CHAPTER IX

________________________________________________
_ HE entered, vociferating oaths dreadful to hear; and caught me in
the act of stowing his son sway in the kitchen cupboard. Hareton
was impressed with a wholesome terror of encountering either his
wild beast's fondness or his madman's rage; for in one he ran a
chance of being squeezed and kissed to death, and in the other of
being flung into the fire, or dashed against the wall; and the poor
thing remained perfectly quiet wherever I chose to put him.

'There, I've found it out at last!' cried Hindley, pulling me back
by the skin of my neck, like a dog. 'By heaven and hell, you've
sworn between you to murder that child! I know how it is, now,
that he is always out of my way. But, with the help of Satan, I
shall make you swallow the carving-knife, Nelly! You needn't
laugh; for I've just crammed Kenneth, head-downmost, in the Black-
horse marsh; and two is the same as one - and I want to kill some
of you: I shall have no rest till I do!'

'But I don't like the carving-knife, Mr. Hindley,' I answered; 'it
has been cutting red herrings. I'd rather be shot, if you please.'

'You'd rather be damned!' he said; 'and so you shall. No law in
England can hinder a man from keeping his house decent, and mine's
abominable! Open your mouth.' He held the knife in his hand, and
pushed its point between my teeth: but, for my part, I was never
much afraid of his vagaries. I spat out, and affirmed it tasted
detestably - I would not take it on any account.

'Oh!' said he, releasing me, 'I see that hideous little villain is
not Hareton: I beg your pardon, Nell. If it be, he deserves
flaying alive for not running to welcome me, and for screaming as
if I were a goblin. Unnatural cub, come hither! I'll teach thee
to impose on a good-hearted, deluded father. Now, don't you think
the lad would be handsomer cropped? It makes a dog fiercer, and I
love something fierce - get me a scissors - something fierce and
trim! Besides, it's infernal affectation - devilish conceit it is,
to cherish our ears - we're asses enough without them. Hush,
child, hush! Well then, it is my darling! wisht, dry thy eyes -
there's a joy; kiss me. What! it won't? Kiss me, Hareton! Damn
thee, kiss me! By God, as if I would rear such a monster! As sure
as I'm living, I'll break the brat's neck.'

Poor Hareton was squalling and kicking in his father's arms with
all his might, and redoubled his yells when he carried him up-
stairs and lifted him over the banister. I cried out that he would
frighten the child into fits, and ran to rescue him. As I reached
them, Hindley leant forward on the rails to listen to a noise
below; almost forgetting what he had in his hands. 'Who is that?'
he asked, hearing some one approaching the stairs'-foot. I leant
forward also, for the purpose of signing to Heathcliff, whose step
I recognised, not to come further; and, at the instant when my eye
quitted Hareton, he gave a sudden spring, delivered himself from
the careless grasp that held him, and fell.

There was scarcely time to experience a thrill of horror before we
saw that the little wretch was safe. Heathcliff arrived underneath
just at the critical moment; by a natural impulse he arrested his
descent, and setting him on his feet, looked up to discover the
author of the accident. A miser who has parted with a lucky
lottery ticket for five shillings, and finds next day he has lost
in the bargain five thousand pounds, could not show a blanker
countenance than he did on beholding the figure of Mr. Earnshaw
above. It expressed, plainer than words could do, the intensest
anguish at having made himself the instrument of thwarting his own
revenge. Had it been dark, I daresay he would have tried to remedy
the mistake by smashing Hareton's skull on the steps; but, we
witnessed his salvation; and I was presently below with my precious
charge pressed to my heart. Hindley descended more leisurely,
sobered and abashed.

'It is your fault, Ellen,' he said; 'you should have kept him out
of sight: you should have taken him from me! Is he injured
anywhere?'

