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_ ON the morrow of that Monday, Earnshaw being still unable to follow
his ordinary employments, and therefore remaining about the house,
I speedily found it would be impracticable to retain my charge
beside me, as heretofore. She got downstairs before me, and out
into the garden, where she had seen her cousin performing some easy
work; and when I went to bid them come to breakfast, I saw she had
persuaded him to clear a large space of ground from currant and
gooseberry bushes, and they were busy planning together an
importation of plants from the Grange.
I was terrified at the devastation which had been accomplished in a
brief half-hour; the black-currant trees were the apple of Joseph's
eye, and she had just fixed her choice of a flower-bed in the midst
of them.
'There! That will be all shown to the master,' I exclaimed, 'the
minute it is discovered. And what excuse have you to offer for
taking such liberties with the garden? We shall have a fine
explosion on the head of it: see if we don't! Mr. Hareton, I
wonder you should have no more wit than to go and make that mess at
her bidding!'
'I'd forgotten they were Joseph's,' answered Earnshaw, rather
puzzled; 'but I'll tell him I did it.'
We always ate our meals with Mr. Heathcliff. I held the mistress's
post in making tea and carving; so I was indispensable at table.
Catherine usually sat by me, but to-day she stole nearer to
Hareton; and I presently saw she would have no more discretion in
her friendship than she had in her hostility.
'Now, mind you don't talk with and notice your cousin too much,'
were my whispered instructions as we entered the room. 'It will
certainly annoy Mr. Heathcliff, and he'll be mad at you both.'
'I'm not going to,' she answered.
The minute after, she had sidled to him, and was sticking primroses
in his plate of porridge.
He dared not speak to her there: he dared hardly look; and yet she
went on teasing, till he was twice on the point of being provoked
to laugh. I frowned, and then she glanced towards the master:
whose mind was occupied on other subjects than his company, as his
countenance evinced; and she grew serious for an instant,
scrutinizing him with deep gravity. Afterwards she turned, and
recommenced her nonsense; at last, Hareton uttered a smothered
laugh. Mr. Heathcliff started; his eye rapidly surveyed our faces,
Catherine met it with her accustomed look of nervousness and yet
defiance, which he abhorred.
'It is well you are out of my reach,' he exclaimed. 'What fiend
possesses you to stare back at me, continually, with those infernal
eyes? Down with them! and don't remind me of your existence again.
I thought I had cured you of laughing.'
'It was me,' muttered Hareton.
'What do you say?' demanded the master.
Hareton looked at his plate, and did not repeat the confession.
Mr. Heathcliff looked at him a bit, and then silently resumed his
breakfast and his interrupted musing. We had nearly finished, and
the two young people prudently shifted wider asunder, so I
anticipated no further disturbance during that sitting: when
Joseph appeared at the door, revealing by his quivering lip and
furious eyes that the outrage committed on his precious shrubs was
detected. He must have seen Cathy and her cousin about the spot
before he examined it, for while his jaws worked like those of a
cow chewing its cud, and rendered his speech difficult to
understand, he began:-
'I mun hev' my wage, and I mun goa! I HED aimed to dee wheare I'd
sarved fur sixty year; and I thowt I'd lug my books up into t'
garret, and all my bits o' stuff, and they sud hev' t' kitchen to
theirseln; for t' sake o' quietness. It wur hard to gie up my awn
hearthstun, but I thowt I COULD do that! But nah, shoo's taan my
garden fro' me, and by th' heart, maister, I cannot stand it! Yah
may bend to th' yoak an ye will - I noan used to 't, and an old man
doesn't sooin get used to new barthens. I'd rayther arn my bite
an' my sup wi' a hammer in th' road!'
'Now, now, idiot!' interrupted Heathcliff, 'cut it short! What's
your grievance? I'll interfere in no quarrels between you and
Nelly. She may thrust you into the coal-hole for anything I care.'
'It's noan Nelly!' answered Joseph. 'I sudn't shift for Nelly -
nasty ill nowt as shoo is. Thank God! SHOO cannot stale t' sowl o'
nob'dy! Shoo wer niver soa handsome, but what a body mud look at
her 'bout winking. It's yon flaysome, graceless quean, that's
witched our lad, wi' her bold een and her forrard ways - till -
Nay! it fair brusts my heart! He's forgotten all I've done for
him, and made on him, and goan and riven up a whole row o' t'
grandest currant-trees i' t' garden!' and here he lamented
outright; unmanned by a sense of his bitter injuries, and
Earnshaw's ingratitude and dangerous condition.
'Is the fool drunk?' asked Mr. Heathcliff. 'Hareton, is it you
he's finding fault with?'
'I've pulled up two or three bushes,' replied the young man; 'but
I'm going to set 'em again.'
'And why have you pulled them up?' said the master.
Catherine wisely put in her tongue.
'We wanted to plant some flowers there,' she cried. 'I'm the only
person to blame, for I wished him to do it.'
'And who the devil gave YOU leave to touch a stick about the
place?' demanded her father-in-law, much surprised. 'And who
ordered YOU to obey her?' he added, turning to Hareton.
