THE evening after the funeral,
my young lady and I were seated
in the library; now musing mournfully
- one of us despairingly - on
our loss, now venturing conjectures
as to the gloomy future.
We had just agreed the best
destiny which could await Catherine
would be a permission to continue
resident at the Grange; at least
during Linton's life: he being
allowed to join her there, and
I to remain as housekeeper. That
seemed rather too favourable
an arrangement to be hoped for;
and yet I did hope, and began
to cheer up under the prospect
of retaining my home and my employment,
and, above all, my beloved young
mistress; when a servant - one
of the discarded ones, not yet
departed - rushed hastily in,
and said 'that devil Heathcliff'
was coming through the court:
should he fasten the door in
his face?
If we had been mad enough to
order that proceeding, we had
not time. He made no ceremony
of knocking or announcing his
name: he was master, and availed
himself of the master's privilege
to walk straight in, without
saying a word. The sound of our
informant's voice directed him
to the library; he entered and
motioning him out, shut the door.
It was the same room into which
he had been ushered, as a guest,
eighteen years before: the same
moon shone through the window;
and the same autumn landscape
lay outside. We had not yet lighted
a candle, but all the apartment
was visible, even to the portraits
on the wall: the splendid head
of Mrs. Linton, and the graceful
one of her husband. Heathcliff
advanced to the hearth. Time
had little altered his person
either. There was the same man:
his dark face rather sallower
and more composed, his frame
a stone or two heavier, perhaps,
and no other difference. Catherine
had risen with an impulse to
dash out, when she saw him.
'Stop!' he said, arresting
her by the arm. 'No more runnings
away! Where would you go? I'm
come to fetch you home; and I
hope you'll be a dutiful daughter
and not encourage my son to further
disobedience. I was embarrassed
how to punish him when I discovered
his part in the business: he's
such a cobweb, a pinch would
annihilate him; but you'll see
by his look that he has received
his due! I brought him down one
evening, the day before yesterday,
and just set him in a chair,
and never touched him afterwards.
I sent Hareton out, and we had
the room to ourselves. In two
hours, I called Joseph to carry
him up again; and since then
my presence is as potent on his
nerves as a ghost; and I fancy
he sees me often, though I am
not near. Hareton says he wakes
and shrieks in the night by the
hour together, and calls you
to protect him from me; and,
whether you like your precious
mate, or not, you must come:
he's your concern now; I yield
all my interest in him to you.'
'Why not let Catherine continue
here,' I pleaded, 'and send Master
Linton to her? As you hate them
both, you'd not miss them: they
can only be a daily plague to
your unnatural heart.'
'I'm seeking a tenant for the
Grange,' he answered; 'and I
want my children about me, to
be sure. Besides, that lass owes
me her services for her bread.
I'm not going to nurture her
in luxury and idleness after
Linton is gone. Make haste and
get ready, now; and don't oblige
me to compel you.'
'I shall,' said Catherine.
'Linton is all I have to love
in the world, and though you
have done what you could to make
him hateful to me, and me to
him, you cannot make us hate
each other. And I defy you to
hurt him when I am by, and I
defy you to frighten me!'
'You are a boastful champion,'
replied Heathcliff; 'but I don't
like you well enough to hurt
him: you shall get the full benefit
of the torment, as long as it
lasts. It is not I who will make
him hateful to you - it is his
own sweet spirit. He's as bitter
as gall at your desertion and
its consequences: don't expect
thanks for this noble devotion.
I heard him draw a pleasant picture
to Zillah of what he would do
if he were as strong as I: the
inclination is there, and his
very weakness will sharpen his
wits to find a substitute for
strength.'
'I know he has a bad nature,'
said Catherine: 'he's your son.
But I'm glad I've a better, to
forgive it; and I know he loves
me, and for that reason I love
him. Mr. Heathcliff YOU have
NOBODY to love you; and, however
miserable you make us, we shall
still have the revenge of thinking
that your cruelty arises from
your greater misery. You ARE
miserable, are you not? Lonely,
like the devil, and envious like
him? NOBODY loves you - NOBODY
will cry for you when you die!
I wouldn't be you!'
Catherine spoke with a kind
of dreary triumph: she seemed
to have made up her mind to enter
into the spirit of her future
family, and draw pleasure from
the griefs of her enemies.
'You shall be sorry to be yourself
presently,' said her father-in-
law, 'if you stand there another
minute. Begone, witch, and get
your things!'
She scornfully withdrew. In
her absence I began to beg for
Zillah's place at the Heights,
offering to resign mine to her;
but he would suffer it on no
account. He bid me be silent;
and then, for the first time,
allowed himself a glance round
the room and a look at the pictures.
Having studied Mrs. Linton's,
he said - 'I shall have that
home. Not because I need it,
but - ' He turned abruptly to
the fire, and continued, with
what, for lack of a better word,
I must call a smile - 'I'll tell
you what I did yesterday! I got
the sexton, who was digging Linton's
grave, to remove the earth off
her coffin lid, and I opened
it. I thought, once, I would
have stayed there: when I saw
her face again - it is hers yet!
- he had hard work to stir me;
but he said it would change if
the air blew on it, and so I
struck one side of the coffin
loose, and covered it up: not
Linton's side, damn him! I wish
he'd been soldered in lead. And
I bribed the sexton to pull it
away when I'm laid there, and
slide mine out too; I'll have
it made so: and then by the time
Linton gets to us he'll not know
which is which!'
'You were very wicked, Mr.
Heathcliff!' I exclaimed; 'were
you not ashamed to disturb the
dead?'