'Injured!' I cried angrily; 'if he is not killed, he'll be an
idiot! Oh! I wonder his mother does not rise from her grave to
see how you use him. You're worse than a heathen - treating your
own flesh and blood in that manner!' He attempted to touch the
child, who, on finding himself with me, sobbed off his terror
directly. At the first finger his father laid on him, however, he
shrieked again louder than before, and struggled as if he would go
into convulsions.

'You shall not meddle with him!' I continued. 'He hates you - they
all hate you - that's the truth! A happy family you have; and a
pretty state you're come to!'

'I shall come to a prettier, yet, Nelly,' laughed the misguided
man, recovering his hardness. 'At present, convey yourself and him
away. And hark you, Heathcliff! clear you too quite from my reach
and hearing. I wouldn't murder you to-night; unless, perhaps, I
set the house on fire: but that's as my fancy goes.'

While saying this he took a pint bottle of brandy from the dresser,
and poured some into a tumbler.

'Nay, don't!' I entreated. 'Mr. Hindley, do take warning. Have
mercy on this unfortunate boy, if you care nothing for yourself!'

'Any one will do better for him than I shall,' he answered.

'Have mercy on your own soul!' I said, endeavouring to snatch the
glass from his hand.

'Not I! On the contrary, I shall have great pleasure in sending it
to perdition to punish its Maker,' exclaimed the blasphemer.
'Here's to its hearty damnation!'

He drank the spirits and impatiently bade us go; terminating his
command with a sequel of horrid imprecations too bad to repeat or
remember.

'It's a pity he cannot kill himself with drink,' observed
Heathcliff, muttering an echo of curses back when the door was
shut. 'He's doing his very utmost; but his constitution defies
him. Mr. Kenneth says he would wager his mare that he'll outlive
any man on this side Gimmerton, and go to the grave a hoary sinner;
unless some happy chance out of the common course befall him.'

I went into the kitchen, and sat down to lull my little lamb to
sleep. Heathcliff, as I thought, walked through to the barn. It
turned out afterwards that he only got as far as the other side the
settle, when he flung himself on a bench by the wall, removed from
the fire and remained silent.

I was rocking Hareton on my knee, and humming a song that began, -

It was far in the night, and the bairnies grat,
The mither beneath the mools heard that,

when Miss Cathy, who had listened to the hubbub from her room, put
her head in, and whispered, - 'Are you alone, Nelly?'

'Yes, Miss,' I replied.

She entered and approached the hearth. I, supposing she was going
to say something, looked up. The expression of her face seemed
disturbed and anxious. Her lips were half asunder, as if she meant
to speak, and she drew a breath; but it escaped in a sigh instead
of a sentence. I resumed my song; not having forgotten her recent
behaviour.

'Where's Heathcliff?' she said, interrupting me.

'About his work in the stable,' was my answer.

He did not contradict me; perhaps he had fallen into a doze. There
followed another long pause, during which I perceived a drop or two
trickle from Catherine's cheek to the flags. Is she sorry for her
shameful conduct? - I asked myself. That will be a novelty: but
she may come to the point - as she will - I sha'n't help her! No,
she felt small trouble regarding any subject, save her own
concerns.

'Oh, dear!' she cried at last. 'I'm very unhappy!'

'A pity,' observed I. 'You're hard to please; so many friends and
so few cares, and can't make yourself content!'

'Nelly, will you keep a secret for me?' she pursued, kneeling down
by me, and lifting her winsome eyes to my face with that sort of
look which turns off bad temper, even when one has all the right in
the world to indulge it.

'Is it worth keeping?' I inquired, less sulkily.

'Yes, and it worries me, and I must let it out! I want to know
what I should do. To-day, Edgar Linton has asked me to marry him,
and I've given him an answer. Now, before I tell you whether it
was a consent or denial, you tell me which it ought to have been.'

'Really, Miss Catherine, how can I know?' I replied. 'To be sure,
considering the exhibition you performed in his presence this
afternoon, I might say it would be wise to refuse him: since he
asked you after that, he must either be hopelessly stupid or a
venturesome fool.'

