Chapter 1

1801. I have just returned from a visit to my
landlord the solitary neighbour that I shall be
troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful
country! In all England, I do not believe that I
could have fixed on a situation so
completely removed from the stir of society.
A perfect misanthropist's heaven: and Mr.
Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to
divide the desolation between us. A capital
fellow! He little imagined how my heart
warmed towards him when I beheld his
black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under
their brows, as I rode up, and when his
fingers sheltered themselves, with a
jealous resolution, still further in his
waistcoat, as I announced my name.

'Mr. Heathcliff?' I said.

A nod was the answer.

'Mr. Lockwood, your new tenant, sir. I do
myself the honour of calling as soon as
possible after my arrival, to express the
hope that I have not inconvenienced you by
my perseverance in soliciting the
occupation of Thrushcross Grange: I heard
yesterday you had had some thoughts '

'Thrushcross Grange is my own, sir,' he
interrupted, wincing. 'I should not allow any
one to inconvenience me, if I could hinder it
walk in!'

-1-

it strong: the narrow windows are deeply set
in the wall, and the corners defended with
large jutting stones.

Before passing the threshold, I paused to
admire a quantity of grotesque carving
lavished over the front, and especially about
the principal door; above which, among a
wilderness of crumbling griffins and
shameless little boys, I detected the date
'1500,' and the name 'Hareton Earnshaw.' I
would have made a few comments, and
requested a short history of the place from
the surly owner; but his attitude at the door
appeared to demand my speedy entrance,
or complete departure, and I had no desire
to aggravate his impatience previous to
inspecting the penetralium.

One stop brought us into the family sitting-
room, without any introductory lobby or
passage: they call it here 'the house' pre
eminently. It includes kitchen and parlour,
generally; but I believe at Wuthering Heights
the kitchen is forced to retreat altogether
into another quarter: at least I distinguished
a chatter of tongues, and a clatter of culinary
utensils, deep within; and I observed no
signs of roasting, boiling, or baking, about
the huge fireplace; nor any glitter of copper
saucepans and tin cullenders on the walls.
One end, indeed, reflected splendidly both
light and heat from ranks of immense
pewter dishes, interspersed with silver jugs
and tankards, towering row after row, on a
vast oak dresser, to the very roof. The latter
had never been under-drawn: its entire
anatomy lay bare to an inquiring eye, except
where a frame of wood laden with oatcakes
and clusters of legs of beef, mutton, and
ham, concealed it. Above the chimney were
sundry villainous old guns, and a couple of
horse-pistols: and, by way of ornament,
three gaudily-painted canisters disposed
along its ledge. The floor was of smooth,
white stone; the chairs, high-backed,

-2-

While enjoying a month of fine weather at
the sea-coast, I was thrown into the
company of a most fascinating creature: a
real goddess in my eyes, as long as she
took no notice of me. I 'never told my love'
vocally; still, if looks have language, the
merest idiot might have guessed I was over
head and ears: she understood me at last,
and looked a return the sweetest of all
imaginable looks. And what did I do? I
confess it with shame shrunk icily into
myself, like a snail; at every glance retired
colder and farther; till finally the poor
innocent was led to doubt her own senses,
and, overwhelmed with confusion at her
supposed mistake, persuaded her mamma
to decamp. By this curious turn of
disposition I have gained the reputation of
deliberate heartlessness; how undeserved,
I alone can appreciate.

I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone
opposite that towards which my landlord
advanced, and filled up an interval of
silence by attempting to caress the canine
mother, who had left her nursery, and was
sneaking wolfishly to the back of my legs,
her lip curled up, and her white teeth
watering for a snatch. My caress provoked
a long, guttural gnarl.

'You'd better let the dog alone,' growled Mr.
Heathcliff in unison, checking fiercer
demonstrations with a punch of his foot.
'She's not accustomed to be spoiled not
kept for a pet.' Then, striding to a side door,
he shouted again, 'Joseph!'

Joseph mumbled indistinctly in the depths
of the cellar, but gave no intimation of
ascending; so his master dived down to
him, leaving me VIS-A-VIS the ruffianly
bitch and a pair of grim shaggy sheep-
dogs, who shared with her a jealous
guardianship over all my movements. Not
anxious to come in contact with their fangs, I

-3-

before me, and restoring the displaced
table. 'The dogs do right to be vigilant. Take
a glass of wine?'

'No, thank you.'

'Not bitten, are you?'

'If I had been, I would have set my signet on
the biter.' Heathcliff's countenance relaxed
into a grin.

'Come, come,' he said, 'you are flurried,
Mr. Lockwood. Here, take a little wine.
Guests are so exceedingly rare in this
house that I and my dogs, I am willing to
own, hardly know how to receive them. Your
health, sir?'

I bowed and returned the pledge; beginning
to perceive that it would be foolish to sit
sulking for the misbehaviour of a pack of
curs; besides, I felt loth to yield the fellow
further amusement at my expense; since his
humour took that turn. He probably swayed
by prudential consideration of the folly of
offending a good tenant relaxed a little in the
laconic style of chipping off his pronouns
and auxiliary verbs, and introduced what he
supposed would be a subject of interest to
me, a discourse on the advantages and
disadvantages of my present place of
retirement. I found him very intelligent on the
topics we touched; and before I went home,
I was encouraged so far as to volunteer
another visit to-morrow. He evidently
wished no repetition of my intrusion. I shall
go, notwithstanding. It is astonishing how
sociable I feel myself compared with him.

Chapter 2

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

-4-

'Why? Cannot you tell her whom I am, eh,
Joseph?'

'Nor-ne me! I'll hae no hend wi't,' muttered
the head, vanishing.

The snow began to drive thickly. I seized the
handle to essay another trial; when a young
man without coat, and shouldering a
pitchfork, appeared in the yard behind. He
hailed me to follow him, and, after marching
through a wash-house, and a paved area
containing a coal-shed, pump, and pigeon-
cot, we at length arrived in the huge, warm,
cheerful apartment where I was formerly
received. It glowed delightfully in the
radiance of an immense fire, compounded
of coal, peat, and wood; and near the table,
laid for a plentiful evening meal, I was
pleased to observe the 'missis,' an
individual whose existence I had never
previously suspected. I bowed and waited,
thinking she would bid me take a seat. She
looked at me, leaning back in her chair, and
remained motionless and mute.

'Rough weather!' I remarked. 'I'm afraid,
Mrs. Heathcliff, the door must bear the
consequence of your servants' leisure
attendance: I had hard work to make them
hear me.'

She never opened her mouth. I stared she
stared also: at any rate, she kept her eyes
on me in a cool, regardless manner,
exceedingly embarrassing and
disagreeable.

'Sit down,' said the young man, gruffly.
'He'll be in soon.'

I obeyed; and hemmed, and called the
villain Juno, who deigned, at this second
interview, to move the extreme tip of her tail,
in token of owning my acquaintance.

-5-

'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-

-6-

scowl they wore was their every-day
countenance.

'It is strange,' I began, in the interval of
swallowing one cup of tea and receiving
another 'it is strange how custom can mould
our tastes and ideas: many could not
imagine the existence of happiness in a life
of such complete exile from the world as
you spend, Mr. Heathcliff; yet, I'll venture to
say, that, surrounded by your family, and
with your amiable lady as the presiding
genius over your home and heart '

'My amiable lady!' he interrupted, with an
almost diabolical sneer on his face. 'Where
is she my amiable lady?'

'Mrs. Heathcliff, your wife, I mean.'

'Well, yes oh, you would intimate that her
spirit has taken the post of ministering
angel, and guards the fortunes of Wuthering
Heights, even when her body is gone. Is that
it?'

Perceiving myself in a blunder, I attempted
to correct it. I might have seen there was too
great a disparity between the ages of the
parties to make it likely that they were man
and wife. One was about forty: a period of
mental vigour at which men seldom cherish
the delusion of being married for love by
girls: that dream is reserved for the solace
of our declining years. The other did not look
seventeen.

Then it flashed on me 'The clown at my
elbow, who is drinking his tea out of a basin
and eating his broad 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

-7-

he announced himself.

He fixed his eye on me longer than I cared to
return the stare, for fear I might be tempted
either to box his ears or render my hilarity
audible. I began to feel unmistakably out of
place in that pleasant family circle. The
dismal spiritual atmosphere overcame, and
more than neutralised, the glowing physical
comforts round me; and I resolved to be
cautious how I ventured under those rafters
a third time.

The business of eating being concluded,
and no one uttering a word of sociable
conversation, I approached a window to
examine the weather. A sorrowful sight I
saw: dark night coming down prematurely,
and sky and hills mingled in one bitter whirl
of wind and suffocating snow.

'I don't think it possible for me to get home
now without a guide,' I could not help
exclaiming. 'The roads will be buried
already; and, if they were bare, I could
scarcely distinguish a foot in advance.'

'Hareton, drive those dozen sheep into the
barn porch. They'll be covered if left in the
fold all night: and put a plank before them,'
said Heathcliff.

'How must I do?' I continued, with rising
irritation.

There was no reply to my question; and on
looking round I saw only Joseph bringing in
a pail of porridge for the dogs, and Mrs.
Heathcliff leaning over the fire, diverting
herself with burning a bundle of matches
which had fallen from the chimney-piece as
she restored the tea-canister to its place.
The former, when he had deposited his
burden, took a critical survey of the room,
and in cracked tones grated out 'Aw
wonder how yah can faishion to stand thear

-8-

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.'

-9-

'Maister, maister, he's staling t' lanthern!'
shouted the ancient, pursuing my retreat.
'Hey, Gnasher! Hey, dog! Hey Wolf, holld
him, holld him!'

