| 1 |
ANOTHER week over -- and I am so many days nearer
health, and spring!
I have now heard all my neighbour's history, at different sittings,
as the housekeeper could spare time from more important
occupations.
I'll continue it in her own words, only a little condensed.
She is, on the whole, a very fair narrator and I don't think I
could improve her style.
| 2 |
In the evening, she said, the evening of my visit to the Heights, I
knew as well as if I saw him, that Mr Heathcliff was about the
place; and I shunned going out, because I still carried his letter
in my pocket, and didn't want to be threatened, or teased any more.
| | 3 |
I had made up my mind not to give it till my master went somewhere;
as I could not guess how its receipt would affect Catherine.
The consequence was, that it did not reach her before the lapse of
three days.
The fourth was Sunday, and I brought it into her room, after the
family were gone to church.
| | 4 |
There was a man servant left to keep the house with me, and we
generally made a practice of locking the doors during the hours of
service; but on that occasion, the weather was so warm and pleasant
that I set them wide open; and to fulfil my engagement, as I knew
who would be coming, I told my companion that the mistress wished
very much for some oranges, and he must run over to the village,
and get a few, to be paid for on the morrow.
He departed, and I went up-stairs.
| | 5 |
Mrs Linton sat in a loose, white dress, with a light shawl over her
shoulders, in the recess of the open window, as usual.
Her thick, long hair had been partly removed at the
combed in its natural tresses over her temples and neck.
Her appearance was altered, as I had told Heathcliff, but when she
was calm, there seemed unearthly beauty in the change.
| | 6 |
The flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a dreamy and melancholy
softness: they no longer gave the impression of looking at the
objects around her; they appeared always to gaze beyond, and far
beyond -- you would have said out of this world -- Then, the
paleness of her face, its haggard aspect having vanished as she
recovered flesh, and the peculiar expression arising from her
mental state, though painfully suggestive of their causes, added to
the touching interest, which she awakened, and invariably to me, I
know, and to any person who saw her, I should think, refuted more
tangible proofs of convalescence and stamped her as one doomed to
decay.
| | 7 |
A book lay spread on the sill before her, and the scarcely
perceptible wind fluttered its leaves at intervals.
I believe Linton had laid it there, for she never endeavoured to
divert herself with reading, or occupation of any kind; and he
would spend many an hour in trying to entice her attention to some
subject which had formerly been her amusement.
| | 8 |
She was conscious of his aim, and in her better moods, endured his
efforts placidly; only showing their uselessness by now and then
suppressing a wearied sigh, and restraining him at last with the
saddest of smiles and kisses.
At other times, she would turn petulantly away, and hide her face
in her hands, or even push him off angrily; and then he took care
to let her alone, for he was certain of doing no good.
| | 9 |
Gimmerton chapel bells were still ringing; and the full, mellow
flow of the beck in the valley, came soothingly on the ear.
It was a sweet substitute for the yet absent murmur of the summer
when the trees were in leaf.
At Wuthering Heights it always sounded on quiet days, following a
great thaw, or a season of steady rain -- and, of Wuthering
Heights, Catherine was thinking as she listened; that is, if she
thought, or listened, at all; but she had the vague, distant look I
mentioned before, which expressed no recognition of material things
either by ear or eye.
| | 10 |
"There's a letter for you, Mrs Linton," I said, gently inserting it
in one hand that rested on her knee.
"You must read it immediately, because it wants an answer.
Shall I break the seal?"
| | 11 |
"Yes," she answered, without altering the direction of her eyes.
| | 12 |
I opened it -- it was very short.
| | 13 |
"Now," I continued, "read it."
| | 14 |
She drew away her hand, and let it fall.
I replaced it in her lap, and stood waiting till it should please
her to glance down; but that movement was so long delayed that at
last I resumed --
| | 15 |
"Must I read it, ma'am?
It is from Mr Heathcliff."
| | 16 |
There was a start, and a troubled gleam of recollection, and a
struggle to arrange her ideas.