'If you talk so, I won't tell you any more,' she returned,
peevishly rising to her feet. 'I accepted him, Nelly. Be quick,
and say whether I was wrong!'

'You accepted him! Then what good is it discussing the matter?
You have pledged your word, and cannot retract.'

'But say whether I should have done so - do!' she exclaimed in an
irritated tone; chafing her hands together, and frowning.

'There are many things to be considered before that question can be
answered properly,' I said, sententiously. 'First and foremost, do
you love Mr. Edgar?'

'Who can help it? Of course I do,' she answered.

Then I put her through the following catechism: for a girl of
twenty-two it was not injudicious.

'Why do you love him, Miss Cathy?'

'Nonsense, I do - that's sufficient.'

'By no means; you must say why?'

'Well, because he is handsome, and pleasant to be with.'

'Bad!' was my commentary.

'And because he is young and cheerful.'

'Bad, still.'

'And because he loves me.'

'Indifferent, coming there.'

'And he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman of
the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of having such a husband.'

'Worst of all. And now, say how you love him?'

'As everybody loves - You're silly, Nelly.'

'Not at all - Answer.'

'I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and
everything he touches, and every word he says. I love all his
looks, and all his actions, and him entirely and altogether. There
now!'

'And why?'

'Nay; you are making a jest of it: it is exceedingly ill-natured!
It's no jest to me!' said the young lady, scowling, and turning her
face to the fire.

'I'm very far from jesting, Miss Catherine,' I replied. 'You love
Mr. Edgar because he is handsome, and young, and cheerful, and
rich, and loves you. The last, however, goes for nothing: you
would love him without that, probably; and with it you wouldn't,
unless he possessed the four former attractions.'

'No, to be sure not: I should only pity him - hate him, perhaps,
if he were ugly, and a clown.'

'But there are several other handsome, rich young men in the world:
handsomer, possibly, and richer than he is. What should hinder you
from loving them?'

'If there be any, they are out of my way: I've seen none like
Edgar.'

'You may see some; and he won't always be handsome, and young, and
may not always be rich.'

'He is now; and I have only to do with the present. I wish you
would speak rationally.'

'Well, that settles it: if you have only to do with the present,
marry Mr. Linton.'

'I don't want your permission for that - I SHALL marry him: and
yet you have not told me whether I'm right.'

'Perfectly right; if people be right to marry only for the present.
And now, let us hear what you are unhappy about. Your brother will
be pleased; the old lady and gentleman will not object, I think;
you will escape from a disorderly, comfortless home into a wealthy,
respectable one; and you love Edgar, and Edgar loves you. All
seems smooth and easy: where is the obstacle?'

'HERE! and HERE!' replied Catherine, striking one hand on her
forehead, and the other on her breast: 'in whichever place the
soul lives. In my soul and in my heart, I'm convinced I'm wrong!'

'That's very strange! I cannot make it out.'

'It's my secret. But if you will not mock at me, I'll explain it:
I can't do it distinctly; but I'll give you a feeling of how I
feel.'

She seated herself by me again: her countenance grew sadder and
graver, and her clasped hands trembled.

'Nelly, do you never dream queer dreams?' she said, suddenly, after
some minutes' reflection.

'Yes, now and then,' I answered.

'And so do I. I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with
me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and
through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my
mind. And this is one: I'm going to tell it - but take care not
to smile at any part of it.'

'Oh! don't, Miss Catherine!' I cried. 'We're dismal enough without
conjuring up ghosts and visions to perplex us. Come, come, be
merry and like yourself! Look at little Hareton! HE'S dreaming
nothing dreary. How sweetly he smiles in his sleep!'

'Yes; and how sweetly his father curses in his solitude! You
remember him, I daresay, when he was just such another as that
chubby thing: nearly as young and innocent. However, Nelly, I
shall oblige you to listen: it's not long; and I've no power to be
merry to-night.'

