said, 'as chill as an icicle, and as high as a
+princess.  I got up and offered her my seat in the arm-chair.  No, she
+turned up her nose at my civility.  Earnshaw rose, too, and bid her come
+to the settle, and sit close by the fire: he was sure she was starved.
+
+'"I've been starved a month and more," she answered, resting on the word
+as scornful as she could.
+
+'And she got a chair for herself, and placed it at a distance from both
+of us.  Having sat till she was warm, she began to look round, and
+discovered a number of books on the dresser; she was instantly upon her
+feet again, stretching to reach them: but they were too high up.  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.
+
+'That was a great advance for the lad.  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.  She continued reading, or seeking for something to
+read.  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.  And, perhaps, not quite awake to what he did, but attracted like a
+child to a candle, at last he proceeded from staring to touching; he put
+out his hand and stroked one curl, as gently as if it were a bird.  He
+might have stuck a knife into her neck, she started round in such a
+taking.
+
+'"Get away this moment!  How dare you touch me?  Why are you stopping
+there?" she cried, in a tone of disgust.  "I can't endure you!  I'll go
+upstairs again, if you come near me."
+
+'Mr. Hareton recoiled, looking as foolish as he could do: he sat down in
+the settle very quiet, and she continued turning over her volumes another
+half hour; finally, Earnshaw crossed over, and whispered to me.
+
+'"Will you ask her to read to us, Zillah?  I'm stalled of doing naught;
+and I do like--I could like to hear her!  Dunnot say I wanted it, but ask
+of yourseln."
+
+'"Mr. Hareton wishes you would read to us, ma'am," I said, immediately.
+"He'd take it very kind--he'd be much obliged."
+
+'She frowned; and looking up, answered--
+
+'"Mr. 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.  But I won't complain to you!  I'm driven
+down here by the cold; not either to amuse you or enjoy your society."
+
+'"What could I ha' done?" began Earnshaw.  "How was I to blame?"
+
+'"Oh! you are an exception," answered Mrs. Heathcliff.  "I never missed
+such a concern as you."
+
+'"But I offered more than once, and asked," he said, kindling up at her
+pertness, "I asked Mr. Heathcliff to let me wake for you--"
+
+'"Be silent!  I'll go out of doors, or anywhere, rather than have your
+disagreeable voice in my ear!" said my lady.
+
+'Hareton muttered she might go to hell, for him! and unslinging his gun,
+restrained himself from his Sunday occupations no longer.  He talked now,
+freely enough; and she presently saw fit to retreat to her solitude: but
+the frost had set in, and, in spite of her pride, she was forced to
+condescend to our company, more and more.  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.  She'll snap at the master himself, and
+as good as dares him to thrash her; and the more hurt she gets, the more
+venomous she grows.'
+
+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. Heathcliff would as soon permit that as he would set up Hareton
+in an independent house; and I can see no remedy, at present, unless she
+could marry again; and that scheme it does not come within my province to
+arrange.
+
+* * * * *
+
+Thus ended Mrs. Dean's story.  Notwithstanding the doctor's prophecy, I
+am rapidly recovering strength; and 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.  I would not pass another winter
+here for much.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+
+Yesterday was bright, calm, and frosty.  I went to the Heights as I
+proposed: my housekeeper entreated me to bear a little note from her to
+her young lady, and I did not refuse, for the worthy woman was not
+conscious of anything odd in her request.  The front door stood open, but
+the jealous gate was fastened, as at my last visit; I knocked and invoked
+Earnshaw from among the garden-beds; he unchained it, and I entered.  The
+fellow is as handsome a rustic as need be seen.  I took particular notice
+of him this time; but then he does his best apparently to make the least
+of his advantages.
+
+I asked if Mr. Heathcliff were at home?  He answered, No; but he would be
+in at dinner-time.  It was eleven o'clock, and I announced my intention
+of going in and waiting for him; at which he immediately flung down his
+tools and accompanied me, in the office of watchdog, not as a substitute
+for the host.
+
+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 hardly
+raised her eyes to notice me, and continued her employment with the same
+disregard to common forms of politeness as before; never returning my
+bow and good-morning by the slightest acknowledgment.
+
+'She does not seem so amiable,' I thought, 'as Mrs. Dean would persuade
+me to believe.  She's a beauty, it is true; but not an angel.'
+
+Earnshaw surlily bid her remove her things to the kitchen.  '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.  I approached her,
+pretending to desire a view of the garden; and, as I fancied, adroitly
+dropped Mrs. Dean's note on to her knee, unnoticed by Hareton--but she
+asked aloud, 'What is that?'  And chucked it off.
+
+'A letter from your old acquaintance, the housekeeper at the Grange,' I
+answered; annoyed at her exposing my kind deed, and fearful lest it
+should be imagined a missive of my own.  She would gladly have gathered
+it up at this information, but Hareton beat her; he seized and put it in
+his waistcoat, saying Mr. Heathcliff should look at it first.  Thereat,
+Catherine silently turned her face from us, and, very stealthily, drew
+out her pocket-handkerchief and 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.
+Catherine caught and perused it eagerly; then she put a few questions to
+me concerning the inmates, rational and irrational, of her former home;
+and gazing towards the hills, murmured in soliloquy:
+
+'I should like to be riding Minny down there!  I should like to be
+climbing up there!  Oh!  I'm tired--I'm _stalled_, Hareton!'  And she
+leant her pretty head back against the sill, with half a yawn and half a
+sigh, and lapsed into an aspect of abstracted sadness: neither caring nor
+knowing whether we remarked her.
+
+'Mrs. Heathcliff,' I said, after sitting some time mute, 'you are not
+aware that I am an acquaintance of yours? so intimate that I think it
+strange you won't come and speak to me.  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.
+
+'You must tell her,' she continued, 'that I would answer her letter, but
+I have no materials for writing: not even a book from which I might tear
+a leaf.'
+
+'No books!' I exclaimed.  'How do you contrive to live here without them?
+if I may take the liberty to inquire.  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.
+Heathcliff never reads; so he took it into his head to destroy my books.
+I have not had a glimpse of one for weeks.  Only once, I searched through
+Joseph's store of theology, to his great irritation; and once, Hareton, I
+came upon a secret stock in your room--some Latin and Greek, and some
+tales and poetry: all old friends.  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.  Perhaps
+_your_ envy counselled Mr. 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!'
+
+Earnshaw blushed crimson when his cousin made this revelation of his
+private literary accumulations, and stammered an indignant denial of her
+accusations.
+
+'Mr. Hareton is desirous of increasing his amount of knowledge,' I said,
+coming to his rescue.  'He is not _envious_, but _emulous_ of your
+attainments.  He'll be a clever scholar in a few years.'
+
+'And he wants me to sink into a dunce, meantime,' answered Catherine.
+'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 heard you; and I heard you turning over the
+dictionary to seek out the hard words, and then cursing because you
+couldn't read their explanations!'