She lifted the letter, and seemed to peruse it; and when she came
to the signature she sighed; yet still I found she had not gathered
its import; for upon my desiring to hear her reply she merely
pointed to the name, and gazed at me with mournful and questioning
eagerness.
| | 17 |
"Well, he wishes to see you," said I, guessing her need of an
interpreter.
"He's in the garden by this time, and impatient to know what answer
I shall bring."
| | 18 |
As I spoke, I observed a large dog lying on the sunny grass
beneath, raise its ears, as if about to bark; and then smoothing
them back, announce by a wag of the tail that someone approached
| | 19 |
Mrs Linton bent forward, and listened breathlessly.
The minute after a step traversed the hall; the open house was too
tempting for Heathcliff to resist walking in: most likely he
supposed that I was inclined to shirk my promise, and so resolved
to trust to his own audacity.
| | 20 |
With straining eagerness Catherine gazed towards the entrance of
her chamber.
He did not hit the right room directly; she motioned me to admit
him; but he found it out, ere I could reach the door, and in a
stride or two was at her side, and had her grasped in his arms.
| | 21 |
He neither spoke, nor loosed his hold, for some five minutes,
during which period he bestowed more kisses than ever he gave in
his life before, I dare say; but then my mistress had kissed him
first, and I plainly saw that he could hardly bear, for downright
agony, to look into her face!
The same conviction had stricken him as me, from the instant he
beheld her, that there was no prospect of ultimate recovery there -
- she was fated, sure to die.
| | 22 |
"Oh, Cathy!
Oh my life! how can I bear it?" was the first sentence he uttered,
in a tone that did not seek to disguise his despair.
| | 23 |
And now he stared at her so earnestly that I thought the very
intensity of his gaze would bring tears into his eyes; but they
burned with anguish, they did not melt.
| | 24 |
"What now?" said Catherine, leaning back, and returning his look
with a suddenly clouded brow -- her humour was a mere vane for
constantly varying caprices.
"You and Edgar have broken my heart, Heathcliff!
And you both come to bewail the deed to me, as if you were the
people to be pitied!
I shall not pity you, not I.
You have killed me -- and thriven on it, I think.
How strong you are!
How many years do you mean to live after I am gone?"
| | 25 |
Heathcliff had knelt on one knee to embrace her; he attempted to
| | 26 |
"I wish I could hold you," she continued, bitterly, "till we were
both dead!
I shouldn't care what you suffered.
I care nothing for your sufferings.
Why shouldn't you suffer?
I do!
Will you forget me -- will you be happy when I am in the earth?
Will you say twenty years hence, 'That's the grave of Catherine
Earnshaw.
I loved her long ago, and was wretched to lose her; but it is past.
I've loved many others since -- my children are dearer to me than
she was, and, at death, I shall not rejoice that I am going to her,
I shall be sorry that I must lose them!' Will you say so,
Heathcliff?"
| | 27 |
"Don't torture me till I'm as mad as yourself," cried he, wrenching
his head free, and grinding his teeth.
| | 28 |
The two, to a cool spectator, made a strange and fearful picture.
Well might Catherine deem that heaven would be a land of exile to
her, unless, with her mortal body, she cast away her moral
character also.
Her present countenance had a wild vindictiveness in its white
cheek, and a bloodless lip, and scintillating eye; and she
retained, in her closed fingers, a portion of the locks she had
been grasping.
As to her companion, while raising himself with one hand, he had
taken her arm with the other; and so inadequate was his stock of
gentleness to the requirements of her condition, that on his
letting go, I saw four distinct impressions left blue in the
colourless skin.
| | 29 |
"Are you possessed with a devil," he pursued, savagely, "to talk in
that manner to me, when you are dying?
Do you reflect that all those words will be branded in my memory,
and eating deeper eternally, after you have left me?
You know you lie to say I have killed you; and, Catherine, you know
that I could as soon forget you, as my existence!