On opening the little door, two hairy
monsters flew at my throat, bearing me
down, and extinguishing the light; while a
mingled guffaw from Heathcliff and Hareton
put the copestone on my rage and
humiliation. Fortunately, the beasts seemed
more bent on stretching their paws, and
yawning, and flourishing their tails, than
devouring me alive; but they would suffer no
resurrection, and I was forced to lie till their
malignant masters pleased to deliver me:
then, hatless and trembling with wrath, I
ordered the miscreants to let me out on their
peril to keep me one minute longer with
several incoherent threats of retaliation that,
in their indefinite depth of virulency,
smacked of King Lear.

The vehemence of my agitation brought on
a copious bleeding at the nose, and still
Heathcliff laughed, and still I scolded. I don't
know what would have concluded the
scene, had there not been one person at
hand rather more rational than myself, and
more benevolent than my entertainer. This
was Zillah, the stout housewife; who at
length issued forth to inquire into the nature
of the uproar. She thought that some of
them had been laying violent hands on me;
and, not daring to attack her master, she
turned her vocal artillery against the younger
scoundrel.

'Well, Mr. Earnshaw,' she cried, 'I wonder
what you'll have agait next? Are we going to
murder folk on our very door-stones? I see
this house will never do for me look at t'
poor lad, he's fair choking! Wisht, wisht; you
mun'n't go on so. Come in, and I'll cure that:
there now, hold ye still.'

-10-

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

-11-

errand from the stables. He tears down my
handiwork, boxes my ears, and croaks:

'"T' maister nobbut just buried, and
Sabbath not o'ered, und t' sound o' t'
gospel still i' yer lugs, and ye darr be laiking!
Shame on ye! sit ye down, ill childer! there's
good books eneugh if ye'll read 'em: sit ye
down, and think o' yer sowls!"

'Saying this, he compelled us so to square
our positions that we might receive from the
far-off fire a dull ray to show us the text of
the lumber he thrust upon us. I could not bear
the employment. I took my dingy volume by
the scroop, and hurled it into the dog kennel,
vowing I hated a good book. Heathcliff
kicked his to the same place. Then there
was a hubbub!

'"Maister Hindley!" shouted our chaplain. "
Maister, coom hither! Miss Cathy's riven th'
back off 'Th' Helmet o' Salvation,' un'
Heathcliff's pawsed his fit into t' first part o'
'T' Brooad Way to Destruction!' It's fair
flaysome that ye let 'em go on this gait. Ech!
th' owd man wad ha' laced 'em properly but
he's goan!"

'Hindley hurried up from his paradise on the
hearth, and seizing one of us by the collar,
and the other by the arm, hurled both into the
back-kitchen; where, Joseph asseverated,
"owd Nick would fetch us as sure as we
were living: and, so comforted, we each
sought a separate nook to await his advent.
I reached this book, and a pot of ink from a
shelf, and pushed the house-door ajar to
give me light, and I have got the time on with
writing for twenty minutes; but my
companion is impatient, and proposes that
we should appropriate the dairywoman's
cloak, and have a scamper on the moors,
under its shelter. A pleasant suggestion and
then, if the surly old man come in, he may
believe his prophecy verified we cannot be

-12-

reproaches that I had not brought a pilgrim's
staff: telling me that I could never get into the
house without one, and boastfully
flourishing a heavy-headed cudgel, which I
understood to be so denominated. For a
moment I considered it absurd that I should
need such a weapon to gain admittance
into my own residence. Then a new idea
flashed across me. I was not going there:
we were journeying to hear the famous
Jabez Branderham preach, from the text
'Seventy Times Seven;' and either Joseph,
the preacher, or I had committed the 'First
of the Seventy-First,' and were to be
publicly exposed and excommunicated.

We came to the chapel. I have passed it
really in my walks, twice or thrice; it lies in a
hollow, between two hills: an elevated
hollow, near a swamp, whose peaty
moisture is said to answer all the purposes
of embalming on the few corpses
deposited there. The roof has been kept
whole hitherto; but as the clergyman's
stipend is only twenty pounds per annum,
and a house with two rooms, threatening
speedily to determine into one, no
clergyman will undertake the duties of
pastor: especially as it is currently reported
that his flock would rather let him starve than
increase the living by one penny from their
own pockets. However, in my dream, Jabez
had a full and attentive congregation; and
he preached good God! what a sermon;
divided into FOUR HUNDRED AND
NINETY parts, each fully equal to an
ordinary address from the pulpit, and each
discussing a separate sin! Where he
searched for them, I cannot tell. He had his
private manner of interpreting the phrase,
and it seemed necessary the brother should
sin different sins on every occasion. They
were of the most curious character: odd
transgressions that I never imagined
previously.

-13-

chapel resounded with rappings and
counter rappings: every man's hand was
against his neighbour; and Branderham,
unwilling to remain idle, poured forth his
zeal in a shower of loud taps on the boards
of the pulpit, which responded so smartly
that, at last, to my unspeakable relief, they
woke me. And what was it that had
suggested the tremendous tumult? What
had played Jabez's part in the row? Merely
the branch of a fir-tree that touched my
lattice as the blast wailed by, and rattled its
dry cones against the panes! I listened
doubtingly an instant; detected the
disturber, then turned and dozed, and
dreamt again: if possible, still more
disagreeably than before.

This time, I remembered I was lying in the
oak closet, and I heard distinctly the gusty
wind, and the driving of the snow; I heard,
also, the fir bough repeat its teasing sound,
and ascribed it to the right cause: but it
annoyed me so much, that I resolved to
silence it, if possible; and, I thought, I rose
and endeavoured to unhasp the casement.
The hook was soldered into the staple: a
circumstance observed by me when
awake, but forgotten. 'I must stop it,
nevertheless!' I muttered, knocking my
knuckles through the glass, and stretching
an arm out to seize the importunate branch;
instead of which, my fingers closed on the
fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense
horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to
draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it,
and a most melancholy voice sobbed, 'Let
me in let me in!' 'Who are you?' I asked,
struggling, meanwhile, to disengage
myself. 'Catherine Linton,' it replied,
shiveringly (why did I think of LINTON? I had
read EARNSHAW twenty times for Linton)
'I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the
moor!' As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely,
a child's face looking through the window.
Terror made me cruel; and, finding it

-14-

some feet, and his agitation was so
extreme, that he could hardly pick it up.

'It is only your guest, sir,' I called out,
desirous to spare him the humiliation of
exposing his cowardice further. 'I had the
misfortune to scream in my sleep, owing to
a frightful nightmare. I'm sorry I disturbed
you.'

'Oh, God confound you, Mr. Lockwood! I
wish you were at the ' commenced my host,
setting the candle on a chair, because he
found it impossible to hold it steady. 'And
who showed you up into this room?' he
continued, crushing his nails into his palms,
and grinding his teeth to subdue the
maxillary convulsions. 'Who was it? I've a
good mind to turn them out of the house this
moment?'

'It was your servant Zillah,' I replied, flinging
myself on to the floor, and rapidly resuming
my garments. 'I should not care if you did,
Mr. Heathcliff; she richly deserves it. I
suppose that she wanted to get another
proof that the place was haunted, at my
expense. Well, it is swarming with ghosts
and goblins! You have reason in shutting it
up, I assure you. No one will thank you for a
doze in such a den!'

'What do you mean?' asked Heathcliff, 'and
what are you doing? Lie down and finish out
the night, since you ARE here; but, for
heaven's sake! don't repeat that horrid
noise: nothing could excuse it, unless you
were having your throat cut!'

'If the little fiend had got in at the window,
she probably would have strangled me!' I
returned. 'I'm not going to endure the
persecutions of your hospitable ancestors
again. Was not the Reverend Jabez
Branderham akin to you on the mother's
side? And that minx, Catherine Linton, or

-15-

had heard the conflict, I continued my
toilette rather noisily, looked at my watch,
and soliloquised on the length of the night:
'Not three o'clock yet! I could have taken
oath it had been six. Time stagnates here:
we must surely have retired to rest at eight!'

'Always at nine in winter, and rise at four,'
said my host, suppressing a groan: and, as I
fancied, by the motion of his arm's shadow,
dashing a tear from his eyes. 'Mr.
Lockwood,' he added, 'you may go into my
room: you'll only be in the way, coming
down stairs so early: and your childish
outcry has sent sleep to the devil for me.'

'And for me, too,' I replied. 'I'll walk in the
yard till daylight, and then I'll be off; and you
need not dread a repetition of my intrusion.
I'm now quite cured of seeking pleasure in
society, be it country or town. A sensible
man ought to find sufficient company in
himself.'

'Delightful company!' muttered Heathcliff.
'Take the candle, and go where you please.
I shall join you directly. Keep out of the yard,
though, the dogs are unchained; and the
house Juno mounts sentinel there, and nay,
you can only ramble about the steps and
passages. But, away with you! I'll come in
two minutes!'

I obeyed, so far as to quit the chamber;
when, ignorant where the narrow lobbies
led, I stood still, and was witness,
involuntarily, to a piece of superstition on
the part of my landlord which belied, oddly,
his apparent sense. He got on to the bed,
and wrenched open the lattice, bursting, as
he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion
of tears. 'Come in! come in!' he sobbed.
'Cathy, do come. Oh, do ONCE more! Oh!
my heart's darling! hear me THIS time,
Catherine, at last!' The spectre showed a
spectre's ordinary caprice: it gave no sign

-16-

unachieved; for Hareton Earnshaw was
performing his orison SOTTO VOCE, in a
series of curses directed against every
object he touched, while he rummaged a
corner for a spade or shovel to dig through
the drifts. He glanced over the back of the
bench, dilating his nostrils, and thought as
little of exchanging civilities with me as with
my companion the cat. I guessed, by his
preparations, that egress was allowed,
and, leaving my hard couch, made a
movement to follow him. He noticed this,
and thrust at an inner door with the end of
his spade, intimating by an inarticulate
sound that there was the place where I must
go, if I changed my locality.

