No More Learning

Go--'

And, aiding the indignant elder with a lift by the arm, he rid the room
of him and closed the door.

'Varrah weell! ' shouted Joseph, as he slowly drew off. 'To-morn, he's
come hisseln, and thrust _him_ out, if ye darr! '




CHAPTER XX


To obviate the danger of this threat being fulfilled, Mr. Linton
commissioned me to take the boy home early, on Catherine's pony; and,
said he--'As we shall now have no influence over his destiny, good or
bad, you must say nothing of where he is gone to my daughter: she cannot
associate with him hereafter, and it is better for her to remain in
ignorance of his proximity; lest she should be restless, and anxious to
visit the Heights. Merely tell her his father sent for him suddenly, and
he has been obliged to leave us. '

Linton was very reluctant to be roused from his bed at five o'clock, and
astonished to be informed that he must prepare for further travelling;
but I softened off the matter by stating that he was going to spend some
time with his father, Mr. Heathcliff, who wished to see him so much, he
did not like to defer the pleasure till he should recover from his late
journey.

'My father! ' he cried, in strange perplexity. 'Mamma never told me I had
a father. Where does he live? I'd rather stay with uncle. '

'He lives a little distance from the Grange,' I replied; 'just beyond
those hills: not so far, but you may walk over here when you get hearty.
And you should be glad to go home, and to see him. You must try to love
him, as you did your mother, and then he will love you. '

'But why have I not heard of him before? ' asked Linton. 'Why didn't
mamma and he live together, as other people do? '

'He had business to keep him in the north,' I answered, 'and your
mother's health required her to reside in the south. '

'And why didn't mamma speak to me about him? ' persevered the child. 'She
often talked of uncle, and I learnt to love him long ago. How am I to
love papa? I don't know him. '

'Oh, all children love their parents,' I said. 'Your mother, perhaps,
thought you would want to be with him if she mentioned him often to you.
Let us make haste. An early ride on such a beautiful morning is much
preferable to an hour's more sleep. '

'Is _she_ to go with us,' he demanded, 'the little girl I saw yesterday? '

'Not now,' replied I.

'Is uncle? ' he continued.

'No, I shall be your companion there,' I said.

Linton sank back on his pillow and fell into a brown study.

'I won't go without uncle,' he cried at length: 'I can't tell where you
mean to take me. '

I attempted to persuade him of the naughtiness of showing reluctance to
meet his father; still he obstinately resisted any progress towards
dressing, and I had to call for my master's assistance in coaxing him out
of bed. The poor thing was finally got off, with several delusive
assurances that his absence should be short: that Mr. Edgar and Cathy
would visit him, and other promises, equally ill-founded, which I
invented and reiterated at intervals throughout the way. The pure
heather-scented air, the bright sunshine, and the gentle canter of Minny,
relieved his despondency after a while. He began to put questions
concerning his new home, and its inhabitants, with greater interest and
liveliness.

'Is Wuthering Heights as pleasant a place as Thrushcross Grange? ' he
inquired, turning to take a last glance into the valley, whence a light
mist mounted and formed a fleecy cloud on the skirts of the blue.

'It is not so buried in trees,' I replied, 'and it is not quite so large,
but you can see the country beautifully all round; and the air is
healthier for you--fresher and drier. You will, perhaps, think the
building old and dark at first; though it is a respectable house: the
next best in the neighbourhood. And you will have such nice rambles on
the moors. Hareton Earnshaw--that is, Miss Cathy's other cousin, and so
yours in a manner--will show you all the sweetest spots; and you can
bring a book in fine weather, and make a green hollow your study; and,
now and then, your uncle may join you in a walk: he does, frequently,
walk out on the hills. '

'And what is my father like? ' he asked. 'Is he as young and handsome as
uncle? '

'He's as young,' said I; 'but he has black hair and eyes, and looks
sterner; and he is taller and bigger altogether. He'll not seem to you
so gentle and kind at first, perhaps, because it is not his way: still,
mind you, be frank and cordial with him; and naturally he'll be fonder of
you than any uncle, for you are his own. '

'Black hair and eyes! ' mused Linton. 'I can't fancy him. Then I am not
like him, am I? '

'Not much,' I answered: not a morsel, I thought, surveying with regret
the white complexion and slim frame of my companion, and his large
languid eyes--his mother's eyes, save that, unless a morbid touchiness
kindled them a moment, they had not a vestige of her sparkling spirit.