Is it not sufficient for your infernal selfishness, that while you
are at peace I shall writhe in the torments of hell?"
| | 30 |
"I shall not be at peace," moaned Catherine, recalled to
throbbing of her heart, which beat visibly, and audibly under this
excess of agitation.
| | 31 |
She said nothing further till the paroxysm was over; then she
continued, more kindly --
| | 32 |
"I'm not wishing you greater torment than I have, Heathcliff!
I only wish us never to be parted -- and should a word of mine
distress you hereafter, think I feel the same distress underground,
and for my own sake, forgive me!
Come here and kneel down again!
You never harmed me in your life.
Nay, if you nurse anger, that will be worse to remember than my
harsh words!
Won't you come here again?
Do!"
| | 33 |
Heathcliff went to the back of her chair, and leant over, but not
so far as to let her see his face, which was livid with emotion.
She bent round to look at him; he would not permit it; turning
abruptly, he walked to the fire-place, where he stood, silent, with
his back towards us.
| | 34 |
Mrs Linton's glance followed him suspiciously: every movement woke
a new sentiment in her.
After a pause, and a prolonged gaze, she resumed, addressing me in
accents of indignant disappointment.
| | 35 |
"Oh, you see, Nelly! he would not relent a moment, to keep me out
of the grave!
That is how I'm loved!
Well, never mind!
That is not my Heathcliff.
I shall love mine yet; and take him with me -- he's in my soul.
And," added she, musingly, "the thing that irks me most is this
shattered prison, after all.
I'm tired, tired of being enclosed here.
I'm wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always
there; not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it
through the walls of an aching heart; but really with it, and in
it.
Nelly, you think you are better and more fortunate than I; in full
health and strength -- you are sorry for me -- very soon that will
be altered.
I shall be sorry for you.
I shall be incomparably beyond and above you all.
to herself.
"I thought he wished it.
Heathcliff dear! you should not be sullen now.
Do come to me, Heathcliff."
| | 36 |
In her eagerness she rose, and supported herself on the arm of the
chair.
At that earnest appeal, he turned to her, looking absolutely
desperate.
His eyes wide, and wet, at last, flashed fiercely on her; his
breast heaved convulsively.
An instant they held asunder; and then how they met I hardly saw,
but Catherine made a spring, and he caught her, and they were
locked in an embrace from which I thought my mistress would never
be released alive.
In fact, to my eyes, she seemed directly insensible.
He flung himself into the nearest seat, and on my approaching
hurriedly to ascertain if she had fainted, he gnashed at me, and
foamed like a mad dog, and gathered her to him with greedy
jealousy.
I did not feel as if I were in the company of a creature of my own
species; it appeared that he would not understand, though I spoke
to him; so, I stood off, and held my tongue, in great perplexity.
| | 37 |
A movement of Catherine's relieved me a little presently: she put
up her hand to clasp his neck, and bring her cheek to his, as he
held her: while he, in return, covering her with frantic caresses,
said wildly --
| | 38 |
"You teach me now how cruel you've been -- cruel and false.
Why did you despise me?
Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy?
I have not one word of comfort -- you deserve this.
You have killed yourself.
Yes, you may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears.
They'll blight you -- they'll damn you.
You loved me -- then what right had you to leave me?
What right -- answer me -- for the poor fancy you felt for Linton?
Because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or
satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your
own will, did it.
I have not broken your heart -- you have broken it -- and
So much the worse for me, that I am strong.
Do I want to live?
What kind of living will it be when you -- oh God! would you
like to live with your soul in the grave?"
| | 39 |
"Let me alone.
let me alone," sobbed Catherine.
"If I've done wrong, I'm dying for it.
It is enough!
You left me too; but I won't upbraid you!
I forgive you.
Forgive me!"
| | 40 |
"It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those
wasted hands," he answered.
"Kiss me again; and don't let me see your eyes!
I forgive what you have done to me.
I love my murderer -- but yours!