+
+The young man evidently thought it too bad that he should be laughed at
+for his ignorance, and then laughed at for trying to remove it.  I had a
+similar notion; and, remembering Mrs. Dean's anecdote of his first
+attempt at enlightening the darkness in which he had been reared, I
+observed,--'But, 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.'
+
+'Oh!' she replied, 'I don't wish to limit his acquirements: still, he has
+no right to appropriate what is mine, and make it ridiculous to me with
+his vile mistakes and mispronunciations!  Those books, both prose and
+verse, are consecrated to me by other associations; and I hate to have
+them debased and profaned in his mouth!  Besides, of all, he has selected
+my favourite pieces that I love the most to repeat, as if out of
+deliberate malice.'
+
+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.
+I rose, and, from a gentlemanly idea of relieving his embarrassment, took
+up my station in the doorway, surveying the external prospect as I stood.
+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.  'I shall connect them with you,
+and hate them.'
+
+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.  'And listen,' she continued, provokingly, commencing a verse
+of an old ballad in the same fashion.
+
+But his self-love would endure no further torment: I heard, and not
+altogether disapprovingly, a manual check given to her saucy tongue.  The
+little wretch had done her utmost to hurt her cousin's sensitive though
+uncultivated feelings, and a physical argument was the only mode he had
+of balancing the account, and repaying its effects on the inflictor.  He
+afterwards gathered the books and hurled them on the fire.  I read in his
+countenance what anguish it was to offer that sacrifice to spleen.  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.  He had been content with daily labour and rough animal enjoyments,
+till Catherine crossed his path.  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.
+
+'Yes that's all the good that such a brute as you can get from them!'
+cried Catherine, sucking her damaged lip, and watching the conflagration
+with indignant eyes.
+
+'You'd _better_ hold your tongue, now,' he answered fiercely.
+
+And his agitation precluded further speech; he advanced hastily to the
+entrance, where I made way for him to pass.  But ere he had crossed the
+door-stones, Mr. Heathcliff, coming up the causeway, encountered him, and
+laying hold of his shoulder asked,--'What's to do now, my lad?'
+
+'Naught, naught,' he said, and broke away to enjoy his grief and anger in
+solitude.
+
+Heathcliff gazed after him, and sighed.
+
+'It will be odd if I thwart myself,' he muttered, unconscious that I was
+behind him.  '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.'
+
+He bent his eyes to the ground, and walked moodily in.  There was a
+restless, anxious expression in his countenance.  I had never remarked
+there before; and he looked sparer in person.  His daughter-in-law, on
+perceiving him through the window, immediately escaped to the kitchen, so
+that I remained alone.
+
+'I'm glad to see you out of doors again, Mr. Lockwood,' he said, in reply
+to my greeting; 'from selfish motives partly: I don't think I could
+readily supply your loss in this desolation.  I've wondered more than
+once what brought you here.'
+
+'An idle whim, I fear, sir,' was my answer; 'or else an idle whim is
+going to spirit me away.  I shall set out for London next week; and I
+must give you warning that I feel no disposition to retain Thrushcross
+Grange beyond the twelve months I agreed to rent it.  I believe I shall
+not live there any more.'
+
+'Oh, indeed; you're tired of being banished from the world, are you?' he
+said.  '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.'
+
+'I'm coming to plead off nothing about it,' I exclaimed, considerably
+irritated.  'Should you wish it, I'll settle with you now,' and I drew my
+note-book from my pocket.
+
+'No, no,' he replied, coolly; 'you'll leave sufficient behind to cover
+your debts, if you fail to return: I'm not in such a hurry.  Sit down and
+take your dinner with us; a guest that is safe from repeating his visit
+can generally be made welcome.  Catherine! bring the things in: where are
+you?'
+
+Catherine reappeared, bearing a tray of knives and forks.
+
+'You may get your dinner with Joseph,' muttered Heathcliff, aside, 'and
+remain in the kitchen till he is gone.'
+
+She obeyed his directions very punctually: perhaps she had no temptation
+to transgress.  Living among clowns and misanthropists, she probably
+cannot appreciate a better class of people when she meets them.
+
+With Mr. 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.  I would have departed by the back way, to get a last
+glimpse of Catherine and annoy old Joseph; but Hareton received orders to
+lead up my horse, and my host himself escorted me to the door, so I could
+not fulfil my wish.
+
+'How dreary life gets over in that house!' I reflected, while riding down
+the road.  'What a realisation of something more romantic than a fairy
+tale it would have been for Mrs. 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.--This September I was invited to devastate the moors of a friend in
+the north, and on my journey to his abode, I unexpectedly came within
+fifteen miles of Gimmerton.  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.'
+
+'Gimmerton?' I repeated--my residence in that locality had already grown
+dim and dreamy.  'Ah!  I know.  How far is it from this?'
+
+'Happen fourteen mile o'er th' hills; and a rough road,' he answered.
+
+A sudden impulse seized me to visit Thrushcross Grange.  It was scarcely
+noon, and I conceived that I might as well pass the night under my own
+roof as in an inn.  Besides, I could spare a day easily to arrange
+matters with my landlord, and thus save myself the trouble of invading
+the neighbourhood again.  Having rested awhile, I directed my servant to
+inquire the way to the village; and, with great fatigue to our beasts, we
+managed the distance in some three hours.
+
+I left him there, and proceeded down the valley alone.  The grey church
+looked greyer, and the lonely churchyard lonelier.  I distinguished a
+moor-sheep cropping the short turf on the graves.  It was sweet, warm
+weather--too warm for travelling; but the heat did not hinder me from
+enjoying the delightful scenery above and below: had I seen it nearer
+August, I'm sure it would have tempted me to waste a month among its
+solitudes.  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 reached the Grange before sunset, and knocked for admittance; but the
+family had retreated into the back premises, I judged, by one thin, blue
+wreath, curling from the kitchen chimney, and they did not hear.  I rode
+into the court.  Under the porch, a girl of nine or ten sat knitting, and
+an old woman reclined on the housesteps, smoking a meditative pipe.
+
+'Is Mrs. Dean within?' I demanded of the dame.
+
+'Mistress Dean?  Nay!' she answered, 'she doesn't bide here: shoo's up at
+th' Heights.'
+
+'Are you the housekeeper, then?' I continued.
+
+'Eea, aw keep th' hause,' she replied.
+
+'Well, I'm Mr. Lockwood, the master.  Are there any rooms to lodge me in,
+I wonder?  I wish to stay all night.'
+
+'T' maister!' she cried in astonishment.  'Whet, whoiver knew yah wur
+coming?  Yah sud ha' send word.  They's nowt norther dry nor mensful
+abaht t' place: nowt there isn't!'
+
+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.
+I would go out for a walk; and, meantime she must try to prepare a corner
+of a sitting-room for me to sup in, and a bedroom to sleep in.  No
+sweeping and dusting, only good fire and dry sheets were necessary.  She
+seemed willing to do her best; though she thrust the hearth-brush into
+the grates in mistake for the poker, and malappropriated several other
+articles of her craft: but I retired, confiding in her energy for a
+resting-place against my return.  Wuthering Heights was the goal of my
+proposed excursion.  An afterthought brought me back, when I had quitted
+the court.
