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_ 'THESE things happened last winter, sir,' said Mrs. Dean; 'hardly
more than a year ago. Last winter, I did not think, at another
twelve months' end, I should be amusing a stranger to the family
with relating them! Yet, who knows how long you'll be a stranger?
You're too young to rest always contented, living by yourself; and
I some way fancy no one could see Catherine Linton and not love
her. You smile; but why do you look so lively and interested when
I talk about her? and why have you asked me to hang her picture
over your fireplace? and why - ?'
'Stop, my good friend!' I cried. 'It may be very possible that I
should love her; but would she love me? I doubt it too much to
venture my tranquillity by running into temptation: and then my
home is not here. I'm of the busy world, and to its arms I must
return. Go on. Was Catherine obedient to her father's commands?'
'She was,' continued the housekeeper. 'Her affection for him was
still the chief sentiment in her heart; and he spoke without anger:
he spoke in the deep tenderness of one about to leave his treasure
amid perils and foes, where his remembered words would be the only
aid that he could bequeath to guide her. He said to me, a few days
afterwards, "I wish my nephew would write, Ellen, or call. Tell
me, sincerely, what you think of him: is he changed for the
better, or is there a prospect of improvement, as he grows a man?"
'"He's very delicate, sir," I replied; "and scarcely likely to
reach manhood: but this I can say, he does not resemble his
father; and if Miss Catherine had the misfortune to marry him, he
would not be beyond her control: unless she were extremely and
foolishly indulgent. However, master, you'll have plenty of time
to get acquainted with him and see whether he would suit her: it
wants four years and more to his being of age."'
Edgar sighed; and, walking to the window, looked out towards
Gimmerton Kirk. It was a misty afternoon, but the February sun
shone dimly, and we could just distinguish the two fir-trees in the
yard, and the sparely-scattered gravestones.
'I've prayed often,' he half soliloquised, 'for the approach of
what is coming; and now I begin to shrink, and fear it. I thought
the memory of the hour I came down that glen a bridegroom would be
less sweet than the anticipation that I was soon, in a few months,
or, possibly, weeks, to be carried up, and laid in its lonely
hollow! Ellen, I've been very happy with my little Cathy: through
winter nights and summer days she was a living hope at my side.
But I've been as happy musing by myself among those stones, under
that old church: lying, through the long June evenings, on the
green mound of her mother's grave, and wishing - yearning for the
time when I might lie beneath it. What can I do for Cathy? How
must I quit her? I'd not care one moment for Linton being
Heathcliff's son; nor for his taking her from me, if he could
console her for my loss. I'd not care that Heathcliff gained his
ends, and triumphed in robbing me of my last blessing! But should
Linton be unworthy - only a feeble tool to his father - I cannot
abandon her to him! And, hard though it be to crush her buoyant
spirit, I must persevere in making her sad while I live, and
leaving her solitary when I die. Darling! I'd rather resign her
to God, and lay her in the earth before me.'
'Resign her to God as it is, sir,' I answered, 'and if we should
lose you - which may He forbid - under His providence, I'll stand
her friend and counsellor to the last. Miss Catherine is a good
girl: I don't fear that she will go wilfully wrong; and people who
do their duty are always finally rewarded.'
Spring advanced; yet my master gathered no real strength, though he
resumed his walks in the grounds with his daughter. To her
inexperienced notions, this itself was a sign of convalescence; and
then his cheek was often flushed, and his eyes were bright; she
felt sure of his recovering. On her seventeenth birthday, he did
not visit the churchyard: it was raining, and I observed - 'You'll
surely not go out to-night, sir?'
He answered, - 'No, I'll defer it this year a little longer.' He
wrote again to Linton, expressing his great desire to see him; and,
had the invalid been presentable, I've no doubt his father would
have permitted him to come. As it was, being instructed, he
returned an answer, intimating that Mr. Heathcliff objected to his
calling at the Grange; but his uncle's kind remembrance delighted
him, and he hoped to meet him sometimes in his rambles, and
personally to petition that his cousin and he might not remain long
so utterly divided.
That part of his letter was simple, and probably his own.
Heathcliff knew he could plead eloquently for Catherine's company,
then.
'I do not ask,' he said, 'that she may visit here; but am I never
to see her, because my father forbids me to go to her home, and you
forbid her to come to mine? Do, now and then, ride with her
towards the Heights; and let us exchange a few words, in your
presence! We have done nothing to deserve this separation; and you
are not angry with me: you have no reason to dislike me, you
allow, yourself. Dear uncle! send me a kind note to-morrow, and
leave to join you anywhere you please, except at Thrushcross
Grange. I believe an interview would convince you that my father's
character is not mine: he affirms I am more your nephew than his
son; and though I have faults which render me unworthy of
Catherine, she has excused them, and for her sake, you should also.
You inquire after my health - it is better; but while I remain cut
off from all hope, and doomed to solitude, or the society of those
who never did and never will like me, how can I be cheerful and
well?'
Edgar, though he felt for the boy, could not consent to grant his
request; because he could not accompany Catherine. He said, in
summer, perhaps, they might meet: meantime, he wished him to
continue writing at intervals, and engaged to give him what advice
and comfort he was able by letter; being well aware of his hard
position in his family. Linton complied; and had he been
unrestrained, would probably have spoiled all by filling his
epistles with complaints and lamentations. but his father kept a
sharp watch over him; and, of course, insisted on every line that
my master sent being shown; so, instead of penning his peculiar
personal sufferings and distresses, the themes constantly uppermost
in his thoughts, he harped on the cruel obligation of being held
asunder from his friend and love; and gently intimated that Mr.
Linton must allow an interview soon, or he should fear he was
purposely deceiving him with empty promises.
Cathy was a powerful ally at home; and between them they at length
persuaded my master to acquiesce in their having a ride or a walk
together about once a week, under my guardianship, and on the moors
nearest the Grange: for June found him still declining. Though he
had set aside yearly a portion of his income for my young lady's
fortune, he had a natural desire that she might retain - or at
least return in a short time to - the house of her ancestors; and
he considered her only prospect of doing that was by a union with
his heir; he had no idea that the latter was failing almost as fast
as himself; nor had any one, I believe: no doctor visited the
Heights, and no one saw Master Heathcliff to make report of his
condition among us. I, for my part, began to fancy my forebodings
were false, and that he must be actually rallying, when he
mentioned riding and walking on the moors, and seemed so earnest in
pursuing his object. I could not picture a father treating a dying
child as tyrannically and wickedly as I afterwards learned
Heathcliff had treated him, to compel this apparent eagerness: his
efforts redoubling the more imminently his avaricious and unfeeling
plans were threatened with defeat by death. _
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