How can I?"
| | 41 |
They were silent -- their faces hid against each other, and washed
by each other's tears.
At least, I suppose the weeping was on both sides; as it seemed
Heathcliff could weep on a great occasion like this.
| | 42 |
I grew very uncomfortable, meanwhile; for the afternoon wore fast
away, the man whom I had sent off returned from his errand, and I
could distinguish, by the shine of the westering sun up the valley,
a concourse thickening outside Gimmerton chapel porch.
| | 43 |
"Service is over," I announced.
"My master will be here in half-an-hour."
| | 44 |
Heathcliff groaned a curse, and strained Catherine closer -- she
never moved.
| | 45 |
Ere long I perceived a group of the servants passing up the road
towards the kitchen wing.
Mr Linton was not far behind; he opened the gate himself, and
sauntered slowly up, probably enjoying the lovely afternoon that
breathed as soft as summer.
| | 46 |
"Now he is here," I exclaimed.
"For Heaven's sake, hurry down!
You'll not meet any one on the front stairs.
Do be quick; and stay among the trees till he is fairly in."
| | 47 |
"I must go, Cathy," said Heathcliff, seeking to extricate himself
from his companion's arms.
asleep.
I won't stray five yards from your window."
| | 48 |
"You must not go!" she answered, holding him as firmly as her
strength allowed.
"You shall not, I tell you."
| | 49 |
"For one hour," he pleaded earnestly.
| | 50 |
"Not for one minute," she replied.
| | 51 |
"I must -- Linton will be up immediately," persisted the
alarmed intruder.
| | 52 |
He would have risen, and unfixed her fingers by the act -- she
clung fast gasping; there was mad resolution in her face.
| | 53 |
"No!" she shrieked.
"Oh, don't, don't go.
It is the last time!
Edgar will not hurt us.
Heathcliff, I shall die!
I shall die!"
| | 54 |
"Damn the fool!
There he is," cried Heathcliff, sinking back into his seat.
"Hush, my darling!
Hush, hush, Catherine!
I'll stay.
If he shot me so, I'd expire with a blessing on my lips."
| | 55 |
And there they were fast again.
I heard my master mounting the stairs -- the cold sweat ran from my
forehead; I was horrified.
| | 56 |
"Are you going to listen to her ravings?" I said, passionately.
"She does not know what she says.
Will you ruin her, because she has not wit to help herself?
Get up!
You could be free instantly.
That is the most diabolical deed that ever you did.
We are all done for -- master, mistress, and servant."
| | 57 |
I wrung my hands, and cried out; and Mr Linton hastened his step at
the noise.
In the midst of my agitation, I was sincerely glad to observe that
Catherine's arms had fallen relaxed, and her head hung down.
| | 58 |
"She's fainted or dead," I thought, "so much the better.
Far better that she should be dead, than lingering a burden, and a
| | 59 |
Edgar sprang to his unbidden guest, blanched with astonishment and
rage.
What he meant to do, I cannot tell; however, the other stopped all
demonstrations, at once, by placing the lifeless-looking form in
his arms.
| | 60 |
"Look there," he said, "unless you be a fiend, help her first --
then you shall speak to me!"
| | 61 |
He walked into the parlour, and sat down.
Mr Linton summoned me, and with great difficulty, and after
resorting to many means, we managed to restore her to sensation;
but she was all bewildered; she sighed, and moaned, and knew
nobody.
Edgar, in his anxiety for her, forgot her hated friend.
I did not.
I went, at the earliest opportunity, and besought him to depart,
affirming that Catherine was better, and he should hear from me in
the morning, how she passed the night.
| | 62 |
"I shall not refuse to go out of doors," he answered; "but I shall
stay in the garden; and, Nelly, mind you keep your word to-morrow.
I shall be under those larch trees, mind! or I pay another visit,
whether Linton be in or not."
| | 63 |
He sent a rapid glance through the half-open door of the chamber,
and ascertaining that what I stated was apparently true, delivered
the house of his luckless presence.
| |