The latter was speechless; his cousin replied - 'You shouldn't
grudge a few yards of earth for me to ornament, when you have taken
all my land!'
'Your land, insolent slut! You never had any,' said Heathcliff.
'And my money,' she continued; returning his angry glare, and
meantime biting a piece of crust, the remnant of her breakfast.
'Silence!' he exclaimed. 'Get done, and begone!'
'And Hareton's land, and his money,' pursued the reckless thing.
'Hareton and I are friends now; and I shall tell him all about
you!'
The master seemed confounded a moment: he grew pale, and rose up,
eyeing her all the while, with an expression of mortal hate.
'If you strike me, Hareton will strike you,' she said; 'so you may
as well sit down.'
'If Hareton does not turn you out of the room, I'll strike him to
hell,' thundered Heathcliff. 'Damnable witch! dare you pretend to
rouse him against me? Off with her! Do you hear? Fling her into
the kitchen! I'll kill her, Ellen Dean, if you let her come into
my sight again!'
Hareton tried, under his breath, to persuade her to go.
'Drag her away!' he cried, savagely. 'Are you staying to talk?'
And he approached to execute his own command.
'He'll not obey you, wicked man, any more,' said Catherine; 'and
he'll soon detest you as much as I do.'
'Wisht! wisht!' muttered the young man, reproachfully; 'I will not
hear you speak so to him. Have done.'
'But you won't let him strike me?' she cried.
'Come, then,' he whispered earnestly.
It was too late: Heathcliff had caught hold of her.
'Now, YOU go!' he said to Earnshaw. 'Accursed witch! this time she
has provoked me when I could not bear it; and I'll make her repent
it for ever!'
He had his hand in her hair; Hareton attempted to release her
looks, entreating him not to hurt her that once. Heathcliff's
black eyes flashed; he seemed ready to tear Catherine in pieces,
and I was just worked up to risk coming to the rescue, when of a
sudden his fingers relaxed; he shifted his grasp from her head to
her arm, and gazed intently in her face. Then he drew his hand
over his eyes, stood a moment to collect himself apparently, and
turning anew to Catherine, said, with assumed calmness - 'You must
learn to avoid putting me in a passion, or I shall really murder
you some time! Go with Mrs. Dean, and keep with her; and confine
your insolence to her ears. As to Hareton Earnshaw, if I see him
listen to you, I'll send him seeking his bread where he can get it!
Your love will make him an outcast and a beggar. Nelly, take her;
and leave me, all of you! Leave me!'
I led my young lady out: she was too glad of her escape to resist;
the other followed, and Mr. Heathcliff had the room to himself till
dinner. I had counselled Catherine to dine up-stairs; but, as soon
as he perceived her vacant seat, he sent me to call her. He spoke
to none of us, ate very little, and went out directly afterwards,
intimating that he should not return before evening.
The two new friends established themselves in the house during his
absence; where I heard Hareton sternly cheek his cousin, on her
offering a revelation of her father-in-law's conduct to his father.
He said he wouldn't suffer a word to be uttered in his
disparagement: if he were the devil, it didn't signify; he would
stand by him; and he'd rather she would abuse himself, as she used
to, than begin on Mr. Heathcliff. Catherine was waxing cross at
this; but he found means to make her hold her tongue, by asking how
she would like HIM to speak ill of her father? Then she
comprehended that Earnshaw took the master's reputation home to
himself; and was attached by ties stronger than reason could break
- chains, forged by habit, which it would be cruel to attempt to
loosen. She showed a good heart, thenceforth, in avoiding both
complaints and expressions of antipathy concerning Heathcliff; and
confessed to me her sorrow that she had endeavoured to raise a bad
spirit between him and Hareton: indeed, I don't believe she has
ever breathed a syllable, in the latter's hearing, against her
oppressor since.
When this slight disagreement was over, they were friends again,
and as busy as possible in their several occupations of pupil and
teacher. I came in to sit with them, after I had done my work; and
I felt so soothed and comforted to watch them, that I did not
notice how time got on. You know, they both appeared in a measure
my children: I had long been proud of one; and now, I was sure,
the other would be a source of equal satisfaction. His honest,
warm, and intelligent nature shook off rapidly the clouds of
ignorance and degradation in which it had been bred; and
Catherine's sincere commendations acted as a spur to his industry.
His brightening mind brightened his features, and added spirit and
nobility to their aspect: I could hardly fancy it the same
individual I had beheld on the day I discovered my little lady at
Wuthering Heights, after her expedition to the Crags. While I
admired and they laboured, dusk drew on, and with it returned the
master. He came upon us quite unexpectedly, entering by the front
way, and had a full view of the whole three, ere we could raise our
heads to glance at him. Well, I reflected, there was never a
pleasanter, or more harmless sight; and it will be a burning shame
to scold them. The red fire-light glowed on their two bonny heads,
and revealed their faces animated with the eager interest of
children; for, though he was twenty-three and she eighteen, each
had so much of novelty to feel and learn, that neither experienced
nor evinced the sentiments of sober disenchanted maturity.