'How strange that he should never come to see mamma and me! ' he murmured.
'Has he ever seen me? If he has, I must have been a baby. I remember
not a single thing about him! '

'Why, Master Linton,' said I, 'three hundred miles is a great distance;
and ten years seem very different in length to a grown-up person compared
with what they do to you. It is probable Mr. Heathcliff proposed going
from summer to summer, but never found a convenient opportunity; and now
it is too late. Don't trouble him with questions on the subject: it will
disturb him, for no good. '

The boy was fully occupied with his own cogitations for the remainder of
the ride, till we halted before the farmhouse garden-gate. I watched to
catch his impressions in his countenance. He surveyed the carved front
and low-browed lattices, the straggling gooseberry-bushes and crooked
firs, with solemn intentness, and then shook his head: his private
feelings entirely disapproved of the exterior of his new abode. But he
had sense to postpone complaining: there might be compensation within.
Before he dismounted, I went and opened the door. It was half-past six;
the family had just finished breakfast: the servant was clearing and
wiping down the table. Joseph stood by his master's chair telling some
tale concerning a lame horse; and Hareton was preparing for the hayfield.

'Hallo, Nelly! ' said Mr. Heathcliff, when he saw me. 'I feared I should
have to come down and fetch my property myself. You've brought it, have
you? Let us see what we can make of it. '

He got up and strode to the door: Hareton and Joseph followed in gaping
curiosity. Poor Linton ran a frightened eye over the faces of the three.

'Sure-ly,' said Joseph after a grave inspection, 'he's swopped wi' ye,
Maister, an' yon's his lass! '

Heathcliff, having stared his son into an ague of confusion, uttered a
scornful laugh.

'God! what a beauty! what a lovely, charming thing! ' he exclaimed.
'Hav'n't they reared it on snails and sour milk, Nelly? Oh, damn my
soul! but that's worse than I expected--and the devil knows I was not
sanguine! '

I bid the trembling and bewildered child get down, and enter. He did not
thoroughly comprehend the meaning of his father's speech, or whether it
were intended for him: indeed, he was not yet certain that the grim,
sneering stranger was his father. But he clung to me with growing
trepidation; and on Mr. Heathcliff's taking a seat and bidding him 'come
hither' he hid his face on my shoulder and wept.

'Tut, tut! ' said Heathcliff, stretching out a hand and dragging him
roughly between his knees, and then holding up his head by the chin.
'None of that nonsense! We're not going to hurt thee, Linton--isn't that
thy name? Thou art thy mother's child, entirely! Where is my share in
thee, puling chicken? '

He took off the boy's cap and pushed back his thick flaxen curls, felt
his slender arms and his small fingers; during which examination Linton
ceased crying, and lifted his great blue eyes to inspect the inspector.

'Do you know me? ' asked Heathcliff, having satisfied himself that the
limbs were all equally frail and feeble.

'No,' said Linton, with a gaze of vacant fear.

'You've heard of me, I daresay? '

'No,' he replied again.

'No! What a shame of your mother, never to waken your filial regard for
me! You are my son, then, I'll tell you; and your mother was a wicked
slut to leave you in ignorance of the sort of father you possessed. Now,
don't wince, and colour up! Though it is something to see you have not
white blood. Be a good lad; and I'll do for you. Nelly, if you be tired
you may sit down; if not, get home again. I guess you'll report what you
hear and see to the cipher at the Grange; and this thing won't be settled
while you linger about it. '

'Well,' replied I, 'I hope you'll be kind to the boy, Mr. Heathcliff, or
you'll not keep him long; and he's all you have akin in the wide world,
that you will ever know--remember. '

'I'll be very kind to him, you needn't fear,' he said, laughing. 'Only
nobody else must be kind to him: I'm jealous of monopolising his
affection. And, to begin my kindness, Joseph, bring the lad some
breakfast. Hareton, you infernal calf, begone to your work. Yes, Nell,'
he added, when they had departed, 'my son is prospective owner of your
place, and I should not wish him to die till I was certain of being his
successor. Besides, he's _mine_, and I want the triumph of seeing _my_
descendant fairly lord of their estates; my child hiring their children
to till their fathers' lands for wages. That is the sole consideration
which can make me endure the whelp: I despise him for himself, and hate
him for the memories he revives! But that consideration is sufficient:
he's as safe with me, and shall be tended as carefully as your master
tends his own. I have a room up-stairs, furnished for him in handsome
style; I've engaged a tutor, also, to come three times a week, from
twenty miles' distance, to teach him what he pleases to learn. I've
ordered Hareton to obey him: and in fact I've arranged everything with a
view to preserve the superior and the gentleman in him, above his
associates. I do regret, however, that he so little deserves the
trouble: if I wished any blessing in the world, it was to find him a
worthy object of pride; and I'm bitterly disappointed with the
whey-faced, whining wretch! '

While he was speaking, Joseph returned bearing a basin of milk-porridge,
and placed it before Linton: who stirred round the homely mess with a
look of aversion, and affirmed he could not eat it. I saw the old
man-servant shared largely in his master's scorn of the child; though he
was compelled to retain the sentiment in his heart, because Heathcliff
plainly meant his underlings to hold him in honour.