+
+'All well at the Heights?' I inquired of the woman.
+
+'Eea, f'r owt ee knaw!' she answered, skurrying away with a pan of hot
+cinders.
+
+I would have asked why Mrs. Dean had deserted the Grange, but it was
+impossible to delay her at such a crisis, so I turned away and made my
+exit, rambling leisurely along, with the glow of a sinking sun behind,
+and the mild glory of a rising moon in front--one fading, and the other
+brightening--as I quitted the park, and climbed the stony by-road
+branching off to Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling.  Before I arrived in sight of
+it, all that remained of day was a beamless amber light along the west:
+but I could see every pebble on the path, and every blade of grass, by
+that splendid moon.  I had neither to climb the gate nor to knock--it
+yielded to my hand.  That is an improvement, I thought.  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.
+
+Both doors and lattices were open; and yet, as is usually the case in a
+coal-district, a fine red fire illumined the chimney: the comfort which
+the eye derives from it renders the extra heat endurable.  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.  I could
+both see them and hear them talk before I entered, and looked and
+listened in consequence; being moved thereto by a mingled sense of
+curiosity and envy, that grew as I lingered.
+
+'Con-_trary_!' said a voice as sweet as a silver bell.  'That for the
+third time, you dunce!  I'm not going to tell you again. Recollect, or
+I'll pull your hair!'
+
+'Contrary, then,' answered another, in deep but softened tones. 'And now,
+kiss me, for minding so well.'
+
+'No, read it over first correctly, without a single mistake.'
+
+The male speaker began to read: he was a young man, respectably dressed
+and seated at a table, having a book before him.  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.  Its owner stood behind; her light, shining ringlets
+blending, at intervals, with his brown looks, as she bent to superintend
+his studies; and her face--it was lucky he could not see her face, or he
+would never have been so steady.  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.
+
+The task was done, not free from further blunders; but the pupil claimed
+a reward, and received at least five kisses; which, however, he
+generously returned.  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.  I supposed I should be condemned in Hareton Earnshaw's heart, if
+not by his mouth, to the lowest pit in the infernal regions if I showed
+my unfortunate person in his neighbourhood then; and feeling very mean
+and malignant, I skulked round to seek refuge in the kitchen.  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.
+
+'I'd rayther, by th' haulf, hev' 'em swearing i' my lugs fro'h morn to
+neeght, nor hearken ye hahsiver!' said the tenant of the kitchen, in
+answer to an unheard speech of Nelly's.  '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.  Poor lad!' he added, with a groan; 'he's witched: I'm sartin
+on't.  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.  'But wisht, old man, and read your Bible like a Christian, and
+never mind me.  This is "Fairy Annie's Wedding"--a bonny tune--it goes to
+a dance.'
+
+Mrs. Dean was about to recommence, when I advanced; and recognising me
+directly, she jumped to her feet, crying--'Why, bless you, Mr. Lockwood!
+How could you think of returning in this way?  All's shut up at
+Thrushcross Grange.  You should have given us notice!'
+
+'I've arranged to be accommodated there, for as long as I shall stay,' I
+answered.  'I depart again to-morrow.  And how are you transplanted here,
+Mrs. Dean? tell me that.'
+
+'Zillah left, and Mr. Heathcliff wished me to come, soon after you went
+to London, and stay till you returned.  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.'
+
+'What business, sir?' said Nelly, conducting me into the house. 'He's
+gone out at present, and won't return soon.'
+
+'About the rent,' I answered.
+
+'Oh! then it is with Mrs. Heathcliff you must settle,' she observed; 'or
+rather with me.  She has not learnt to manage her affairs yet, and I act
+for her: there's nobody else.'
+
+I looked surprised.
+
+'Ah! you have not heard of Heathcliff's death, I see,' she continued.
+
+'Heathcliff dead!' I exclaimed, astonished.  'How long ago?'
+
+'Three months since: but sit down, and let me take your hat, and I'll
+tell you all about it.  Stop, you have had nothing to eat, have you?'
+
+'I want nothing: I have ordered supper at home.  You sit down too. I
+never dreamt of his dying!  Let me hear how it came to pass.  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.  At least, have a drink of our old ale; it will do you
+good: you seem weary.'
+
+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.'
+
+She did not stay to retaliate, but re-entered in a minute, bearing a
+reaming silver pint, whose contents I lauded with becoming earnestness.
+And afterwards she furnished me with the sequel of Heathcliff's history.
+He had a 'queer' end, as she expressed it.
+
+I was summoned to Wuthering Heights, within a fortnight of your leaving
+us, she said; and I obeyed joyfully, for Catherine's sake. My first
+interview with her grieved and shocked me: she had altered so much since
+our separation.  Mr. Heathcliff did not explain his reasons for taking a
+new mind about my coming here; he only told me he wanted me, and he was
+tired of seeing Catherine: I must make the little parlour my
+sitting-room, and keep her with me. It was enough if he were obliged to
+see her once or twice a day. She seemed pleased at this arrangement; and,
+by degrees, I smuggled over a great number of books, and other articles,
+that had formed her amusement at the Grange; and flattered myself we
+should get on in tolerable comfort.  The delusion did not last long.
+Catherine, contented at first, in a brief space grew irritable and
+restless. 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 solitude.  I did
+not mind their skirmishes: but Hareton was often obliged to seek the
+kitchen also, when the master wanted to have the house to himself! and
+though in the beginning she either left it at his approach, or quietly
+joined in my occupations, and shunned remarking or addressing him--and
+though he was always as sullen and silent as possible--after a while, she
+changed her behaviour, and became incapable of letting him alone: talking
+at him; commenting on his stupidity and idleness; expressing her wonder
+how he could endure the life he lived--how he could sit a whole evening
+staring into the fire, and dozing.
+
+'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's, perhaps, dreaming now,' she continued.  'He twitched his shoulder
+as Juno twitches hers.  Ask him, Ellen.'
+
+'Mr. Hareton will ask the master to send you up-stairs, if you don't
+behave!' I said.  He had not only twitched his shoulder but clenched his
+fist, as if tempted to use it.
+
+'I know why Hareton never speaks, when I am in the kitchen,' she
+exclaimed, on another occasion.  'He is afraid I shall laugh at him.
+Ellen, what do you think?  He began to teach himself to read once; and,
+because I laughed, he burned his books, and dropped it: was he not a
+fool?'
+
+'Were not you naughty?' I said; 'answer me that.'
+
+'Perhaps I was,' she went on; 'but I did not expect him to be so silly.
+Hareton, if I gave you a book, would you take it now?  I'll try!'
+
+She placed one she had been perusing on his hand; he flung it off, and
+muttered, if she did not give over, he would break her neck.