It opened into the house, where the females
were already astir; Zillah urging flakes of
flame up the chimney with a colossal
bellows; and Mrs. Heathcliff, kneeling on
the hearth, reading a book by the aid of the
blaze. She held her hand interposed
between the furnace-heat and her eyes,
and seemed absorbed in her occupation;
desisting from it only to chide the servant for
covering her with sparks, or to push away a
dog, now and then, that snoozled its nose
overforwardly into her face. I was surprised
to see Heathcliff there also. He stood by the
fire, his back towards me, just finishing a
stormy scene with poor Zillah; who ever and
anon interrupted her labour to pluck up the
corner of her apron, and heave an indignant
groan.

'And you, you worthless ' he broke out as I
entered, turning to his daughter-in-law, and
employing an epithet as harmless as duck,
or sheep, but generally represented by a
dash . 'There you are, at your idle tricks
again! The rest of them do earn their bread
you live on my charity! Put your trash away,
and find something to do. You shall pay me
for the plague of having you eternally in my
sight do you hear, damnable jade?'

-17-

but, excepting a dirty dot pointing up here
and there, all traces of their existence had
vanished: and my companion found it
necessary to warn me frequently to steer to
the right or left, when I imagined I was
following, correctly, the windings of the
road.

We exchanged little conversation, and he
halted at the entrance of Thrushcross Park,
saying, I could make no error there. Our
adieux were limited to a hasty bow, and
then I pushed forward, trusting to my own
resources; for the porter's lodge is
untenanted as yet. The distance from the
gate to the grange is two miles; I believe I
managed to make it four, what with losing
myself among the trees, and sinking up to
the neck in snow: a predicament which only
those who have experienced it can
appreciate. At any rate, whatever were my
wanderings, the clock chimed twelve as I
entered the house; and that gave exactly an
hour for every mile of the usual way from
Wuthering Heights.

My human fixture and her satellites rushed
to welcome me; exclaiming, tumultuously,
they had completely given me up: everybody
conjectured that I perished last night; and
they were wondering how they must set
about the search for my remains. I bid them
be quiet, now that they saw me returned,
and, benumbed to my very heart, I dragged
up-stairs; whence, after putting on dry
clothes, and pacing to and fro thirty or forty
minutes, to restore the animal heat, I
adjourned to my study, feeble as a kitten:
almost too much so to enjoy the cheerful fire
and smoking coffee which the servant had
prepared for my refreshment.

Chapter 4

WHAT vain weathercocks we are! I, who
had determined to hold myself independent

-18-

Mrs. Dean why Heathcliff let Thrushcross
Grange, and preferred living in a situation
and residence so much inferior. 'Is he not
rich enough to keep the estate in good
order?' I inquired.

'Rich, sir!' she returned. 'He has nobody
knows what money, and every year it
increases. Yes, yes, he's rich enough to live
in a finer house than this: but he's very near
close-handed; and, if he had meant to flit to
Thrushcross Grange, as soon as he heard
of a good tenant he could not have borne to
miss the chance of getting a few hundreds
more. It is strange people should be so
greedy, when they are alone in the world!'

'He had a son, it seems?'

'Yes, he had one he is dead.'

'And that young lady, Mrs. Heathcliff, is his
widow?'

'Yes.'

'Where did she come from originally?'

'Why, sir, she is my late master's daughter:
Catherine Linton was her maiden name. I
nursed her, poor thing! I did wish Mr.
Heathcliff would remove here, and then we
might have been together again.'

'What! Catherine Linton?' I exclaimed,
astonished. But a minute's reflection
convinced me it was not my ghostly
Catherine. Then,' I continued, 'my
predecessor's name was Linton?'

'It was.'

'And who is that Earnshaw: Hareton
Earnshaw, who lives with Mr. Heathcliff?
Are they relations?'

-19-

I shall not rest if I go to bed; so be good
enough to sit and chat an hour.'

'Oh, certainly, sir! I'll just fetch a little
sewing, and then I'll sit as long as you
please. But you've caught cold: I saw you
shivering, and you must have some gruel to
drive it out.'

The worthy woman bustled off, and I
crouched nearer the fire; my head felt hot,
and the rest of me chill: moreover, I was
excited, almost to a pitch of foolishness,
through my nerves and brain. This caused
me to feel, not uncomfortable, but rather
fearful (as I am still) of serious effects from
the incidents of to-day and yesterday. She
returned presently, bringing a smoking
basin and a basket of work; and, having
placed the former on the hob, drew in her
seat, evidently pleased to find me so
companionable.

Before I came to live here, she commenced
waiting no farther invitation to her story I was
almost always at Wuthering Heights;
because my mother had nursed Mr. Hindley
Earnshaw, that was Hareton's father, and I
got used to playing with the children: I ran
errands too, and helped to make hay, and
hung about the farm ready for anything that
anybody would set me to. One fine summer
morning it was the beginning of harvest, I
remember Mr. Earnshaw, the old master,
came down-stairs, dressed for a journey;
and, after he had told Joseph what was to
be done during the day, he turned to
Hindley, and Cathy, and me for I sat eating
my porridge with them and he said,
speaking to his son, 'Now, my bonny man,
I'm going to Liverpool to-day, what shall I
bring you? You may choose what you like:
only let it be little, for I shall walk there and
back: sixty miles each way, that is a long
spell!' Hindley named a fiddle, and then he
asked Miss Cathy; she was hardly six years

-20-

feed and fend for? What he meant to do with
it, and whether he were mad? The master
tried to explain the matter; but he was really
half dead with fatigue, and all that I could
make out, amongst her scolding, was a tale
of his seeing it starving, and houseless, and
as good as dumb, in the streets of
Liverpool, where he picked it up and
inquired for its owner. Not a soul knew to
whom it belonged, he said; and his money
and time being both limited, he thought it
better to take it home with him at once, than
run into vain expenses there: because he
was determined he would not leave it as he
found it. Well, the conclusion was, that my
mistress grumbled herself calm; and Mr.
Earnshaw told me to wash it, and give it
clean things, and let it sleep with the
children.

Hindley and Cathy contented themselves
with looking and listening till peace was
restored: then, both began searching their
father's pockets for the presents he had
promised them. The former was a boy of
fourteen, but when he drew out what had
been a fiddle, crushed to morsels in the
great-coat, he blubbered aloud; and Cathy,
when she learned the master had lost her
whip in attending on the stranger, showed
her humour by grinning and spitting at the
stupid little thing; earning for her pains a
sound blow from her father, to teach her
cleaner manners. They entirely refused to
have it in bed with them, or even in their
room; and I had no more sense, so I put it on
the landing of the stairs, hoping it might he
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.

-21-

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

-22-

nearly threw him into fits. This was
especially to be remarked if any one
attempted to impose upon, or domineer
over, his favourite: he was painfully jealous
lest a word should be spoken amiss to him;
seeming to have got into his head the notion
that, because he liked Heathcliff, all hated,
and longed to do him an ill-turn. It was a
disadvantage to the lad; for the kinder
among us did not wish to fret the master, so
we humoured his partiality; and that
humouring was rich nourishment to the
child's pride and black tempers. Still it
became in a manner necessary; twice, or
thrice, Hindley's manifestation of scorn,
while his father was near, roused the old
man to a fury: he seized his stick to strike
him, and shook with rage that he could not
do it.

At last, our curate (we had a curate then
who made the living answer by teaching the
little Lintons and Earnshaws, and farming
his bit of land himself) advised that the
young man should be sent to college; and
Mr. Earnshaw agreed, though with a heavy
spirit, for he said 'Hindley was nought, and
would never thrive as where he wandered.'

I hoped heartily we should have peace now.
It hurt me to think the master should be
made uncomfortable by his own good
deed. I fancied the discontent of age and
disease arose from his family
disagreements; as he would have it that it
did: really, you know, sir, it was in his
sinking frame. We might have got on
tolerably, notwithstanding, but for two
people Miss Cathy, and Joseph, the
servant: you saw him, I daresay, up yonder.
He was, and is yet most likely, the
wearisomest self-righteous Pharisee that
ever ransacked a Bible to rake the
promises to himself and fling the curses to
his neighbours. By his knack of sermonising
and pious discoursing, he contrived to

-23-

His peevish reproofs wakened in her a
naughty delight to provoke him: she was
never so happy as when we were all
scolding her at once, and she defying us
with her bold, saucy look, and her ready
words; turning Joseph's religious curses
into ridicule, baiting me, and doing just
what her father hated most showing how
her pretended insolence, which he thought
real, had more power over Heathcliff than
his kindness: how the boy would do HER
bidding in anything, and HIS only when it
suited his own inclination. After behaving as
badly as possible all day, she sometimes
came fondling to make it up at night. 'Nay,
Cathy,' the old man would say, 'I cannot
love thee, thou'rt worse than thy brother. Go,
say thy prayers, child, and ask God's
pardon. I doubt thy mother and I must rue
that we ever reared thee!' That made her
cry, at first; and then being repulsed
continually hardened her, and she laughed if
I told her to say she was sorry for her faults,
and beg to be forgiven.