'I won't hear it, I won't hear it!' I repeated, hastily.

I was superstitious about dreams then, and am still; and Catherine
had an unusual gloom in her aspect, that made me dread something
from which I might shape a prophecy, and foresee a fearful
catastrophe. She was vexed, but she did not proceed. Apparently
taking up another subject, she recommenced in a short time.

'If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely miserable.'

'Because you are not fit to go there,' I answered. 'All sinners
would be miserable in heaven.'

'But it is not for that. I dreamt once that I was there.'

'I tell you I won't hearken to your dreams, Miss Catherine! I'll
go to bed,' I interrupted again.

She laughed, and held me down; for I made a motion to leave my
chair.

'This is nothing,' cried she: 'I was only going to say that heaven
did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to
come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me
out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights;
where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret,
as well as the other. I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton
than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not
brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It
would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know
how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but
because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made
of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a
moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.'

Ere this speech ended I became sensible of Heathcliff's presence.
Having noticed a slight movement, I turned my head, and saw him
rise from the bench, and steal out noiselessly. He had listened
till he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him, and
then he stayed to hear no further. My companion, sitting on the
ground, was prevented by the back of the settle from remarking his
presence or departure; but I started, and bade her hush!

'Why?' she asked, gazing nervously round.

'Joseph is here,' I answered, catching opportunely the roll of his
cartwheels up the road; 'and Heathcliff will come in with him. I'm
not sure whether he were not at the door this moment.'

'Oh, he couldn't overhear me at the door!' said she. 'Give me
Hareton, while you get the supper, and when it is ready ask me to
sup with you. I want to cheat my uncomfortable conscience, and be
convinced that Heathcliff has no notion of these things. He has
not, has he? He does not know what being in love is!'

'I see no reason that he should not know, as well as you,' I
returned; 'and if you are his choice, he'll be the most unfortunate
creature that ever was born! As soon as you become Mrs. Linton, he
loses friend, and love, and all! Have you considered how you'll
bear the separation, and how he'll bear to be quite deserted in the
world? Because, Miss Catherine - '

'He quite deserted! we separated!' she exclaimed, with an accent of
indignation. 'Who is to separate us, pray? They'll meet the fate
of Milo! Not as long as I live, Ellen: for no mortal creature.
Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing
before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff. Oh, that's not what
I intend - that's not what I mean! I shouldn't be Mrs. Linton were
such a price demanded! He'll be as much to me as he has been all
his lifetime. Edgar must shake off his antipathy, and tolerate
him, at least. He will, when he learns my true feelings towards
him. Nelly, I see now you think me a selfish wretch; but did it
never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be
beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to rise,
and place him out of my brother's power.'

'With your husband's money, Miss Catherine?' I asked. 'You'll find
him not so pliable as you calculate upon: and, though I'm hardly a
judge, I think that's the worst motive you've given yet for being
the wife of young Linton.'

'It is not,' retorted she; 'it is the best! The others were the
satisfaction of my whims: and for Edgar's sake, too, to satisfy
him. This is for the sake of one who comprehends in his person my
feelings to Edgar and myself. I cannot express it; but surely you
and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence
of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were
entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been
Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the
beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else
perished, and HE remained, I should still continue to be; and if
all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn
to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. - My love
for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it,
I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for
Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little
visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He's
always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am
always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of
our separation again: it is impracticable; and - '

She paused, and hid her face in the folds of my gown; but I jerked
it forcibly away. I was out of patience with her folly!

'If I can make any sense of your nonsense, Miss,' I said, 'it only
goes to convince me that you are ignorant of the duties you
undertake in marrying; or else that you are a wicked, unprincipled
girl. But trouble me with no more secrets: I'll not promise to
keep them.'

'You'll keep that?' she asked, eagerly.

'No, I'll not promise,' I repeated.