+
+'Well, I shall put it here,' she said, 'in the table-drawer; and I'm
+going to bed.'
+
+Then she whispered me to watch whether he touched it, and departed.  But
+he would not come near it; and so I informed her in the morning, to her
+great disappointment.  I saw she was sorry for his persevering sulkiness
+and indolence: her conscience reproved her for frightening him off
+improving himself: she had done it effectually.  But her ingenuity was at
+work to remedy the injury: while I 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.  When Hareton was
+there, she generally paused in an interesting part, and left the book
+lying about: that she did repeatedly; but he was as obstinate as a mule,
+and, instead of snatching at her bait, in wet weather he took to smoking
+with Joseph; and they sat like automatons, one on each side of the fire,
+the elder happily too deaf to understand her wicked nonsense, as he would
+have called it, the younger doing his best to seem to disregard it.  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.
+
+Mr. Heathcliff, who grew more and more disinclined to society, had almost
+banished Earnshaw from his apartment.  Owing to an accident at the
+commencement of March, he became for some days a fixture in the kitchen.
+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.  The
+consequence was that, perforce, he was condemned to the fireside and
+tranquillity, till he made it up again.  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.
+
+On Easter Monday, Joseph went to Gimmerton fair with some cattle; and, in
+the afternoon, I was busy getting up linen in the kitchen.  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.  At a notice
+that I could do with her no longer intercepting my light, she removed to
+the hearthstone.  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 returned no answer.
+
+'Hareton, Hareton, Hareton! do you hear?' she continued.
+
+'Get off wi' ye!' he growled, with uncompromising gruffness.
+
+'Let me take that pipe,' she said, cautiously advancing her hand and
+abstracting it from his mouth.
+
+Before he could attempt to recover it, it was broken, and behind the
+fire.  He swore at her and seized another.
+
+'Stop,' she cried, 'you must listen to me first; and I can't speak while
+those clouds are floating in my face.'
+
+'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.  When I call you stupid,
+I don't mean anything: I don't mean that I despise you.  Come, you shall
+take notice of me, Hareton: you are my cousin, and you shall own me.'
+
+'I shall have naught to do wi' you and your mucky pride, and your damned
+mocking tricks!' he answered.  'I'll go to hell, body and soul, before I
+look sideways after you again.  Side out o' t' gate, now, this minute!'
+
+Catherine frowned, and retreated to the window-seat chewing her lip, and
+endeavouring, by humming an eccentric tune, to conceal a growing tendency
+to sob.
+
+'You should be friends with your cousin, Mr. Hareton,' I interrupted,
+'since she repents of her sauciness.  It would do you a great deal of
+good: it would make you another man to have her for a companion.'
+
+'A companion!' he cried; 'when she hates me, and does not think me fit to
+wipe her shoon!  Nay, if it made me a king, I'd not be scorned for
+seeking her good-will any more.'
+
+'It is not I who hate you, it is you who hate me!' wept Cathy, no longer
+disguising her trouble.  'You hate me as much as Mr. Heathcliff does, and
+more.'
+
+'You're a damned liar,' began Earnshaw: 'why have I made him angry, by
+taking your part, then, a hundred times? and that when you sneered at and
+despised me, and--Go on plaguing me, and I'll step in yonder, and say you
+worried me out of the kitchen!'
+
+'I didn't know you took my part,' she answered, drying her eyes; 'and I
+was miserable and bitter at everybody; but now I thank you, and beg you
+to forgive me: what can I do besides?'
+
+She returned to the hearth, and frankly extended her hand.  He blackened
+and scowled like a thunder-cloud, and kept his fists resolutely clenched,
+and his gaze fixed on the ground.  Catherine, by instinct, must have
+divined it was obdurate perversity, and not dislike, that prompted this
+dogged conduct; for, after remaining an instant undecided, she stooped
+and impressed on his cheek a gentle kiss.  The little rogue thought I had
+not seen her, and, drawing back, she took her former station by the
+window, quite demurely.  I shook my head reprovingly, and then she
+blushed and whispered--'Well! what should I have done, Ellen?  He
+wouldn't shake hands, and he wouldn't look: I must show him some way that
+I like him--that I want to be friends.'
+
+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.
+
+Catherine employed herself in wrapping a handsome book neatly in white
+paper, and having tied it with a bit of ribbon, and addressed it to 'Mr.
+Hareton Earnshaw,' she desired me to be her ambassadress, and convey the
+present to its destined recipient.
+
+'And tell him, if he'll take it, I'll come and teach him to read it
+right,' she said; 'and, if he refuse it, I'll go upstairs, and never
+tease him again.'
+
+I carried it, and repeated the message; anxiously watched by my employer.
+Hareton would not open his fingers, so I laid it on his knee.  He did not
+strike it off, either.  I returned to my work.  Catherine leaned her head
+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.  He trembled, and his face glowed: all his rudeness and all his
+surly harshness had deserted him: he could not summon courage, at first,
+to utter a syllable in reply to her questioning look, and her murmured
+petition.
+
+'Say you forgive me, Hareton, do.  You can make me so happy by speaking
+that little word.'
+
+He muttered something inaudible.
+
+'And you'll be my friend?' added Catherine, interrogatively.
+
+'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.'
+
+'So you won't be my friend?' she said, smiling as sweet as honey, and
+creeping close up.
+
+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.
+
+The work they studied was full of costly pictures; and those and their
+position had charm enough to keep them unmoved till Joseph came home.  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.  His
+emotion was only revealed by the immense sighs he drew, as he solemnly
+spread his large Bible on the table, and overlaid it with dirty
+bank-notes from his pocket-book, the produce of the day's transactions.
+At length he summoned Hareton from his seat.
+
+'Tak' these in to t' maister, lad,' he said, 'and bide there.  I's gang
+up to my own rahm.  This hoile's neither mensful nor seemly for us: we
+mun side out and seearch another.'
+
+'Come, Catherine,' I said, 'we must "side out" too: I've done my ironing.
+Are you ready to go?'
+
+'It is not eight o'clock!' she answered, rising unwillingly.
+
+'Hareton, I'll leave this book upon the chimney-piece, and I'll bring
+some more to-morrow.'
+
+'Ony books that yah leave, I shall tak' into th' hahse,' said Joseph,
+'and it'll be mitch if yah find 'em agean; soa, yah may plase yerseln!'
+
+Cathy threatened that his library should pay for hers; and, smiling as
+she passed Hareton, went singing up-stairs: lighter of heart, I venture
+to say, than ever she had been under that roof before; except, perhaps,
+during her earliest visits to Linton.
+
+The intimacy thus commenced grew rapidly; though it encountered temporary
+interruptions.  Earnshaw was not to be civilized with a wish, and my
+young lady was no philosopher, and no paragon of patience; but both their
+minds tending to the same point--one loving and desiring to esteem, and
+the other loving and desiring to be esteemed--they contrived in the end
+to reach it.