But the hour came, at last, that ended Mr.
Earnshaw's troubles on earth. He died
quietly in his chair one October evening,
seated by the fire-side. A high wind
blustered round the house, and roared in the
chimney: it sounded wild and stormy, yet it
was not cold, and we were all together I, a
little removed from the hearth, busy at my
knitting, and Joseph reading his Bible near
the table (for the servants generally sat in
the house then, after their work was done).
Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made
her still; she leant against her father's knee,
and Heathcliff was lying on the floor with his
head in her lap. I remember the master,
before he fell into a doze, stroking her
bonny hair it pleased him rarely to see her
gentle and saying, 'Why canst thou not
always be a good lass, Cathy?' And she
turned her face up to his, and laughed, and
answered, 'Why cannot you always be a

-24-

they did, in their innocent talk; and, while I
sobbed and listened, I could not help
wishing we were all there safe together.

Chapter 6

MR. HINDLEY came home to the funeral;
and a thing that amazed us, and set the
neighbours gossiping right and left he
brought a wife with him. What she was, and
where she was born, he never informed us:
probably, she had neither money nor name
to recommend her, or he would scarcely
have kept the union from his father.

She was not one that would have disturbed
the house much on her own account. Every
object she saw, the moment she crossed
the threshold, appeared to delight her; and
every circumstance that took place about
her: except the preparing for the burial, and
the presence of the mourners. I thought she
was half silly, from her behaviour while that
went on: she ran into her chamber, and
made me come with her, though I should
have been dressing the children: and there
she sat shivering and clasping her hands,
and asking repeatedly 'Are they gone yet?'
Then she began describing with hysterical
emotion the effect it produced on her to see
black; and started, and trembled, and, at
last, fell a-weeping and when I asked what
was the matter, answered, she didn't know;
but she felt so afraid of dying! I imagined
her as little likely to die as myself. She was
rather thin, but young, and fresh-
complexioned, and her eyes sparkled as
bright as diamonds. I did remark, to be
sure, that mounting the stairs made her
breathe very quick; that the least sudden
noise set her all in a quiver, and that she
coughed troublesomely sometimes: but I
knew nothing of what these symptoms
portended, and had no impulse to
sympathise with her. We don't in general
take to foreigners here, Mr. Lockwood,

-25-

themselves; and that reminded him to order
Heathcliff a flogging, and Catherine a fast
from dinner or supper. But it was one of
their chief amusements to run away to the
moors in the morning and remain there all
day, and the after punishment grew a mere
thing to laugh at. The curate might set as
many chapters as he pleased for Catherine
to get by heart, and Joseph might thrash
Heathcliff till his arm ached; they forgot
everything the minute they were together
again: at least the minute they had contrived
some naughty plan of revenge; and many a
time I've cried to myself to watch them
growing more reckless daily, and I not
daring to speak a syllable, for fear of losing
the small power I still retained over the
unfriended creatures. One Sunday evening,
it chanced that they were banished from the
sitting-room, for making a noise, or a light
offence of the kind; and when I went to call
them to supper, I could discover them
nowhere. We searched the house, above
and below, and the yard and stables; they
were invisible: and, at last, Hindley in a
passion told us to bolt the doors, and swore
nobody should let them in that night. The
household went to bed; and I, too, anxious
to lie down, opened my lattice and put my
head out to hearken, though it rained:
determined to admit them in spite of the
prohibition, should they return. In a while, I
distinguished steps coming up the road,
and the light of a lantern glimmered through
the gate. I threw a shawl over my head and
ran to prevent them from waking Mr.
Earnshaw by knocking. There was
Heathcliff, by himself: it gave me a start to
see him alone.

'Where is Miss Catherine?' I cried hurriedly.
'No accident, I hope?' 'At Thrushcross
Grange,' he answered; 'and I would have
been there too, but they had not the
manners to ask me to stay.' 'Well, you will
catch it!' I said: 'you'll never be content till

-26-

guess what your good children were doing?
Isabella I believe she is eleven, a year
younger than Cathy lay screaming at the
farther end of the room, shrieking as if
witches were running red-hot needles into
her. Edgar stood on the hearth weeping
silently, and in the middle of the table sat a
little dog, shaking its paw and yelping;
which, from their mutual accusations, we
understood they had nearly pulled in two
between them. The idiots! That was their
pleasure! to quarrel who should hold a heap
of warm hair, and each begin to cry
because both, after struggling to get it,
refused to take it. We laughed outright at the
petted things; we did despise them! When
would you catch me wishing to have what
Catherine wanted? or find us by ourselves,
seeking entertainment in yelling, and
sobbing, and rolling on the ground, divided
by the whole room? I'd not exchange, for a
thousand lives, my condition here, for
Edgar Linton's at Thrushcross Grange not if
I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph
off the highest gable, and painting the
house front with Hindley's blood!'

'Hush, hush!' I interrupted. 'Still you have not
told me, Heathcliff, how Catherine is left
behind?'

'I told you we laughed,' he answered. 'The
Lintons heard us, and with one accord they
shot like arrows to the door; there was
silence, and then a cry, "Oh, mamma,
mamma! Oh, papa! Oh, mamma, come
here. Oh, papa, oh!" They really did howl out
something in that way. We made frightful
noises to terrify them still more, and then we
dropped off the ledge, because somebody
was drawing the bars, and we felt we had
better flee. I had Cathy by the hand, and was
urging her on, when all at once she fell
down. "Run, Heathcliff, run!" she
whispered. "They have let the bull-dog
loose, and he holds me!" The devil had

-27-

hands in horror. The cowardly children crept
nearer also, Isabella lisping "Frightful thing!
Put him in the cellar, papa. He's exactly like
the son of the fortune-teller that stole my
tame pheasant. Isn't he, Edgar?"

'While they examined me, Cathy came
round; she heard the last speech, and
laughed. Edgar Linton, after an inquisitive
stare, collected sufficient wit to recognise
her. They see us at church, you know,
though we seldom meet them elsewhere.
"That's Miss Earnshaw?" he whispered to
his mother, "and look how Skulker has
bitten her how her foot bleeds!"

'"Miss Earnshaw? Nonsense!" cried the
dame; "Miss Earnshaw scouring the country
with a gipsy! And yet, my dear, the child is in
mourning surely it is and she may be lamed
for life!"

'"What culpable carelessness in her
brother!" exclaimed Mr. Linton, turning from
me to Catherine. "I've understood from
Shielders"' (that was the curate, sir) '"that
he lets her grow up in absolute heathenism.
But who is this? Where did she pick up this
companion? Oho! I declare he is that
strange acquisition my late neighbour
made, in his journey to Liverpool a little
Lascar, or an American or Spanish
castaway."

'"A wicked boy, at all events," remarked the
old lady, "and quite unfit for a decent house!
Did you notice his language, Linton? I'm
shocked that my children should have heard
it."

'I recommenced cursing don't be angry,
Nelly and so Robert was ordered to take me
off. I refused to go without Cathy; he
dragged me into the garden, pushed the
lantern into my hand, assured me that Mr.
Earnshaw should be informed of my

-28-

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 7

CATHY stayed at Thrushcross Grange five
weeks: till Christmas. By that time her ankle
was thoroughly cured, and her manners
much improved. The mistress visited her
often in the interval, and commenced her
plan of reform by trying to raise her self-
respect with fine clothes and flattery, which
she took readily; so that, instead of a wild,
hatless little savage jumping into the house,
and rushing to squeeze us all breathless,
there 'lighted from a handsome black pony
a very dignified person, with brown ringlets
falling from the cover of a feathered beaver,
and a long cloth habit, which she was
obliged to hold up with both hands that she
might sail in. Hindley lifted her from her
horse, exclaiming delightedly, 'Why, Cathy,
you are quite a beauty! I should scarcely
have known you: you look like a lady now.
Isabella Linton is not to be compared with
her, is she, Frances?' 'Isabella has not her
natural advantages,' replied his wife: 'but
she must mind and not grow wild again
here. Ellen, help Miss Catherine off with her
things Stay, dear, you will disarrange your
curls let me untie your hat.'

I removed the habit, and there shone forth
beneath a grand plaid silk frock, white
trousers, and burnished shoes; and, while
her eyes sparkled joyfully when the dogs
came bounding up to welcome her, she
dared hardly touch them lest they should
fawn upon her splendid garments. She
kissed me gently: I was all flour making the
Christmas cake, and it would not have done
to give me a hug; and then she looked round
for Heathcliff. Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw

-29-

for shame and pride threw double gloom
over his countenance, and kept him
immovable.

'Shake hands, Heathcliff,' said Mr.
Earnshaw, condescendingly; 'once in a
way, that is permitted.'

'I shall not,' replied the boy, finding his
tongue at last; 'I shall not stand to be
laughed at. I shall not bear it!' And he would
have broken from the circle, but Miss Cathy
seized him again.

'I did not mean to laugh at you,' she said; 'I
could not hinder myself: Heathcliff, shake
hands at least! What are you sulky for? It was
only that you looked odd. If you wash your
face and brush your hair, it will be all right:
but you are so dirty!'

She gazed concernedly at the dusky fingers
she held in her own, and also at her dress;
which she feared had gained no
embellishment from its contact with his.

'You needn't have touched me!' he
answered, following her eye and snatching
away his hand. 'I shall be as dirty as I
please: and I like to be dirty, and I will be
dirty.'

With that he dashed headforemost out of the
room, amid the merriment of the master and
mistress, and to the serious disturbance of
Catherine; who could not comprehend how
her remarks should have produced such an
exhibition of bad temper.