They lifted their eyes together, to encounter Mr. Heathcliff:
perhaps you have never remarked that their eyes are precisely
similar, and they are those of Catherine Earnshaw. The present
Catherine has no other likeness to her, except a breadth of
forehead, and a certain arch of the nostril that makes her appear
rather haughty, whether she will or not. With Hareton the
resemblance is carried farther: it is singular at all times, THEN
it was particularly striking; because his senses were alert, and
his mental faculties wakened to unwonted activity. I suppose this
resemblance disarmed Mr. Heathcliff: he walked to the hearth in
evident agitation; but it quickly subsided as he looked at the
young man: or, I should say, altered its character; for it was
there yet. He took the book from his hand, and glanced at the open
page, then returned it without any observation; merely signing
Catherine away: her companion lingered very little behind her, and
I was about to depart also, but he bid me sit still.
'It is a poor conclusion, is it not?' he observed, having brooded
awhile on the scene he had just witnessed: 'an absurd termination
to my violent exertions? I get levers and mattocks to demolish the
two houses, and train myself to be capable of working like
Hercules, and when everything is ready and in my power, I find the
will to lift a slate off either roof has vanished! My old enemies
have not beaten me; now would be the precise time to revenge myself
on their representatives: I could do it; and none could hinder me.
But where is the use? I don't care for striking: I can't take the
trouble to raise my hand! That sounds as if I had been labouring
the whole time only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity. It is
far from being the case: I have lost the faculty of enjoying their
destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing.
'Nelly, there is a strange change approaching; I'm in its shadow at
present. I take so little interest in my daily life that I hardly
remember to eat and drink. Those two who have left the room are
the only objects which retain a distinct material appearance to me;
and that appearance causes me pain, amounting to agony. About HER
I won't speak; and I don't desire to think; but I earnestly wish
she were invisible: her presence invokes only maddening
sensations. HE moves me differently: and yet if I could do it
without seeming insane, I'd never see him again! You'll perhaps
think me rather inclined to become so,' he added, making an effort
to smile, 'if I try to describe the thousand forms of past
associations and ideas he awakens or embodies. But you'll not talk
of what I tell you; and my mind is so eternally secluded in itself,
it is tempting at last to turn it out to another.
'Five minutes ago Hareton seemed a personification of my youth, not
a human being; I felt to him in such a variety of ways, that it
would have been impossible to have accosted him rationally. In the
first place, his startling likeness to Catherine connected him
fearfully with her. That, however, which you may suppose the most
potent to arrest my imagination, is actually the least: for what
is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? I
cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in the
flags! In every cloud, in every tree - filling the air at night,
and caught by glimpses in every object by day - I am surrounded
with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women - my own
features - mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a
dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I
have lost her! Well, Hareton's aspect was the ghost of my immortal
love; of my wild endeavours to hold my right; my degradation, my
pride, my happiness, and my anguish -
'But it is frenzy to repeat these thoughts to you: only it will
let you know why, with a reluctance to be always alone, his society
is no benefit; rather an aggravation of the constant torment I
suffer: and it partly contributes to render me regardless how he
and his cousin go on together. I can give them no attention any
more.'
'But what do you mean by a CHANGE, Mr. Heathcliff?' I said, alarmed
at his manner: though he was neither in danger of losing his
senses, nor dying, according to my judgment: he was quite strong
and healthy; and, as to his reason, from childhood he had a delight
in dwelling on dark things, and entertaining odd fancies. He might
have had a monomania on the subject of his departed idol; but on
every other point his wits were as sound as mine.
'I shall not know that till it comes,' he said; 'I'm only half
conscious of it now.'
'You have no feeling of illness, have you?' I asked.
'No, Nelly, I have not,' he answered.
'Then you are not afraid of death?' I pursued.
'Afraid? No!' he replied. 'I have neither a fear, nor a
presentiment, nor a hope of death. Why should I? With my hard
constitution and temperate mode of living, and unperilous
occupations, I ought to, and probably SHALL, remain above ground
till there is scarcely a black hair on my head. And yet I cannot
continue in this condition! I have to remind myself to breathe -
almost to remind my heart to beat! And it is like bending back a
stiff spring: it is by compulsion that I do the slightest act not
prompted by one thought; and by compulsion that I notice anything
alive or dead, which is not associated with one universal idea. I
have a single wish, and my whole being and faculties are yearning
to attain it. They have yearned towards it so long, and so
unwaveringly, that I'm convinced it will be reached - and soon -
because it has devoured my existence: I am swallowed up in the
anticipation of its fulfilment. My confessions have not relieved
me; but they may account for some otherwise unaccountable phases of
humour which I show. O God! It is a long fight; I wish it were
over!'
He began to pace the room, muttering terrible things to himself,
till I was inclined to believe, as he said Joseph did, that
conscience had turned his heart to an earthly hell. I wondered
greatly how it would end. Though he seldom before had revealed
this state of mind, even by looks, it was his habitual mood, I had
no doubt: he asserted it himself; but not a soul, from his general
bearing, would have conjectured the fact. You did not when you saw
him, Mr. Lockwood: and at the period of which I speak, he was just
the same as then; only fonder of continued solitude, and perhaps
still more laconic in company. _
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