+
+You see, Mr. Lockwood, it was easy enough to win Mrs. Heathcliff's heart.
+But now, I'm glad you did not try.  The crown of all my wishes will be
+the union of those two.  I shall envy no one on their wedding day: there
+won't be a happier woman than myself in England!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+
+On the morrow of that Monday, Earnshaw being still unable to follow his
+ordinary employments, and therefore remaining about the house, I speedily
+found it would be impracticable to retain my charge beside me, as
+heretofore.  She got downstairs before me, and out into the garden, where
+she had seen her cousin performing some easy 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.
+
+I was terrified at the devastation which had been accomplished in a brief
+half-hour; the black-currant trees were the apple of Joseph's eye, and
+she had just fixed her choice of a flower-bed in the midst of them.
+
+'There!  That will be all shown to the master,' I exclaimed, 'the minute
+it is discovered.  And what excuse have you to offer for taking such
+liberties with the garden?  We shall have a fine explosion on the head of
+it: see if we don't!  Mr. 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.'
+
+We always ate our meals with Mr. Heathcliff.  I held the mistress's post
+in making tea and carving; so I was indispensable at table.  Catherine
+usually sat by me, but to-day she stole nearer to Hareton; and I
+presently saw she would have no more discretion in her friendship than
+she had in her hostility.
+
+'Now, mind you don't talk with and notice your cousin too much,' were my
+whispered instructions as we entered the room.  'It will certainly annoy
+Mr. Heathcliff, and he'll be mad at you both.'
+
+'I'm not going to,' she answered.
+
+The minute after, she had sidled to him, and was sticking primroses in
+his plate of porridge.
+
+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.  I
+frowned, and then she glanced towards the master: whose mind was occupied
+on other subjects than his company, as his countenance evinced; and she
+grew serious for an instant, scrutinizing him with deep gravity.
+Afterwards she turned, and recommenced her nonsense; at last, Hareton
+uttered a smothered laugh.  Mr. Heathcliff started; his eye rapidly
+surveyed our faces, Catherine met it with her accustomed look of
+nervousness and yet defiance, which he abhorred.
+
+'It is well you are out of my reach,' he exclaimed.  '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.  I thought I
+had cured you of laughing.'
+
+'It was me,' muttered Hareton.
+
+'What do you say?' demanded the master.
+
+Hareton looked at his plate, and did not repeat the confession.  Mr.
+Heathcliff looked at him a bit, and then silently resumed his breakfast
+and his interrupted musing.  We had nearly finished, and the two young
+people prudently shifted wider asunder, so I anticipated no further
+disturbance during that sitting: when Joseph appeared at the door,
+revealing by his quivering lip and furious eyes that the outrage
+committed on his precious shrubs was detected.  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.  It wur hard to gie up my awn hearthstun, but I
+thowt I _could_ do that!  But nah, shoo's taan my garden fro' me, and by
+th' heart, maister, I cannot stand it!  Yah may bend to th' yoak an ye
+will--I noan used to 't, and an old man doesn't sooin get used to new
+barthens.  I'd rayther arn my bite an' my sup wi' a hammer in th' road!'
+
+'Now, now, idiot!' interrupted Heathcliff, 'cut it short!  What's your
+grievance?  I'll interfere in no quarrels between you and Nelly.  She may
+thrust you into the coal-hole for anything I care.'
+
+'It's noan Nelly!' answered Joseph.  'I sudn't shift for Nelly--nasty ill
+nowt as shoo is.  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.
+It's yon flaysome, graceless quean, that's witched our lad, wi' her bold
+een and her forrard ways--till--Nay! it fair brusts my heart!  He's
+forgotten all I've done for him, and made on him, and goan and riven up a
+whole row o' t' grandest currant-trees i' t' garden!' and here he
+lamented outright; unmanned by a sense of his bitter injuries, and
+Earnshaw's ingratitude and dangerous condition.
+
+'Is the fool drunk?' asked Mr. Heathcliff.  '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.'
+
+'And why have you pulled them up?' said the master.
+
+Catherine wisely put in her tongue.
+
+'We wanted to plant some flowers there,' she cried.  'I'm the only person
+to blame, for I wished him to do it.'
+
+'And who the devil gave _you_ leave to touch a stick about the place?'
+demanded her father-in-law, much surprised.  'And who ordered _you_ to
+obey her?' he added, turning to Hareton.
+
+The latter was speechless; his cousin replied--'You shouldn't grudge a
+few yards of earth for me to ornament, when you have taken all my land!'
+
+'Your land, insolent slut!  You never had any,' said Heathcliff.
+
+'And my money,' she continued; returning his angry glare, and meantime
+biting a piece of crust, the remnant of her breakfast.
+
+'Silence!' he exclaimed.  'Get done, and begone!'
+
+'And Hareton's land, and his money,' pursued the reckless thing.  'Hareton
+and I are friends now; and I shall tell him all about you!'
+
+The master seemed confounded a moment: he grew pale, and rose up, eyeing
+her all the while, with an expression of mortal hate.
+
+'If you strike me, Hareton will strike you,' she said; 'so you may as
+well sit down.'
+
+'If Hareton does not turn you out of the room, I'll strike him to hell,'
+thundered Heathcliff.  'Damnable witch! dare you pretend to rouse him
+against me?  Off with 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.
+
+'Drag her away!' he cried, savagely.  'Are you staying to talk?'  And he
+approached to execute his own command.
+
+'He'll not obey you, wicked man, any more,' said Catherine; 'and he'll
+soon detest you as much as I do.'
+
+'Wisht! wisht!' muttered the young man, reproachfully; 'I will not hear
+you speak so to him.  Have done.'
+
+'But you won't let him strike me?' she cried.
+
+'Come, then,' he whispered earnestly.
+
+It was too late: Heathcliff had caught hold of her.
+
+'Now, _you_ go!' he said to Earnshaw.  '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 locks,
+entreating him not to hurt her that once.  Heathcliff's black eyes
+flashed; he seemed ready to tear Catherine in pieces, and I was just
+worked up to risk coming to the rescue, when of a sudden his fingers
+relaxed; he shifted his grasp from her head to her arm, and gazed
+intently in her face.  Then he drew his hand over his eyes, stood a
+moment to collect himself apparently, and turning anew to Catherine,
+said, with assumed calmness--'You must learn to avoid putting me in a
+passion, or I shall really murder you some time!  Go with Mrs. Dean, and
+keep with her; and confine your insolence to her ears.  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.
+Nelly, take her; and leave me, all of you!  Leave me!'
+
+I led my young lady out: she was too glad of her escape to resist; the
+other followed, and Mr. Heathcliff had the room to himself till dinner.  I
+had counselled Catherine to dine up-stairs; but, as soon as he perceived
+her vacant seat, he sent me to call her.  He spoke to none of us, ate
+very little, and went out directly afterwards, intimating that he should
+not return before evening.
+
+The two new friends established themselves in the house during his
+absence; where I heard Hareton sternly check his cousin, on her offering
+a revelation of her father-in-law's conduct to his father.  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. Heathcliff.