She was about to insist, when the entrance of Joseph finished our
conversation; and Catherine removed her seat to a corner, and
nursed Hareton, while I made the supper. After it was cooked, my
fellow-servant and I began to quarrel who should carry some to Mr.
Hindley; and we didn't settle it till all was nearly cold. Then we
came to the agreement that we would let him ask, if he wanted any;
for we feared particularly to go into his presence when he had been
some time alone.

'And how isn't that nowt comed in fro' th' field, be this time?
What is he about? girt idle seeght!' demanded the old man, looking
round for Heathcliff.

'I'll call him,' I replied. 'He's in the barn, I've no doubt.'

I went and called, but got no answer. On returning, I whispered to
Catherine that he had heard a good part of what she said, I was
sure; and told how I saw him quit the kitchen just as she
complained of her brother's conduct regarding him. She jumped up
in a fine fright, flung Hareton on to the settle, and ran to seek
for her friend herself; not taking leisure to consider why she was
so flurried, or how her talk would have affected him. She was
absent such a while that Joseph proposed we should wait no longer.
He cunningly conjectured they were staying away in order to avoid
hearing his protracted blessing. They were 'ill eneugh for ony
fahl manners,' he affirmed. And on their behalf he added that
night a special prayer to the usual quarter-of-an-hour's
supplication before meat, and would have tacked another to the end
of the grace, had not his young mistress broken in upon him with a
hurried command that he must run down the road, and, wherever
Heathcliff had rambled, find and make him re-enter directly!

'I want to speak to him, and I MUST, before I go upstairs,' she
said. 'And the gate is open: he is somewhere out of hearing; for
he would not reply, though I shouted at the top of the fold as loud
as I could.'

Joseph objected at first; she was too much in earnest, however, to
suffer contradiction; and at last he placed his hat on his head,
and walked grumbling forth. Meantime, Catherine paced up and down
the floor, exclaiming - 'I wonder where he is - I wonder where he
can be! What did I say, Nelly? I've forgotten. Was he vexed at
my bad humour this afternoon? Dear! tell me what I've said to
grieve him? I do wish he'd come. I do wish he would!'

'What a noise for nothing!' I cried, though rather uneasy myself.
'What a trifle scares you! It's surely no great cause of alarm
that Heathcliff should take a moonlight saunter on the moors, or
even lie too sulky to speak to us in the hay-loft. I'll engage
he's lurking there. See if I don't ferret him out!'

I departed to renew my search; its result was disappointment, and
Joseph's quest ended in the same.

'Yon lad gets war und war!' observed he on re-entering. 'He's left
th' gate at t' full swing, and Miss's pony has trodden dahn two
rigs o' corn, and plottered through, raight o'er into t' meadow!
Hahsomdiver, t' maister 'ull play t' devil to-morn, and he'll do
weel. He's patience itsseln wi' sich careless, offald craters -
patience itsseln he is! Bud he'll not be soa allus - yah's see,
all on ye! Yah mun'n't drive him out of his heead for nowt!'

'Have you found Heathcliff, you ass?' interrupted Catherine. 'Have
you been looking for him, as I ordered?'

'I sud more likker look for th' horse,' he replied. 'It 'ud be to
more sense. Bud I can look for norther horse nur man of a neeght
loike this - as black as t' chimbley! und Heathcliff's noan t' chap
to coom at MY whistle - happen he'll be less hard o' hearing wi'
YE!'

It WAS a very dark evening for summer: the clouds appeared
inclined to thunder, and I said we had better all sit down; the
approaching rain would be certain to bring him home without further
trouble. However, Catherine would hot 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 any
longer on that foolish boy: he'll be gone to Gimmerton, and he'll
stay there now. He guesses we shouldn't wait for him till this
late hour: at least, he guesses that only Mr. Hindley would be up;
and he'd rather avoid having the door opened by the master.'

