APDL Eductation Resources/APDL Eductation Resources.iso/text/books/wuth_heigh/CHAP_1_11

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                WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte.

                        CHAPTER I.


l80l. - 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 sympathizing 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 soliloquized 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 step 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 underdrawn; 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 armchair, 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 underbred 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--shrank 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 roused 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 dispatch. 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 loath 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 tomorrow. 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 daytime. I don't care; I will get
in!" So resolved, I grasped the latch and shook it ve hemently.
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 ot' 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 who 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 snowstorm 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 th' 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 everyday 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 decling 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
neutralized, 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 'em's 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 munn'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 plough-boy 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. O 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 no 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 flre 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 dairy woman'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 prophesy 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 Jabes Branderham, in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough."
And while I was, half consciously, worrying my brain to guess what Jabes
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 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
Jabes 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, Jabes 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 grew! 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 Jabes 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. - Fellowmartyrs, 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 Jabes, 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 Jabes'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, icecold 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 gripe, 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
Jabes 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 those 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
incon sideration; 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 toilet rather noisily,
looked at my watch, and soliloquized 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 downstairs 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, gray 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 orisons, 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 over-forwardly 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 to 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 hallooed 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 hillback 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, exceptiog 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 adieus 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
upstairs; whence, after putting on dry clothes, and pacing to and fro
thirty or forty minutes, to restore the animal heat, I am adjourned to
my study, feeble as a kitten - almost too much so to enjoy the cheerful
fire and smoking coffee which the servant has prepared for my
refreshment.

                        CHAPTER IV.


What vain weather-cocks 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 thenl"

     "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 recognize
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 - cose-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
side, 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 further
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
downstairs, 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 greatcoat, 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 be 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 greatcoat, 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 sympathized 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 ideas. 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 I not
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 dare say, up
yonder. He was, and is yet most likely, the wearisomest selfrighteous
Pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and
fling the curses to his neighbours. By his knack of sermonizing 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 downstairs 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 shopping 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
fireside. 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 upstairs,
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 laid 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 gossipping 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 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 sympathize 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 fire-place, 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 unneccessary 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 afterpunishment 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 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 will
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 man-servant, 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 you 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 sister had it
entirely to themselves; shouldn't they have been happy?  We should have
thought ourselves in heaven!  And new, 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, 'O mamma, mamma! O papa! O mamma, come here. O 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 recognize 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 gray cloak of the dairymaid 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
manners, 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 selfrespect 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
dare 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 away 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 head foremost 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 newcomer, 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 upstairs. 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 reappearing 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 dare say. 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 desert,
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
gripe - 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 dish-cloth, 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 per severed, 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 littie, 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 wrapt 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
upstairs? 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 countryside; she
had no peer, and she did turn out a haughty, headstrong creature! I own
I did not like her after her 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 won drous 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 softfeatured 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 housekeeper. "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 shrank 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 sympathized 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
acquaintance.

     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 dinner-time. 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 Peniston Crag; 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 almanac 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 summons he 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, "O 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 thought lessly 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 Blackhorse 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 upstairs 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 stair's foot. I leant forward also, for the purpose of
signing to Heathcliff, whose step I recognized, not to come farther;
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 dare say 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's 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 shan'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 dare say, 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 tonight."

     "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
cart-wheels 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. Mean time, 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 un war!" observed he on re-entering. "He's left
th' yate 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 munn'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 shawl-less 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 longer on
that foolish boy. He'll be gone to Gimmerton, and he'll stay there now.
He guesses we shouldn't wake 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 every one 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-coorting 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" (di recting 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 thunderstorm; 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 ride to ruin a little faster. I kissed
Hareton, said good-bye, 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 timepiece 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 sympathizing 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 no ticed,
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 any one particular." Ere long I heard the click
of the latch, and Catherine flew upstairs, breathless and wild, too
excited to show gladness; indeed, by her face, you would rather have
surmised an awful calamity.

     "O Edgar, Edgar!" she panted, flinging her arms round his neck. "O
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 trans formation 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 halfcivilized 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 too 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, shan'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 any one'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 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 idiocy. 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, yah 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 Heath cliff, 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 sundown; dice, brandy, cloised shutters, un can'le-light till next
day at noon; then, t' fooil gangs banning un 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 worldl"

     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 shan'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 dispatched 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 the 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 gray 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 Hind ley!" 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 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 Ieft 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 recognized
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 shan'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. lf 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 re-    stored 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 have 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 downl"

     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.

     "O 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 a king would march his army against a
colony of mice. Cheer up; you shan'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 second thoughts,
resolved to avoid a struggle against the 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
upstairs. 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 pos sessed 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 any one, 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 farther 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.