+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
+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.  She showed a good heart, thenceforth, in avoiding both
+complaints and expressions of antipathy concerning Heathcliff; and
+confessed to me her sorrow that she had endeavoured to raise a bad spirit
+between him and Hareton: indeed, I don't believe she has ever breathed a
+syllable, in the latter's hearing, against her oppressor since.
+
+When this slight disagreement was over, they were friends again, and as
+busy as possible in their several occupations of pupil and teacher.  I
+came in to sit with them, after I had done my work; and I felt so soothed
+and comforted to watch them, that I did not notice how time got on.  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 honest, warm, and intelligent nature shook off rapidly
+the clouds of ignorance and degradation in which it had been bred; and
+Catherine's sincere commendations acted as a spur to his industry.  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 the day I discovered my little lady at Wuthering Heights, after her
+expedition to the Crags.  While I admired and they laboured, dusk drew
+on, and with it returned the master.  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.  Well, I reflected, there was
+never a pleasanter, or more harmless sight; and it will be a burning
+shame to scold them.  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.
+
+They lifted their eyes together, to encounter Mr. Heathcliff: perhaps you
+have never remarked that their eyes are precisely similar, and they are
+those of Catherine Earnshaw.  The present Catherine has no other likeness
+to her, except a breadth of forehead, and a certain arch of the nostril
+that makes her appear rather haughty, whether she will or not.  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.  I suppose this
+resemblance disarmed Mr. 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.  He took the
+book from his hand, and glanced at the open page, then returned it
+without any observation; merely signing Catherine away: her companion
+lingered very little behind her, and I was about to depart also, but he
+bid me sit still.
+
+'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.  But where is the use?  I don't care for
+striking: I can't take the trouble to raise my hand!  That sounds as if I
+had been labouring the whole time only to exhibit a fine trait of
+magnanimity.  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.
+
+'Nelly, there is a strange change approaching; I'm in its shadow at
+present.  I take so little interest in my daily life that I hardly
+remember to eat and drink.  Those two who have left the room are the only
+objects which retain a distinct material appearance to me; and that
+appearance causes me pain, amounting to agony.  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.  _He_ moves me
+differently: and yet if I could do it without seeming insane, I'd never
+see him again!  You'll perhaps think me rather inclined to become so,' he
+added, making an effort to smile, 'if I try to describe the thousand
+forms of past associations and ideas he awakens or embodies.  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.
+
+'Five minutes ago Hareton seemed a personification of my youth, not a
+human being; I felt to him in such a variety of ways, that it would have
+been impossible to have accosted him rationally.  In the first place, his
+startling likeness to Catherine connected him fearfully with her.  That,
+however, which you may suppose the most potent to arrest my imagination,
+is actually the least: for what is not connected with her to me? and what
+does not recall her?  I cannot look down to this floor, but her features
+are shaped in the flags!  In every cloud, in every tree--filling the air
+at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day--I am surrounded
+with her image!  The most ordinary faces of men and women--my own
+features--mock me with a resemblance.  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.  I can give them no attention any more.'
+
+'But what do you mean by a _change_, Mr. Heathcliff?' I said, alarmed at
+his manner: though he was neither in danger of losing his senses, nor
+dying, according to my judgment: he was quite strong and healthy; and, as
+to his reason, from childhood he had a delight in dwelling on dark
+things, and entertaining odd fancies.  He might have had a monomania on
+the subject of his departed idol; but on every other point his wits were
+as sound as mine.
+
+'I shall not know that till it comes,' he said; 'I'm only half conscious
+of it now.'
+
+'You have no feeling of illness, have you?' I asked.
+
+'No, Nelly, I have not,' he answered.
+
+'Then you are not afraid of death?' I pursued.
+
+'Afraid?  No!' he replied.  'I have neither a fear, nor a presentiment,
+nor a hope of death.  Why should I?  With my hard constitution and
+temperate mode of living, and unperilous occupations, I ought to, and
+probably _shall_, remain above ground till there is scarcely a black hair
+on my head.  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.  I have a single wish, and my whole being and faculties are
+yearning to attain it.  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.  My confessions have not relieved me; but they may account
+for some otherwise unaccountable phases of humour which I show.  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.  I wondered greatly how it would
+end.  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.  You did not when you saw him, Mr. 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+
+For some days after that evening Mr. Heathcliff shunned meeting us at
+meals; yet he would not consent formally to exclude Hareton and Cathy.  He
+had an aversion to yielding so completely to his feelings, choosing
+rather to absent himself; and eating once in twenty-four hours seemed
+sufficient sustenance for him.
+
+One night, after the family were in bed, I heard him go downstairs, and
+out at the front door.  I did not hear him re-enter, and in the morning I
+found he was still away.  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.  After
+breakfast, Catherine insisted on my bringing a chair and sitting with my
+work under the fir-trees at the end of the house; and she beguiled
+Hareton, who had perfectly recovered from his accident, to dig and
+arrange her little garden, which was shifted to that corner by the
+influence of Joseph's complaints.  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.
+Heathcliff was coming in.  'And he spoke to me,' she added, with a
+perplexed countenance.
+
+'What did he say?' asked Hareton.
+
+'He told me to begone as fast as I could,' she answered.  'But he looked
+so different from his usual look that I stopped a moment to stare at
+him.'
+
+'How?' he inquired.
+
+'Why, almost bright and cheerful.  No, _almost_ nothing--_very much_
+excited, and wild, and glad!' she replied.
+
+'Night-walking amuses him, then,' I remarked, affecting a careless
+manner: in reality as surprised as she was, and anxious to ascertain the
+truth of her statement; for to see the master looking glad would not be
+an every-day spectacle.  I framed an excuse to go in.  Heathcliff stood
+at the open door; he was pale, and he trembled: yet, certainly, he had a
+strange joyful glitter in his eyes, that altered the aspect of his whole
+face.
+
+'Will you have some breakfast?' I said.  'You must be hungry, rambling
+about all night!'  I wanted to discover where he had been, but I did not
+like to ask directly.
+
+'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 felt perplexed: I didn't know whether it were not a proper opportunity
+to offer a bit of admonition.
+
+'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.  I daresay
+you'll catch a bad cold or a fever: you have something the matter with
+you now!'
+
+'Nothing but what I can bear,' he replied; 'and with the greatest
+pleasure, provided you'll leave me alone: get in, and don't annoy me.'
+
+I obeyed: and, in passing, I noticed he breathed as fast as a cat.
+
+'Yes!' I reflected to myself, 'we shall have a fit of illness.  I cannot
+conceive what he has been doing.'
+
+That noon he sat down to dinner with us, and received a heaped-up plate
+from my hands, as if he intended to make amends for previous fasting.