'I disturbed nobody, Nelly,'
he replied; 'and I gave some
ease to myself. I shall be a
great deal more comfortable now;
and you'll have a better chance
of keeping me underground, when
I get there. Disturbed her? No!
she has disturbed me, night and
day, through eighteen years -
incessantly - remorselessly -
till yesternight; and yesternight
I was tranquil. I dreamt I was
sleeping the last sleep by that
sleeper, with my heart stopped
and my cheek frozen against hers.'
'And if she had been dissolved
into earth, or worse, what would
you have dreamt of then?' I said.
'Of dissolving
with her, and being more happy
still!' he answered.
'Do you suppose I dread any change
of that sort? I expected such
a transformation on raising the
lid - but I'm better pleased
that it should not commence till
I share it. Besides, unless I
had received a distinct impression
of her passionless features,
that strange feeling would hardly
have been removed. It began oddly.
You know I was wild after she
died; and eternally, from dawn
to dawn, praying her to return
to me her spirit! I have a strong
faith in ghosts: I have a conviction
that they can, and do, exist
among us! The day she was buried,
there came a fall of snow. In
the evening I went to the churchyard.
It blew bleak as winter - all
round was solitary. I didn't
fear that her fool of a husband
would wander up the glen so late;
and no one else had business
to bring them there. Being alone,
and conscious two yards of loose
earth was the sole barrier between
us, I said to myself - 'I'll
have her in my arms again! If
she be cold, I'll think it is
this north wind that chills ME;
and if she be motionless, it
is sleep." I got a spade from
the tool-house, and began to
delve with all my might - it
scraped the coffin; I fell to
work with my hands; the wood
commenced cracking about the
screws; I was on the point of
attaining my object, when it
seemed that I heard a sigh from
some one above, close at the
edge of the grave, and bending
down. "If I can only get this
off," I muttered, "I wish they
may shovel in the earth over
us both!" and I wrenched at it
more desperately still. There
was another sigh, close at my
ear. I appeared to feel the warm
breath of it displacing the sleet-laden
wind. I knew no living thing
in flesh and blood was by; but,
as certainly as you perceive
the approach to some substantial
body in the dark, though it cannot
be discerned, so certainly I
felt that Cathy was there: not
under me, but on the earth. A
sudden sense of relief flowed
from my heart through every limb.
I relinquished my labour of agony,
and turned consoled at once:
unspeakably consoled. Her presence
was with me: it remained while
I re-filled the grave, and led
me home. You may laugh, if you
will; but I was sure I should
see her there. I was sure she
was with me, and I could not
help talking to her. Having reached
the Heights, I rushed eagerly
to the door. It was fastened;
and, I remember, that accursed
Earnshaw and my wife opposed
my entrance. I remember stopping
to kick the breath out of him,
and then hurrying up-stairs,
to my room and hers. I looked
round impatiently - I felt her
by me - I could ALMOST see her,
and yet I COULD NOT! I ought
to have sweat blood then, from
the anguish of my yearning -
from the fervour of my supplications
to have but one glimpse! I had
not one. She showed herself,
as she often was in life, a devil
to me! And, since then, sometimes
more and sometimes less, I've
been the sport of that intolerable
torture! Infernal! keeping my
nerves at such a stretch that,
if they had not resembled catgut,
they would long ago have relaxed
to the feebleness of Linton's.
When I sat in the house with
Hareton, it seemed that on going
out I should meet her; when I
walked on the moors I should
meet her coming in. When I went
from home I hastened to return;
she MUST be somewhere at the
Heights, I was certain! And when
I slept in her chamber - I was
beaten out of that. I couldn't
lie there; for the moment I closed
my eyes, she was either outside
the window, or sliding back the
panels, or entering the room,
or even resting her darling head
on the same pillow as she did
when a child; and I must open
my lids to see. And so I opened
and closed them a hundred times
a night - to be always disappointed!
It racked me! I've often groaned
aloud, till that old rascal Joseph
no doubt believed that my conscience
was playing the fiend inside
of me. Now, since I've seen her,
I'm pacified - a little. It was
a strange way of killing: not
by inches, but by fractions of
hairbreadths, to beguile me with
the spectre of a hope through
eighteen years!'
Mr. Heathcliff paused and wiped
his forehead; his hair clung
to it, wet with perspiration;
his eyes were fixed on the red
embers of the fire, the brows
not contracted, but raised next
the temples; diminishing the
grim aspect of his countenance,
but imparting a peculiar look
of trouble, and a painful appearance
of mental tension towards one
absorbing subject. He only half
addressed me, and I maintained
silence. I didn't like to hear
him talk! After a short period
he resumed his meditation on
the picture, took it down and
leant it against the sofa to
contemplate it at better advantage;
and while so occupied Catherine
entered, announcing that she
was ready, when her pony should
be saddled.
'Send that over to-morrow,'
said Heathcliff to me; then turning
to her, he added: 'You may do
without your pony: it is a fine
evening, and you'll need no ponies
at Wuthering Heights; for what
journeys you take, your own feet
will serve you. Come along.'
'Good-bye, Ellen!' whispered
my dear little mistress.
As she kissed me, her lips
felt like ice. 'Come and see
me, Ellen; don't forget.'
'Take care you do no such thing,
Mrs. Dean!' said her new father.
'When I wish to speak to you
I'll come here. I want none of
your prying at my house!'
He signed her to precede him;
and casting back a look that
cut my heart, she obeyed. I watched
them, from the window, walk down
the garden. Heathcliff fixed
Catherine's arm under his: though
she disputed the act at first
evidently; and with rapid strides
he hurried her into the alley,
whose trees concealed them.
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