After playing lady's-maid to the new-
comer, and putting my cakes in the oven,
and making the house and kitchen cheerful
with great fires, befitting Christmas-eve, I
prepared to sit down and amuse myself by
singing carols, all alone; regardless of
Joseph's affirmations that he considered

-30-

yourselves, and have a long chatter till
bedtime.'

He proceeded with his task, and never
turned his head towards me.

'Come are you coming?' I continued.
'There's a little cake for each of you, nearly
enough; and you'll need half-an-hour's
donning.'

I waited five minutes, but getting no answer
left him. Catherine supped with her brother
and sister-in-law: Joseph and I joined at an
unsociable meal, seasoned with reproofs
on one side and sauciness on the other. His
cake and cheese remained on the table all
night for the fairies. He managed to
continue work till nine o'clock, and then
marched dumb and dour to his chamber.
Cathy sat up late, having a world of things to
order for the reception of her new friends:
she came into the kitchen once to speak to
her old one; but he was gone, and she only
stayed to ask what was the matter with him,
and then went back. In the morning he rose
early; and, as it was a holiday, carried his ill-
humour on to the moors; not re-appearing
till the family were departed for church.
Fasting and reflection seemed to have
brought him to a better spirit. He hung about
me for a while, and having screwed up his
courage, exclaimed abruptly 'Nelly, make
me decent, I'm going to be good.'

'High time, Heathcliff,' I said; 'you HAVE
grieved Catherine: she's sorry she ever
came home, I daresay! It looks as if you
envied her, because she is more thought of
than you.'

The notion of ENVYING Catherine was
incomprehensible to him, but the notion of
grieving her he understood clearly enough.

'Did she say she was grieved?' he

-31-

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

-32-

and dashed it full against the speaker's
face and neck; who instantly commenced a
lament that brought Isabella and Catherine
hurrying to the place. Mr. Earnshaw
snatched up the culprit directly and
conveyed him to his chamber; where,
doubtless, he administered a rough remedy
to cool the fit of passion, for he appeared
red and breathless. I got the dishcloth, and
rather spitefully scrubbed Edgar's nose and
mouth, affirming it served him right for
meddling. His sister began weeping to go
home, and Cathy stood by confounded,
blushing for all.

'You should not have spoken to him!' she
expostulated with Master Linton. 'He was in
a bad temper, and now you've spoilt your
visit; and he'll be flogged: I hate him to be
flogged! I can't eat my dinner. Why did you
speak to him, Edgar?'

'I didn't,' sobbed the youth, escaping from
my hands, and finishing the remainder of
the purification with his cambric pocket
handkerchief. 'I promised mamma that I
wouldn't say one word to him, and I didn't.'

'Well, don't cry,' replied Catherine,
contemptuously; 'you're not killed. Don't
make more mischief; my brother is coming:
be quiet! Hush, Isabella! Has anybody hurt
you?'

'There, there, children to your seats!' cried
Hindley, bustling in. 'That brute of a lad has
warmed me nicely. Next time, Master
Edgar, take the law into your own fists it will
give you an appetite!'

The little party recovered its equanimity at
sight of the fragrant feast. They were hungry
after their ride, and easily consoled, since
no real harm had befallen them. Mr.
Earnshaw carved bountiful platefuls, and
the mistress made them merry with lively

-33-

confined, and called him. He stubbornly
declined answering for a while: she
persevered, and finally persuaded him to
hold communion with her through the
boards. I let the poor things converse
unmolested, till I supposed the songs were
going to cease, and the singers to get some
refreshment: then I clambered up the ladder
to warn her. Instead of finding her outside, I
heard her voice within. The little monkey had
crept by the skylight of one garret, along the
roof, into the skylight of the other, and it was
with the utmost difficulty I could coax her out
again. When she did come, Heathcliff came
with her, and she insisted that I should take
him into the kitchen, as my fellow-servant
had gone to a neighbour's, to be removed
from the sound of our 'devil's psalmody,' as
it pleased him to call it. I told them I intended
by no means to encourage their tricks: but
as the prisoner had never broken his fast
since yesterday's dinner, I would wink at his
cheating Mr. Hindley that once. He went
down: I set him a stool by the fire, and
offered him a quantity of good things: but he
was sick and could eat little, and my
attempts to entertain him were thrown
away. He leant his two elbows on his knees,
and his chin on his hands and remained rapt
in dumb meditation. On my inquiring the
subject of his thoughts, he answered
gravely 'I'm trying to settle how I shall pay
Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I
can only do it at last. I hope he will not die
before I do!'

'For shame, Heathcliff!' said I. 'It is for God
to punish wicked people; we should learn to
forgive.'

'No, God won't have the satisfaction that I
shall,' he returned. 'I only wish I knew the
best way! Let me alone, and I'll plan it out:
while I'm thinking of that I don't feel pain.'

'But, Mr. Lockwood, I forget these tales

-34-

'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

-35-

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

-36-

tyrannical and evil conduct long: Joseph and
I were the only two that would stay. I had not
the heart to leave my charge; and besides,
you know, I had been his foster-sister, and
excused his behaviour more readily than a
stranger would. Joseph remained to hector
over tenants and labourers; and because it
was his vocation to be where he had plenty
of wickedness to reprove.

The master's bad ways and bad
companions formed a pretty example for
Catherine and Heathcliff. His treatment of
the latter was enough to make a fiend of a
saint. And, truly, it appeared as if the lad
WERE possessed of something diabolical
at that period. He delighted to witness
Hindley degrading himself past
redemption; and became daily more
notable for savage sullenness and ferocity. I
could not half tell what an infernal house we
had. The curate dropped calling, and
nobody decent came near us, at last; unless
Edgar Linton's visits to Miss Cathy might be
an exception. At fifteen she was the queen
of the country-side; she had no peer; and
she did turn out a haughty, headstrong
creature! I own I did not like her, after
infancy was past; and I vexed her frequently
by trying to bring down her arrogance: she
never took an aversion to me, though. She
had a wondrous constancy to old
attachments: even Heathcliff kept his hold
on her affections unalterably; and young
Linton, with all his superiority, found it
difficult to make an equally deep
impression. He was my late master: that is
his portrait over the fireplace. It used to hang
on one side, and his wife's on the other; but
hers has been removed, or else you might
see something of what she was. Can you
make that out?

Mrs. Dean raised the candle, and I
discerned a soft-featured face,
exceedingly resembling the young lady at

-37-

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

-38-

not work any more to-day: I'll stay with you.'

'Oh, but Joseph will tell,' she suggested;
'you'd better go!'

'Joseph is loading lime on the further side
of Penistone Crags; it will take him till dark,
and he'll never know.'

So, saying, he lounged to the fire, and sat
down. Catherine reflected an instant, with
knitted brows she found it needful to smooth
the way for an intrusion. 'Isabella and Edgar
Linton talked of calling this afternoon,' she
said, at the conclusion of a minute's
silence. 'As it rains, I hardly expect them;
but they may come, and if they do, you run
the risk of being scolded for no good.'

'Order Ellen to say you are engaged,
Cathy,' he persisted; 'don't turn me out for
those pitiful, silly friends of yours! I'm on the
point, sometimes, of complaining that they
but I'll not '

'That they what?' cried Catherine, gazing at
him with a troubled countenance. 'Oh,
Nelly!' she added petulantly, jerking her
head away from my hands, 'you've combed
my hair quite out of curl! That's enough; let
me alone. What are you on the point of
complaining about, Heathcliff?'

'Nothing only look at the almanack on that
wall;' he pointed to a framed sheet hanging
near the window, and continued, 'The
crosses are for the evenings you have spent
with the Lintons, the dots for those spent
with me. Do you see? I've marked every
day.'

'Yes very foolish: as if I took notice!' replied
Catherine, in a peevish tone. 'And where is
the sense of that?'

'To show that I DO take notice,' said

-39-

She stepped behind me and whispered
crossly, 'Take yourself and your dusters off;
when company are in the house, servants
don't commence scouring and cleaning in
the room where they are!'

'It's a good opportunity, now that master is
away,' I answered aloud: 'he hates me to
be fidgeting over these things in his
presence. I'm sure Mr. Edgar will excuse
me.'

'I hate you to be fidgeting in MY presence,'
exclaimed the young lady imperiously, not
allowing her guest time to speak: she had
failed to recover her equanimity since the
little dispute with Heathcliff.

'I'm sorry for it, Miss Catherine,' was my
response; and I proceeded assiduously
with my occupation.

She, supposing Edgar could not see her,
snatched the cloth from my hand, and
pinched me, with a prolonged wrench, very
spitefully on the arm. I've said I did not love
her, and rather relished mortifying her vanity
now and then: besides, she hurt me
extremely; so I started up from my knees,
and screamed out, 'Oh, Miss, that's a nasty
trick! You have no right to nip me, and I'm
not going to bear it.'

'I didn't touch you, you lying creature!' cried
she, her fingers tingling to repeat the act,
and her ears red with rage. She never had
power to conceal her passion, it always set
her whole complexion in a blaze.

'What's that, then?' I retorted, showing a
decided purple witness to refute her.

She stamped her foot, wavered a moment,
and then, irresistibly impelled by the naughty
spirit within her, slapped me on the cheek: a
stinging blow that filled both eyes with

-40-

'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

-41-

'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

-42-

'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

-43-

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!'

-44-

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.'

-45-

'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

-46-

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

-47-

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

-48-

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.