+
+'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 took his knife and fork, and was going to commence eating, when the
+inclination appeared to become suddenly extinct.  He laid them on the
+table, looked eagerly towards the window, then rose and went out.  We saw
+him walking to and fro in the garden while we concluded our meal, and
+Earnshaw said he'd go and ask why he would not dine: he thought we had
+grieved him some way.
+
+'Well, is he coming?' cried Catherine, when her cousin returned.
+
+'Nay,' he answered; 'but he's not angry: he seemed rarely pleased indeed;
+only I made him impatient by speaking to him twice; and then he bid me be
+off to you: he wondered how I could want the company of anybody else.'
+
+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.
+
+I will ask what is the matter, I thought; or who should?  And I
+exclaimed--'Have you heard any good news, Mr. Heathcliff?  You look
+uncommonly animated.'
+
+'Where should good news come from to me?' he said.  'I'm animated with
+hunger; and, seemingly, I must not eat.'
+
+'Your dinner is here,' I returned; 'why won't you get it?'
+
+'I don't want it now,' he muttered, hastily: 'I'll wait till supper.  And,
+Nelly, once for all, let me beg you to warn Hareton and the other away
+from me.  I wish to be troubled by nobody: I wish to have this place to
+myself.'
+
+'Is there some new reason for this banishment?' I inquired.  'Tell me why
+you are so queer, Mr. Heathcliff?  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.  'Yet I'll answer it.  Last night I was on the
+threshold of hell.  To-day, I am within sight of my heaven.  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.'
+
+Having swept the hearth and wiped the table, I departed; more perplexed
+than ever.
+
+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.  He was leaning
+against the ledge of an open lattice, but not looking out: his face was
+turned to the interior gloom.  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.  I uttered an ejaculation of discontent
+at seeing the dismal grate, and commenced shutting the casements, one
+after another, till I came to his.
+
+'Must I close this?' I asked, in order to rouse him; for he would not
+stir.
+
+The light flashed on his features as I spoke.  Oh, Mr. Lockwood, I cannot
+express what a terrible start I got by the momentary view!  Those deep
+black eyes!  That smile, and ghastly paleness!  It appeared to me, not
+Mr. Heathcliff, but a goblin; and, in my terror, I let the candle bend
+towards the wall, and it left me in darkness.
+
+'Yes, close it,' he replied, in his familiar voice.  'There, that is pure
+awkwardness!  Why did you hold the candle horizontally?  Be quick, and
+bring another.'
+
+I hurried out in a foolish state of dread, and said to Joseph--'The
+master wishes you to take him a light and rekindle the fire.'  For I
+dared not go in myself again just then.
+
+Joseph rattled some fire into the shovel, and went: but he brought it
+back immediately, with the supper-tray in his other hand, explaining that
+Mr. Heathcliff was going to bed, and he wanted nothing to eat till
+morning.  We heard him mount the stairs directly; he did not proceed to
+his ordinary chamber, but turned into that with the panelled bed: its
+window, as I mentioned before, is wide enough for anybody to get through;
+and it struck me that he plotted another midnight excursion, of which he
+had rather we had no suspicion.
+
+'Is he a ghoul or a vampire?' I mused.  I had read of such hideous
+incarnate demons.  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.  'But where did he come from, the little dark
+thing, harboured by a good man to his bane?' muttered Superstition, as I
+dozed into unconsciousness.  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.'  That came true: we were.
+If you enter the kirkyard, you'll read, on his headstone, only that, and
+the date of his death.
+
+Dawn restored me to common sense.  I rose, and went into the garden, as
+soon as I could see, to ascertain if there were any footmarks under his
+window.  There were none.  'He has stayed at home,' I thought, 'and he'll
+be all right to-day.'  I prepared breakfast for the household, as was my
+usual custom, but told Hareton and Catherine to get theirs ere the master
+came down, for he lay late.  They preferred taking it out of doors, under
+the trees, and I set a little table to accommodate them.
+
+On my re-entrance, I found Mr. Heathcliff below.  He and Joseph were
+conversing about some farming business; he gave clear, minute directions
+concerning the matter discussed, but he spoke rapidly, and turned his
+head continually aside, and had the same excited expression, even more
+exaggerated.  When Joseph quitted the room he took his seat in the place
+he generally chose, and I put a basin of coffee before him.  He drew it
+nearer, and then rested his arms on the table, and looked at the opposite
+wall, as I supposed, surveying one particular portion, up and down, with
+glittering, restless eyes, and with such eager interest that he stopped
+breathing during half a minute together.
+
+'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.'
+
+He didn't notice me, and yet he smiled.  I'd rather have seen him gnash
+his teeth than smile so.
+
+'Mr. Heathcliff! master!' I cried, 'don't, for God's sake, stare as if
+you saw an unearthly vision.'
+
+'Don't, for God's sake, shout so loud,' he replied.  'Turn round, and
+tell me, are we by ourselves?'
+
+'Of course,' was my answer; 'of course we are.'
+
+Still, I involuntarily obeyed him, as if I was not quite sure.  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.
+
+Now, I perceived he was not looking at the wall; for when I regarded him
+alone, it seemed exactly that he gazed at something within two yards'
+distance.  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.  The fancied
+object was not fixed, either: his eyes pursued it with unwearied
+diligence, and, even in speaking to me, were never weaned away.  I vainly
+reminded him of his protracted abstinence from food: if he 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.
+
+I sat, a model of patience, trying to attract his absorbed attention from
+its engrossing speculation; till he grew irritable, and got up, asking
+why I would not allow him to have his own time in taking his meals? and
+saying that on the next occasion I needn't wait: I might set the things
+down and go.  Having uttered these words he left the house, slowly
+sauntered down the garden path, and disappeared through the gate.
+
+The hours crept anxiously by: another evening came.  I did not retire to
+rest till late, and when I did, I could not sleep.  He returned after
+midnight, and, instead of going to bed, shut himself into the room
+beneath.  I listened, and tossed about, and, finally, dressed and
+descended.  It was too irksome to lie there, harassing my brain with a
+hundred idle misgivings.
+
+I distinguished Mr. Heathcliff's step, restlessly measuring the floor,
+and he frequently broke the silence by a deep inspiration, resembling a
+groan.  He muttered detached words also; the only one I could catch was
+the name of Catherine, coupled with some wild term of endearment or
+suffering; and spoken as one would speak to a person present; low and
+earnest, and wrung from the depth of his soul.  I had not courage to walk
+straight into the apartment; but I desired to divert him from his
+reverie, and therefore fell foul of the kitchen fire, stirred it, and
+began to scrape the cinders.  It drew him forth sooner than I expected.
+He opened the door immediately, and said--'Nelly, come here--is it
+morning?  Come in with your light.'
+
+'It is striking four,' I answered.  'You want a candle to take up-stairs:
+you might have lit one at this fire.'
+
+'No, I don't wish to go up-stairs,' he said.  'Come in, and kindle _me_ a
+fire, and do anything there is to do about the room.'
+
+'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.