'Nay, nay, he's noan at Gimmerton,' said Joseph. 'I's niver wonder
but he's at t' bothom of a bog-hoile. This visitation worn't for
nowt, and I wod hev' ye to look out, Miss - yah muh be t' next.
Thank Hivin for all! All warks togither for gooid to them as is
chozzen, and piked out fro' th' rubbidge! Yah knaw whet t'
Scripture ses.' And he began quoting several texts, referring us
to chapters and verses where we might find them.

I, having vainly begged the wilful girl to rise and remove her wet
things, left him preaching and her shivering, and betook myself to
bed with little Hareton, who slept as fast as if everyone had been
sleeping round him. I heard Joseph read on a while afterwards;
then I distinguished his slow step on the ladder, and then I
dropped asleep.

Coming down somewhat later than usual, I saw, by the sunbeams
piercing the chinks of the shutters, Miss Catherine still seated
near the fireplace. The house-door was ajar, too; light entered
from its unclosed windows; Hindley had come out, and stood on the
kitchen hearth, haggard and drowsy.

'What ails you, Cathy?' he was saying when I entered: 'you look as
dismal as a drowned whelp. Why are you so damp and pale, child?'

'I've been wet,' she answered reluctantly, 'and I'm cold, that's
all.'

'Oh, she is naughty!' I cried, perceiving the master to be
tolerably sober. 'She got steeped in the shower of yesterday
evening, and there she has sat the night through, and I couldn't
prevail on her to stir.'

Mr. Earnshaw stared at us in surprise. 'The night through,' he
repeated. 'What kept her up? not fear of the thunder, surely?
That was over hours since.'

Neither of us wished to mention Heathcliff's absence, as long as we
could conceal it; so I replied, I didn't know how she took it into
her head to sit up; and she said nothing. The morning was fresh
and cool; I threw back the lattice, and presently the room filled
with sweet scents from the garden; but Catherine called peevishly
to me, 'Ellen, shut the window. I'm starving!' And her teeth
chattered as she shrank closer to the almost extinguished embers.

'She's ill,' said Hindley, taking her wrist; 'I suppose that's the
reason she would not go to bed. Damn it! I don't want to be
troubled with more sickness here. What took you into the rain?'

'Running after t' lads, as usuald!' croaked Joseph, catching an
opportunity from our hesitation to thrust in his evil tongue. 'If
I war yah, maister, I'd just slam t' boards i' their faces all on
'em, gentle and simple! Never a day ut yah're off, but yon cat o'
Linton comes sneaking hither; and Miss Nelly, shoo's a fine lass!
shoo sits watching for ye i' t' kitchen; and as yah're in at one
door, he's out at t'other; and, then, wer grand lady goes a-
courting of her side! It's bonny behaviour, lurking amang t'
fields, after twelve o' t' night, wi' that fahl, flaysome divil of
a gipsy, Heathcliff! They think I'M blind; but I'm noan: nowt ut
t' soart! - I seed young Linton boath coming and going, and I seed
YAH' (directing his discourse to me), 'yah gooid fur nowt,
slattenly witch! nip up and bolt into th' house, t' minute yah
heard t' maister's horse-fit clatter up t' road.'

'Silence, eavesdropper!' cried Catherine; 'none of your insolence
before me! Edgar Linton came yesterday by chance, Hindley; and it
was I who told him to be off: because I knew you would not like to
have met him as you were.'

'You lie, Cathy, no doubt,' answered her brother, 'and you are a
confounded simpleton! But never mind Linton at present: tell me,
were you not with Heathcliff last night? Speak the truth, now.
You need not he afraid of harming him: though I hate him as much
as ever, he did me a good turn a short time since that will make my
conscience tender of breaking his neck. To prevent it, I shall
send him about his business this very morning; and after he's gone,
I'd advise you all to look sharp: I shall only have the more
humour for you.'

'I never saw Heathcliff last night,' answered Catherine, beginning
to sob bitterly: 'and if you do turn him out of doors, I'll go
with him. But, perhaps, you'll never have an opportunity:
perhaps, he's gone.' Here she burst into uncontrollable grief, and
the remainder of her words were inarticulate.