-49-

'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;

-50-

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

-51-

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 10

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 '

-52-

indifference? I observed that Mr. Edgar had
a deep-rooted fear of ruffling her humour.
He concealed it from her; but if ever he
heard me answer sharply, or saw any other
servant grow cloudy at some imperious
order of hers, he would show his trouble by
a frown of displeasure that never darkened
on his own account. He many a time spoke
sternly to me about my pertness; and
averred that the stab of a knife could not
inflict a worse pang than he suffered at
seeing his lady vexed. Not to grieve a kind
master, I learned to be less touchy; and, for
the space of half a year, the gunpowder lay
as harmless as sand, because no fire came
near to explode it. Catherine had seasons
of gloom and silence now and then: they
were respected with sympathising silence
by her husband, who ascribed them to an
alteration in her constitution, produced by
her perilous illness; as she was never
subject to depression of spirits before. The
return of sunshine was welcomed by
answering sunshine from him. I believe I
may assert that they were really in
possession of deep and growing
happiness.

It ended. Well, we MUST be for ourselves in
the long run; the mild and generous are only
more justly selfish than the domineering;
and it ended when circumstances caused
each to feel that the one's interest was not
the chief consideration in the other's
thoughts. On a mellow evening in
September, I was coming from the garden
with a heavy basket of apples which I had
been gathering. It had got dusk, and the
moon looked over the high wall of the court,
causing undefined shadows to lurk in the
corners of the numerous projecting portions
of the building. I set my burden on the house-
steps by the kitchen-door, and lingered to
rest, and drew in a few more breaths of the
soft, sweet air; my eyes were on the moon,
and my back to the entrance, when I heard a

-53-

put her out of her head! And you ARE
Heathcliff! But altered! Nay, there's no
comprehending it. Have you been for a
soldier?'

'Go and carry my message,' he interrupted,
impatiently. 'I'm in hell till you do!'

He lifted the latch, and I entered; but when I
got to the parlour where Mr. and Mrs. Linton
were, I could not persuade myself to
proceed. At length I resolved on making an
excuse to ask if they would have the candles
lighted, and I opened the door.

They sat together in a window whose lattice
lay back against the wall, and displayed,
beyond the garden trees, and the wild green
park, the valley of Gimmerton, with a long
line of mist winding nearly to its top (for very
soon after you pass the chapel, as you may
have noticed, the sough that runs from the
marshes joins a beck which follows the
bend of the glen). Wuthering Heights rose
above this silvery vapour; but our old house
was invisible; it rather dips down on the
other side. Both the room and its occupants,
and the scene they gazed on, looked
wondrously peaceful. I shrank reluctantly
from performing my errand; and was
actually going away leaving it unsaid, after
having put my question about the candles,
when a sense of my folly compelled me to
return, and mutter, 'A person from
Gimmerton wishes to see you ma'am.'

'What does he want?' asked Mrs. Linton.

'I did not question him,' I answered.

'Well, close the curtains, Nelly,' she said;
'and bring up tea. I'll be back again directly.'

She quitted the apartment; Mr. Edgar
inquired, carelessly, who it was.

-54-

Mrs. Linton eyed him with a droll expression
half angry, half laughing at his
fastidiousness.

'No,' she added, after a while; 'I cannot sit
in the kitchen. Set two tables here, Ellen:
one for your master and Miss Isabella,
being gentry; the other for Heathcliff and
myself, being of the lower orders. Will that
please you, dear? Or must I have a fire
lighted elsewhere? If so, give directions. I'll
run down and secure my guest. I'm afraid
the joy is too great to be real!'

She was about to dart off again; but Edgar
arrested her.

'YOU bid him step up,' he said, addressing
me; 'and, Catherine, try to be glad, without
being absurd. The whole household need
not witness the sight of your welcoming a
runaway servant as a brother.'

I descended, and found Heathcliff waiting
under the porch, evidently anticipating an
invitation to enter. He followed my guidance
without waste of words, and I ushered him
into the presence of the master and
mistress, whose flushed cheeks betrayed
signs of warm talking. But the lady's glowed
with another feeling when her friend
appeared at the door: she sprang forward,
took both his hands, and led him to Linton;
and then she seized Linton's reluctant
fingers and crushed them into his. Now, fully
revealed by the fire and candlelight, I was
amazed, more than ever, to behold the
transformation of Heathcliff. He had grown
a tall, athletic, well-formed man; beside
whom my master seemed quite slender and
youth-like. His upright carriage suggested
the idea of his having been in the army. His
countenance was much older in expression
and decision of feature than Mr. Linton's; it
looked intelligent, and retained no marks of
former degradation. A half civilised ferocity

-55-

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.

-56-

humour you: I know what there would be to
do if they did not. You can well afford to
indulge their passing whims as long as their
business is to anticipate all your desires.
You may, however, fall out, at last, over
something of equal consequence to both
sides; and then those you term weak are
very capable of being as obstinate as you.'

'And then we shall fight to the death, sha'n't
we, Nelly?' she returned, laughing. 'No! I tell
you, I have such faith in Linton's love, that I
believe I might kill him, and he wouldn't wish
to retaliate.'

I advised her to value him the more for his
affection.

'I do,' she answered, 'but he needn't resort
to whining for trifles. It is childish and,
instead of melting into tears because I said
that Heathcliff was now worthy of anyone's
regard, and it would honour the first
gentleman in the country to be his friend, he
ought to have said it for me, and been
delighted from sympathy. He must get
accustomed to him, and he may as well like
him: considering how Heathcliff has reason
to object to him, I'm sure he behaved
excellently!'

'What do you think of his going to Wuthering
Heights?' I inquired. 'He is reformed in
every respect, apparently: quite a Christian:
offering the right hand of fellowship to his
enemies all around!'

'He explained it,' she replied. 'I wonder as
much as you. He said he called to gather
information concerning me from you,
supposing you resided there still; and
Joseph told Hindley, who came out and fell
to questioning him of what he had been
doing, and how he had been living; and
finally, desired him to walk in. There were
some persons sitting at cards; Heathcliff

-57-

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

-58-

tell me?'

'Yesterday,' sobbed Isabella, 'and now!'

'Yesterday!' said her sister-in-law. 'On
what occasion?'

'In our walk along the moor: you told me to
ramble where I pleased, while you
sauntered on with Mr. Heathcliff?'

'And that's your notion of harshness?' said
Catherine, laughing. 'It was no hint that your
company was superfluous? We didn't care
whether you kept with us or not; I merely
thought Heathcliff's talk would have nothing
entertaining for your ears.'

'Oh, no,' wept the young lady; 'you wished
me away, because you knew I liked to be
there!'

'Is she sane?' asked Mrs. Linton, appealing
to me. 'I'll repeat our conversation, word for
word, Isabella; and you point out any charm
it could have had for you.'

'I don't mind the conversation,' she
answered: 'I wanted to be with '

"Well?' said Catherine, perceiving her
hesitate to complete the sentence.

'With him: and I won't be always sent off!'
she continued, kindling up. 'You are a dog in
the manger, Cathy, and desire no one to be
loved but yourself!'

'You are an impertinent little monkey!'
exclaimed Mrs. Linton, in surprise. 'But I'll
not believe this idiotcy! It is impossible that
you can covet the admiration of Heathcliff
that you consider him an agreeable person!
I hope I have misunderstood you, Isabella?'

'No, you have not,' said the infatuated girl. 'I

-59-

'I'm certain you do,' retorted Isabella; 'and I
shudder at you!'

'Good!' cried the other. 'Try for yourself, if
that be your spirit: I have done, and yield the
argument to your saucy insolence.'

'And I must suffer for her egotism!' she
sobbed, as Mrs. Linton left the room. 'All, all
is against me: she has blighted my single
consolation. But she uttered falsehoods,
didn't she? Mr. Heathcliff is not a fiend: he
has an honourable soul, and a true one, or
how could he remember her?'

'Banish him from your thoughts, Miss,' I
said. 'He's a bird of bad omen: no mate for
you. Mrs. Linton spoke strongly, and yet I
can't contradict her. She is better
acquainted with his heart than I, or any one
besides; and she never would represent
him as worse than he is. Honest people
don't hide their deeds. How has he been
living? how has he got rich? why is he
staying at Wuthering Heights, the house of a
man whom he abhors? They say Mr.
Earnshaw is worse and worse since he
came. They sit up all night together
continually, and Hindley has been
borrowing money on his land, and does
nothing but play and drink: I heard only a
week ago it was Joseph who told me I met
him at Gimmerton: "Nelly," he said, "we's
hae a crowner's 'quest enow, at ahr folks'.
One on 'em 's a'most getten his finger cut
off wi' hauding t' other fro' stickin' hisseln
loike a cawlf. That's maister, yeah knaw, 'at
's soa up o' going tuh t' grand 'sizes. He's
noan feared o' t' bench o' judges, norther
Paul, nur Peter, nur John, nur Matthew, nor
noan on 'em, not he! He fair likes he langs
to set his brazened face agean 'em! And
yon bonny lad Heathcliff, yah mind, he's a
rare 'un. He can girn a laugh as well 's
onybody at a raight divil's jest. Does he
niver say nowt of his fine living amang us,

-60-

she would gladly have done had it been
practicable.

'Come in, that's right!' exclaimed the
mistress, gaily, pulling a chair to the fire.
'Here are two people sadly in need of a
third to thaw the ice between them; and you
are the very one we should both of us
choose. Heathcliff, I'm proud to show you,
at last, somebody that dotes on you more
than myself. I expect you to feel flattered.
Nay, it's not Nelly; don't look at her! My poor
little sister-in-law is breaking her heart by
mere contemplation of your physical and
moral beauty. It lies in your own power to be
Edgar's brother! No, no, Isabella, you
sha'n't run off,' she continued, arresting,
with feigned playfulness, the confounded
girl, who had risen indignantly. 'We were
quarrelling like cats about you, Heathcliff;
and I was fairly beaten in protestations of
devotion and admiration: and, moreover, I
was informed that if I would but have the
manners to stand aside, my rival, as she will
have herself to be, would shoot a shaft into
your soul that would fix you for ever, and
send my image into eternal oblivion!'