+
+'When day breaks I'll send for Green,' he said; 'I wish to make some
+legal inquiries of him while I can bestow a thought on those matters, and
+while I can act calmly.  I have not written my will yet; and how to leave
+my property I cannot determine.  I wish I could annihilate it from the
+face of the earth.'
+
+'I would not talk so, Mr. Heathcliff,' I interposed. '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.
+The way you've passed these three last days might knock up a Titan. Do
+take some food, and some repose. You need only look at yourself in a
+glass to see how you require both. Your cheeks are hollow, and your eyes
+blood-shot, like a person starving with hunger and going blind with loss
+of sleep.'
+
+'It is not my fault that I cannot eat or rest,' he replied.  'I assure
+you it is through no settled designs.  I'll do both, as soon as I
+possibly can.  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.  Well, never mind Mr. Green: as to repenting of my injustices,
+I've done no injustice, and I repent of nothing.  I'm too happy; and yet
+I'm not happy enough.  My soul's bliss kills my body, but does not
+satisfy itself.'
+
+'Happy, master?' I cried.  'Strange happiness!  If you would hear me
+without being angry, I might offer some advice that would make you
+happier.'
+
+'What is that?' he asked.  'Give it.'
+
+'You are aware, Mr. 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.  You
+must have forgotten the contents of the book, and you may not have space
+to search it now.  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.  It is to be carried to the
+churchyard in the evening.  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.--I tell you I have nearly attained _my_ heaven; and that of
+others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by me.'
+
+'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.  'How would you like it?'
+
+'They won't do that,' he replied: 'if they did, you must have me removed
+secretly; and if you neglect it you shall prove, practically, that the
+dead are not annihilated!'
+
+As soon as he heard the other members of the family stirring he retired
+to his den, and I breathed freer.  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 declined; telling him plainly that his strange talk and manner
+frightened me, and I had neither the nerve nor the will to be his
+companion alone.
+
+'I believe you think me a fiend,' he said, with his dismal laugh:
+'something too horrible to live under a decent roof.'  Then turning to
+Catherine, who was there, and who drew behind me at his approach, he
+added, half sneeringly,--'Will _you_ come, chuck?  I'll not hurt you.  No!
+to you I've made myself worse than the devil.  Well, there is _one_ who
+won't shrink from my company!  By God! she's relentless.  Oh, damn it!
+It's unutterably too much for flesh and blood to bear--even mine.'
+
+He solicited the society of no one more.  At dusk he went into his
+chamber.  Through the whole night, and far into the morning, we heard him
+groaning and murmuring to himself.  Hareton was anxious to enter; but I
+bid him fetch Mr. Kenneth, and he should go in and see him.  When he
+came, and I requested admittance and tried to open the door, I found it
+locked; and Heathcliff bid us be damned.  He was better, and would be
+left alone; so the doctor went away.
+
+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 cannot be in
+bed, I thought: those showers would drench him through.  He must either
+be up or out.  But I'll make no more ado, I'll go boldly and look.'
+
+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.  Mr. Heathcliff was there--laid on his back.  His eyes met
+mine so keen and fierce, I started; and then he seemed to smile.  I could
+not think him dead: but his face and throat were washed with rain; the
+bed-clothes dripped, and he was perfectly still.  The lattice, flapping
+to and fro, had grazed one hand that rested on the sill; no blood
+trickled from the broken skin, and when I put my fingers to it, I could
+doubt no more: he was dead and stark!
+
+I hasped the window; I combed his black long hair from his forehead; I
+tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful,
+life-like gaze of exultation before any one else beheld it. 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. Joseph shuffled up and made a noise, but
+resolutely refused to meddle with him.
+
+'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
+thought he intended to cut a caper round the bed; but suddenly composing
+himself, he fell on his knees, and raised his hands, and returned thanks
+that the lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their
+rights.
+
+I felt stunned by the awful event; and my memory unavoidably recurred to
+former times with a sort of oppressive sadness.  But poor Hareton, the
+most wronged, was the only one who really suffered much.  He sat by the
+corpse all night, weeping in bitter earnest.  He pressed its hand, and
+kissed the sarcastic, savage face that every one else shrank from
+contemplating; and bemoaned him with that strong grief which springs
+naturally from a generous heart, though it be tough as tempered steel.
+
+Mr. Kenneth was perplexed to pronounce of what disorder the master died.
+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.
+
+We buried him, to the scandal of the whole neighbourhood, as he wished.
+Earnshaw and I, the sexton, and six men to carry the coffin, comprehended
+the whole attendance.  The six men departed when they had let it down
+into the grave: we stayed to see it covered.  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.  But the country folks, if you ask them,
+would swear on the Bible that he _walks_: there are those who speak to
+having met him near the church, and on the moor, and even within this
+house.  Idle tales, you'll say, and so say I.  Yet that old man by the
+kitchen fire affirms he has seen two on 'em looking out of his chamber
+window on every rainy night since his death:--and an odd thing happened
+to me about a month ago.  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.
+
+'What is the matter, my little man?' I asked.
+
+'There's Heathcliff and a woman yonder, under t' nab,' he blubbered, 'un'
+I darnut pass 'em.'
+
+I saw nothing; but neither the sheep nor he would go on so I bid him take
+the road lower down.  He probably raised the phantoms from thinking, as
+he traversed the moors alone, on the nonsense he had heard his parents
+and companions repeat.  Yet, still, I don't like being out in the dark
+now; and I don't like being left by myself in this grim house: I cannot
+help it; I shall be glad when they leave it, and shift to the Grange.
+
+'They are going to the Grange, then?' I said.
+
+'Yes,' answered Mrs. Dean, 'as soon as they are married, and that will be
+on New Year's Day.'
+
+'And who will live here then?'
+
+'Why, Joseph will take care of the house, and, perhaps, a lad to keep him
+company.  They will live in the kitchen, and the rest will be shut up.'
+
+'For the use of such ghosts as choose to inhabit it?' I observed.
+
+'No, Mr. Lockwood,' said Nelly, shaking her head.  'I believe the dead
+are at peace: but it is not right to speak of them with levity.'
+
+At that moment the garden gate swung to; the ramblers were returning.
+
+'_They_ are afraid of nothing,' I grumbled, watching their approach
+through the window.  'Together, they would brave Satan and all his
+legions.'
+
+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. Dean, and disregarding her expostulations at my
+rudeness, I vanished through the kitchen as they opened the house-door;
+and so should have confirmed Joseph in his opinion of his
+fellow-servant's gay indiscretions, had he not fortunately recognised me
+for a respectable character by the sweet ring of a sovereign at his feet.
+
+My walk home was lengthened by a diversion in the direction of the kirk.
+When beneath its walls, I perceived decay had made progress, even in
+seven months: many a window showed black gaps deprived of glass; and
+slates jutted off here and there, beyond the right line of the roof, to
+be gradually worked off in coming autumn storms.
+
+I sought, and soon discovered, the three headstones on the slope next the
+moor: the 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.
+
+I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths
+fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind
+breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine
+unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.
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