Hindley lavished on her a torrent of scornful abuse, and bade her
get to her room immediately, or she shouldn't cry for nothing! I
obliged her to obey; and I shall never forget what a scene she
acted when we reached her chamber: it terrified me. I thought she
was going mad, and I begged Joseph to run for the doctor. It
proved the commencement of delirium: Mr. Kenneth, as soon as he
saw her, pronounced her dangerously ill; she had a fever. He bled
her, and he told me to let her live on whey and water-gruel, and
take care she did not throw herself downstairs or out of the
window; and then he left: for he had enough to do in the parish,
where two or three miles was the ordinary distance between cottage
and cottage.

Though I cannot say I made a gentle nurse, and Joseph and the
master were no better, and though our patient was as wearisome and
headstrong as a patient could be, she weathered it through. Old
Mrs. Linton paid us several visits, to be sure, and set things to
rights, and scolded and ordered us all; and when Catherine was
convalescent, she insisted on conveying her to Thrushcross Grange:
for which deliverance we were very grateful. But the poor dame had
reason to repent of her kindness: she and her husband both took
the fever, and died within a few days of each other.

Our young lady returned to us saucier and more passionate, and
haughtier than ever. Heathcliff had never been heard of since the
evening of the thunder-storm; and, one day, I had the misfortune,
when she had provoked me exceedingly, to lay the blame of his
disappearance on her: where indeed it belonged, as she well knew.
From that period, for several months, she ceased to hold any
communication with me, save in the relation of a mere servant.
Joseph fell under a ban also: he would speak his mind, and lecture
her all the same as if she were a little girl; and she esteemed
herself a woman, and our mistress, and thought that her recent
illness gave her a claim to be treated with consideration. Then
the doctor had said that she would not bear crossing much; she
ought to have her own way; and it was nothing less than murder in
her eyes for any one to presume to stand up and contradict her.
From Mr. Earnshaw and his companions she kept aloof; and tutored by
Kenneth, and serious threats of a fit that often attended her
rages, her brother allowed her whatever she pleased to demand, and
generally avoided aggravating her fiery temper. He was rather too
indulgent in humouring her caprices; not from affection, but from
pride: he wished earnestly to see her bring honour to the family
by an alliance with the Lintons, and as long as she let him alone
she might trample on us like slaves, for aught he cared! Edgar
Linton, as multitudes have been before and will be after him, was
infatuated: and believed himself the happiest man alive on the day
he led her to Gimmerton Chapel, three years subsequent to his
father's death.

Much against my inclination, I was persuaded to leave Wuthering
Heights and accompany her here, Little Hareton was nearly five
years old, and I had just begun to teach him his letters. We made
a sad parting; but Catherine's tears were more powerful than ours.
When I refused to go, and when she found her entreaties did not
move me, she went lamenting to her husband and brother. The former
offered me munificent wages; the latter ordered me to pack up: he
wanted no women in the house, he said, now that there was no
mistress; and as to Hareton, the curate should take him in hand,
by-and-by. And so I had but one choice left: to do as I was
ordered. I told the master he got rid of all decent people only to
run to ruin a little faster; I kissed Hareton, said good-by; and
since then he has been a stranger: and it's very queer to think
it, but I've no doubt he has completely forgotten all about Ellen
Dean, and that he was ever more than all the world to her and she
to him!

At this point of the housekeeper's story she chanced to glance
towards the time-piece over the chimney; and was in amazement on
seeing the minute-hand measure half-past one. She would not hear
of staying a second longer: in truth, I felt rather disposed to
defer the sequel of her narrative myself. And now that she is
vanished to her rest, and I have meditated for another hour or two,
I shall summon courage to go also, in spite of aching laziness of
head and limbs. _

Read next: CHAPTER X

Read previous: CHAPTER VIII

Table of content of Wuthering Heights


GO TO TOP OF SCREEN

Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book