'Catherine!' said Isabella, calling up her
dignity, and disdaining to struggle from the
tight grasp that held her, 'I'd thank you to
adhere to the truth and not slander me, even
in joke! Mr. Heathcliff, be kind enough to
bid this friend of yours release me: she
forgets that you and I are not intimate
acquaintances; and what amuses her is
painful to me beyond expression.'

As the guest answered nothing, but took his
seat, and looked thoroughly indifferent what
sentiments she cherished concerning him,
she turned and whispered an earnest
appeal for liberty to her tormentor.

'By no means!' cried Mrs. Linton in answer.
'I won't be named a dog in the manger

-61-

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

-62-

came to a stone where the highway
branches off on to the moor at your left
hand; a rough sand-pillar, with the letters W.
H. cut on its north side, on the east, G., and
on the south-west, T. G. It serves as a
guide-post to the Grange, the Heights, and
village. The sun shone yellow on its grey
head, reminding me of summer; and I
cannot say why, but all at once a gush of
child's sensations flowed into my heart.
Hindley and I held it a favourite spot twenty
years before. I gazed long at the weather-
worn block; and, stooping down, perceived
a hole near the bottom still full of snail-shells
and pebbles, which we were fond of storing
there with more perishable things; and, as
fresh as reality, it appeared that I beheld my
early playmate seated on the withered turf:
his dark, square head bent forward, and his
little hand scooping out the earth with a
piece of slate. 'Poor Hindley!' I exclaimed,
involuntarily. I started: my bodily eye was
cheated into a momentary belief that the
child lifted its face and stared straight into
mine! It vanished in a twinkling; but
immediately I felt an irresistible yearning to
be at the Heights. Superstition urged me to
comply with this impulse: supposing he
should be dead! I thought or should die
soon! supposing it were a sign of death!
The nearer I got to the house the more
agitated I grew; and on catching sight of it I
trembled in every limb. The apparition had
outstripped me: it stood looking through the
gate. That was my first idea on observing an
elf-locked, brown-eyed boy setting his
ruddy countenance against the bars. Further
reflection suggested this must be Hareton,
MY Hareton, not altered greatly since I left
him, ten months since.

'God bless thee, darling!' I cried, forgetting
instantaneously my foolish fears. 'Hareton,
it's Nelly! Nelly, thy nurse.'

He retreated out of arm's length, and

-63-

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 cheek 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

-64-

'To hear you, people might think you were
the mistress!' she cried. 'You want setting
down in your right place! Heathcliff, what
are you about, raising this stir? I said you
must let Isabella alone! I beg you will, unless
you are tired of being received here, and
wish Linton to draw the bolts against you!'

'God forbid that he should try!' answered
the black villain. I detested him just then.
'God keep him meek and patient! Every day
I grow madder after sending him to
heaven!'

'Hush!' said Catherine, shutting the inner
door! 'Don't vex me. Why have you
disregarded my request? Did she come
across you on purpose?'

'What is it to you?' he growled. 'I have a right
to kiss her, if she chooses; and you have no
right to object. I am not YOUR husband:
YOU needn't be jealous of me!'

'I'm not jealous of you,' replied the
mistress; 'I'm jealous for you. Clear your
face: you sha'n't scowl at me! If you like
Isabella, you shall marry her. But do you like
her? Tell the truth, Heathcliff! There, you
won't answer. I'm certain you don't.'

'And would Mr. Linton approve of his sister
marrying that man?' I inquired.

'Mr. Linton should approve,' returned my
lady, decisively.

'He might spare himself the trouble,' said
Heathcliff: 'I could do as well without his
approbation. And as to you, Catherine, I
have a mind to speak a few words now,
while we are at it. I want you to be aware
that I KNOW you have treated me infernally
infernally! Do you hear? And if you flatter
yourself that I don't perceive it, you are a
fool; and if you think I can be consoled by

-65-

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

-66-

suspecting something, followed; and when I
attempted to call them, she pulled me back,
slammed the door to, and locked it.

'Fair means!' she said, in answer to her
husband's look of angry surprise. 'If you
have not courage to attack him, make an
apology, or allow yourself to be beaten. It
will correct you of feigning more valour than
you possess. No, I'll swallow the key before
you shall get it! I'm delightfully rewarded for
my kindness to each! After constant
indulgence of one's weak nature, and the
other's bad one, I earn for thanks two
samples of blind ingratitude, stupid to
absurdity! Edgar, I was defending you and
yours; and I wish Heathcliff may flog you
sick, for daring to think an evil thought of
me!'

It did not need the medium of a flogging to
produce that effect on the master. He tried
to wrest the key from Catherine's grasp,
and for safety she flung it into the hottest
part of the fire; whereupon Mr. Edgar was
taken with a nervous trembling, and his
countenance grew deadly pale. For his life
he could not avert that excess of emotion:
mingled anguish and humiliation overcame
him completely. He leant on the back of a
chair, and covered his face.

'Oh, heavens! In old days this would win you
knighthood!' exclaimed Mrs. Linton. 'We are
vanquished! we are vanquished! Heathcliff
would as soon lift a finger at you as the king
would march his army against a colony of
mice. Cheer up! you sha'n't be hurt! Your
type is not a lamb, it's a sucking leveret.'

'I wish you joy of the milk-blooded coward,
Cathy!' said her friend. 'I compliment you on
your taste. And that is the slavering,
shivering thing you preferred to me! I would
not strike him with my fist, but I'd kick him
with my foot, and experience considerable

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Mrs. Linton, who was very much excited,
bade me accompany her up stairs. She did
not know my share in contributing to the
disturbance, and I was anxious to keep her
in ignorance.

'I'm nearly distracted, Nelly!' she
exclaimed, throwing herself on the sofa. 'A
thousand smiths' hammers are beating in
my head! Tell Isabella to shun me; this
uproar is owing to her; and should she or
any one else aggravate my anger at
present, I shall get wild. And, Nelly, say to
Edgar, if you see him again to-night, that
I'm in danger of being seriously ill. I wish it
may prove true. He has startled and
distressed me shockingly! I want to frighten
him. Besides, he might come and begin a
string of abuse or complainings; I'm certain
I should recriminate, and God knows where
we should end! Will you do so, my good
Nelly? You are aware that I am no way
blamable in this matter. What possessed
him to turn listener? Heathcliff's talk was
outrageous, after you left us; but I could
soon have diverted him from Isabella, and
the rest meant nothing. Now all is dashed
wrong; by the fool's craving to hear evil of
self, that haunts some people like a demon!
Had Edgar never gathered our
conversation, he would never have been the
worse for it. Really, when he opened on me
in that unreasonable tone of displeasure
after I had scolded Heathcliff till I was
hoarse for him, I did not care hardly what
they did to each other; especially as I felt
that, however the scene closed, we should
all be driven asunder for nobody knows how
long! Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my
friend if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I'll
try to break their hearts by breaking my own.
That will be a prompt way of finishing all,
when I am pushed to extremity! But it's a
deed to be reserved for a forlorn hope; I'd
not take Linton by surprise with it. To this
point he has been discreet in dreading to

-68-

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

-69-

he might not hear her voice. I determined
they should come about as they pleased for
me; and though it was a tiresomely slow
process, I began to rejoice at length in a
faint dawn of its progress: as I thought at
first.

Mrs. Linton, on the third day, unbarred her
door, and having finished the water in her
pitcher and decanter, desired a renewed
supply, and a basin of gruel, for she
believed she was dying. That I set down as
a speech meant for Edgar's ears; I believed
no such thing, so I kept it to myself and
brought her some tea and dry toast. She ate
and drank eagerly, and sank back on her
pillow again, clenching her hands and
groaning. 'Oh, I will die,' she exclaimed,
'since no one cares anything about me. I
wish I had not taken that.' Then a good while
after I heard her murmur, 'No, I'll not die
he'd be glad he does not love me at all he
would never miss me!'

'Did you want anything, ma'am?' I inquired,
still preserving my external composure, in
spite of her ghastly countenance and
strange, exaggerated manner.

'What is that apathetic being doing?' she
demanded, pushing the thick entangled
locks from her wasted face. 'Has he fallen
into a lethargy, or is he dead?'

'Neither,' replied I; 'if you mean Mr. Linton.
He's tolerably well, I think, though his
studies occupy him rather more than they
ought: he is continually among his books,
since he has no other society.'

I should not have spoken so if I had known
her true condition, but I could not get rid of
the notion that she acted a part of her
disorder.

'Among his books!' she cried, confounded.

-70-

back to his BOOKS! What in the name of all
that feels has he to do with BOOKS, when I
am dying?'

She could not bear the notion which I had
put into her head of Mr. Linton's
philosophical resignation. Tossing about,
she increased her feverish bewilderment to
madness, and tore the pillow with her teeth;
then raising herself up all burning, desired
that I would open the window. We were in
the middle of winter, the wind blew strong
from the north-east, and I objected. Both
the expressions flitting over her face, and
the changes of her moods, began to alarm
me terribly; and brought to my recollection
her former illness, and the doctor's
injunction that she should not be crossed. A
minute previously she was violent; now,
supported on one arm, and not noticing my
refusal to obey her, she seemed to find
childish diversion in pulling the feathers
from the rents she had just made, and
ranging them on the sheet according to their
different species: her mind had strayed to
other associations.

'That's a turkey's,' she murmured to
herself; 'and this is a wild duck's; and this is
a pigeon's. Ah, they put pigeons' feathers
in the pillows no wonder I couldn't die! Let
me take care to throw it on the floor when I
lie down. And here is a moor-cock's; and
this I should know it among a thousand it's a
lapwing's. Bonny bird; wheeling over our
heads in the middle of the moor. It wanted to
get to its nest, for the clouds had touched
the swells, and it felt rain coming. This
feather was picked up from the heath, the
bird was not shot: we saw its nest in the
winter, full of little skeletons. Heathcliff set a
trap over it, and the old ones dared not
come. I made him promise he'd never shoot
a lapwing after that, and he didn't. Yes, here
are more! Did he shoot my lapwings, Nelly?
Are they red, any of them? Let me look.'

-71-

Nelly, the room is haunted! I'm afraid of
being alone!'

I took her hand in mine, and bid her be
composed; for a succession of shudders
convulsed her frame, and she would keep
straining her gaze towards the glass.

'There's nobody here!' I insisted. 'It was
YOURSELF, Mrs. Linton: you knew it a
while since.'

'Myself!' she gasped, 'and the clock is
striking twelve! It's true, then! that's
dreadful!'

Her fingers clutched the clothes, and
gathered them over her eyes. I attempted to
steal to the door with an intention of calling
her husband; but I was summoned back by
a piercing shriek the shawl had dropped
from the frame.

'Why, what is the matter?' cried I. 'Who is
coward now? Wake up! That is the glass the
mirror, Mrs. Linton; and you see yourself in
it, and there am I too by your side.'

Trembling and bewildered, she held me
fast, but the horror gradually passed from
her countenance; its paleness gave place to
a glow of shame.

'Oh, dear! I thought I was at home,' she
sighed. 'I thought I was lying in my chamber
at Wuthering Heights. Because I'm weak,
my brain got confused, and I screamed
unconsciously. Don't say anything; but stay
with me. I dread sleeping: my dreams appal
me.'

'A sound sleep would do you good,
ma'am,' I answered: 'and I hope this
suffering will prevent your trying starving
again.'

-72-

square of the window, that I was enclosed
in the oak-panelled bed at home; and my
heart ached with some great grief which,
just waking, I could not recollect. I
pondered, and worried myself to discover
what it could be, and, most strangely, the
whole last seven years of my life grew a
blank! I did not recall that they had been at
all. I was a child; my father was just buried,
and my misery arose from the separation
that Hindley had ordered between me and
Heathcliff. I was laid alone, for the first time;
and, rousing from a dismal doze after a
night of weeping, I lifted my hand to push the
panels aside: it struck the table-top! I swept
it along the carpet, and then memory burst
in: my late anguish was swallowed in a
paroxysm of despair. I cannot say why I felt
so wildly wretched: it must have been
temporary derangement; for there is
scarcely cause. But, supposing at twelve
years old I had been wrenched from the
Heights, and every early association, and
my all in all, as Heathcliff was at that time,
and been converted at a stroke into Mrs.
Linton, the lady of Thrushcross Grange, and
the wife of a stranger: an exile, and outcast,
thenceforth, from what had been my world.
You may fancy a glimpse of the abyss
where I grovelled! Shake your head as you
will, Nelly, you have helped to unsettle me!
You should have spoken to Edgar, indeed
you should, and compelled him to leave me
quiet! Oh, I'm burning! I wish I were out of
doors! I wish I were a girl again, half savage
and hardy, and free; and laughing at
injuries, not maddening under them! Why
am I so changed? why does my blood rush
into a hell of tumult at a few words? I'm sure
I should be myself were I once among the
heather on those hills. Open the window
again wide: fasten it open! Quick, why don't
you move?'

'Because I won't give you your death of
cold,' I answered.

-73-

insanity, I was planning how I could reach
something to wrap about her, without
quitting my hold of herself (for I could not
trust her alone by the gaping lattice), when,
to my consternation, I heard the rattle of the
door-handle, and Mr. Linton entered. He
had only then come from the library; and, in
passing through the lobby, had noticed our
talking and been attracted by curiosity, or
fear, to examine what it signified, at that
late hour.

'Oh, sir!' I cried, checking the exclamation
risen to his lips at the sight which met him,
and the bleak atmosphere of the chamber.
'My poor mistress is ill, and she quite
masters me: I cannot manage her at all;
pray, come and persuade her to go to bed.
Forget your anger, for she's hard to guide
any way but her own.'

'Catherine ill?' he said, hastening to us.
'Shut the window, Ellen! Catherine! why '

He was silent. The haggardness of Mrs.
Linton's appearance smote him
speechless, and he could only glance from
her to me in horrified astonishment.

'She's been fretting here,' I continued, 'and
eating scarcely anything, and never
complaining: she would admit none of us till
this evening, and so we couldn't inform you
of her state, as we were not aware of it
ourselves; but it is nothing.'

I felt I uttered my explanations awkwardly;
the master frowned. 'It is nothing, is it, Ellen
Dean?' he said sternly. 'You shall account
more clearly for keeping me ignorant of
this!' And he took his wife in his arms, and
looked at her with anguish.

At first she gave him no glance of
recognition: he was invisible to her
abstracted gaze. The delirium was not

-74-

cause such a change!'

I began to defend myself, thinking it too bad
to be blamed for another's wicked
waywardness. 'I knew Mrs. Linton's nature
to be headstrong and domineering,' cried I:
'but I didn't know that you wished to foster
her fierce temper! I didn't know that, to
humour her, I should wink at Mr. Heathcliff. I
performed the duty of a faithful servant in
telling you, and I have got a faithful servant's
wages! Well, it will teach me to be careful
next time. Next time you may gather
intelligence for yourself!'

'The next time you bring a tale to me you
shall quit my service, Ellen Dean,' he
replied.

'You'd rather hear nothing about it, I
suppose, then, Mr. Linton?' said I.
'Heathcliff has your permission to come a-
courting to Miss, and to drop in at every
opportunity your absence offers, on
purpose to poison the mistress against
you?'

Confused as Catherine was, her wits were
alert at applying our conversation.

'Ah! Nelly has played traitor,' she
exclaimed, passionately. 'Nelly is my
hidden enemy. You witch! So you do seek
elf-bolts to hurt us! Let me go, and I'll make
her rue! I'll make her howl a recantation!'

A maniac's fury kindled under her brows;
she struggled desperately to disengage
herself from Linton's arms. I felt no
inclination to tarry the event; and, resolving
to seek medical aid on my own
responsibility, I quitted the chamber.

In passing the garden to reach the road, at a
place where a bridle hook is driven into the
wall, I saw something white moved

-75-

Earnshaws' violent dispositions, and Mrs.
Linton caps them all. I may say this; it
commenced in a quarrel. She was struck
during a tempest of passion with a kind of
fit. That's her account, at least: for she flew
off in the height of it, and locked herself up.
Afterwards, she refused to eat, and now
she alternately raves and remains in a half
dream; knowing those about her, but having
her mind filled with all sorts of strange ideas
and illusions.'

'Mr. Linton will be sorry?' observed
Kenneth, interrogatively.

' Sorry? he'll break his heart should anything
happen!' I replied. 'Don't alarm him more
than necessary.'

'Well, I told him to beware,' said my
companion; 'and he must bide the
consequences of neglecting my warning!
Hasn't he been intimate with Mr. Heathcliff
lately?'

'Heathcliff frequently visits at the Grange,'
answered I, 'though more on the strength of
the mistress having known him when a boy,
than because the master likes his company.
At present he's discharged from the trouble
of calling; owing to some presumptuous
aspirations after Miss Linton which he
manifested. I hardly think he'll be taken in
again.'

'And does Miss Linton turn a cold shoulder
on him?' was the doctor's next question.

'I'm not in her confidence,' returned I,
reluctant to continue the subject.

'No, she's a sly one,' he remarked, shaking
his head. 'She keeps her own counsel! But
she's a real little fool. I have it from good
authority that last night (and a pretty night it
was!) she and Heathcliff were walking in

-76-

I did not close my eyes that night, nor did Mr.
Linton: indeed, we never went to bed; and
the servants were all up long before the
usual hour, moving through the house with
stealthy tread, and exchanging whispers as
they encountered each other in their
vocations. Every one was active but Miss
Isabella; and they began to remark how
sound she slept: her brother, too, asked if
she had risen, and seemed impatient for
her presence, and hurt that she showed so
little anxiety for her sister-in-law. I trembled
lest he should send me to call her; but I was
spared the pain of being the first
proclaimant of her flight. One of the maids,
a thoughtless girl, who had been on an early
errand to Gimmerton, came panting up-
stairs, open-mouthed, and dashed into the
chamber, crying: 'Oh, dear, dear! What mun
we have next? Master, master, our young
lady '

'Hold your noise!' cried, I hastily, enraged at
her clamorous manner.

'Speak lower, Mary What is the matter?'
said Mr. Linton. 'What ails your young lady?'

'She's gone, she's gone! Yon' Heathcliff's
run off wi' her!' gasped the girl.

'That is not true!' exclaimed Linton, rising in
agitation. 'It cannot be: how has the idea
entered your head? Ellen Dean, go and
seek her. It is incredible: it cannot be.'

As he spoke he took the servant to the door,
and then repeated his demand to know her
reasons for such an assertion.

'Why, I met on the road a lad that fetches
milk here,' she stammered, 'and he asked
whether we weren't in trouble at the
Grange. I thought he meant for missis's
sickness, so I answered, yes. Then says he,
"There's somebody gone after 'em, I