'Cannot ate it? ' repeated he, peering in Linton's face, and subduing his
voice to a whisper, for fear of being overheard. 'But Maister Hareton
nivir ate naught else, when he wer a little 'un; and what wer gooid
enough for him's gooid enough for ye, I's rayther think! '

'I _sha'n't_ eat it! ' answered Linton, snappishly. 'Take it away. '

Joseph snatched up the food indignantly, and brought it to us.

'Is there aught ails th' victuals? ' he asked, thrusting the tray under
Heathcliff's nose.

'What should ail them? ' he said.

'Wah! ' answered Joseph, 'yon dainty chap says he cannut ate 'em. But I
guess it's raight! His mother wer just soa--we wer a'most too mucky to
sow t' corn for makking her breead. '

'Don't mention his mother to me,' said the master, angrily. 'Get him
something that he can eat, that's all. What is his usual food, Nelly? '

I suggested boiled milk or tea; and the housekeeper received instructions
to prepare some. Come, I reflected, his father's selfishness may
contribute to his comfort. He perceives his delicate constitution, and
the necessity of treating him tolerably. I'll console Mr. Edgar by
acquainting him with the turn Heathcliff's humour has taken. Having no
excuse for lingering longer, I slipped out, while Linton was engaged in
timidly rebuffing the advances of a friendly sheep-dog. But he was too
much on the alert to be cheated: as I closed the door, I heard a cry, and
a frantic repetition of the words--

'Don't leave me! I'll not stay here! I'll not stay here! '

Then the latch was raised and fell: they did not suffer him to come
forth. I mounted Minny, and urged her to a trot; and so my brief
guardianship ended.




CHAPTER XXI


We had sad work with little Cathy that day: she rose in high glee, eager
to join her cousin, and such passionate tears and lamentations followed
the news of his departure that Edgar himself was obliged to soothe her,
by affirming he should come back soon: he added, however, 'if I can get
him'; and there were no hopes of that. This promise poorly pacified her;
but time was more potent; and though still at intervals she inquired of
her father when Linton would return, before she did see him again his
features had waxed so dim in her memory that she did not recognise him.

When I chanced to encounter the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights, in
paying business visits to Gimmerton, I used to ask how the young master
got on; for he lived almost as secluded as Catherine herself, and was
never to be seen. I could gather from her that he continued in weak
health, and was a tiresome inmate. She said Mr. Heathcliff seemed to
dislike him ever longer and worse, though he took some trouble to conceal
it: he had an antipathy to the sound of his voice, and could not do at
all with his sitting in the same room with him many minutes together.
There seldom passed much talk between them: Linton learnt his lessons and
spent his evenings in a small apartment they called the parlour: or else
lay in bed all day: for he was constantly getting coughs, and colds, and
aches, and pains of some sort.

'And I never know such a fainthearted creature,' added the woman; 'nor
one so careful of hisseln. He _will_ go on, if I leave the window open a
bit late in the evening. Oh! it's killing, a breath of night air! And he
must have a fire in the middle of summer; and Joseph's bacca-pipe is
poison; and he must always have sweets and dainties, and always milk,
milk for ever--heeding naught how the rest of us are pinched in winter;
and there he'll sit, wrapped in his furred cloak in his chair by the
fire, with some toast and water or other slop on the hob to sip at; and
if Hareton, for pity, comes to amuse him--Hareton is not bad-natured,
though he's rough--they're sure to part, one swearing and the other
crying. I believe the master would relish Earnshaw's thrashing him to a
mummy, if he were not his son; and I'm certain he would be fit to turn
him out of doors, if he knew half the nursing he gives hisseln. But then
he won't go into danger of temptation: he never enters the parlour, and
should Linton show those ways in the house where he is, he sends him
up-stairs directly. '

I divined, from this account, that utter lack of sympathy had rendered
young Heathcliff selfish and disagreeable, if he were not so originally;
and my interest in him, consequently, decayed: though still I was moved
with a sense of grief at his lot, and a wish that he had been left with
us. Mr. Edgar encouraged me to gain information: he thought a great deal
about him, I fancy, and would have run some risk to see him; and he told
me once to ask the housekeeper whether he ever came into the village? She
said he had only been twice, on horseback, accompanying his father; and
both times he pretended to be quite knocked up for three or four days
afterwards. That housekeeper left, if I recollect rightly, two years
after he came; and another, whom I did not know, was her successor; she
lives there still.

Time wore on at the Grange in its former pleasant way till Miss Cathy
reached sixteen. On the anniversary of her birth we never manifested any
signs of rejoicing, because it was also the anniversary of my late
mistress's death. Her father invariably spent that day alone in the
library; and walked, at dusk, as far as Gimmerton kirkyard, where he
would frequently prolong his stay beyond midnight. Therefore Catherine
was thrown on her own resources for amusement. This twentieth of March
was a beautiful spring day, and when her father had retired, my young
lady came down dressed for going out, and said she asked to have a ramble
on the edge of the moor with me: Mr. Linton had given her leave, if we
went only a short distance and were back within the hour.

'So make haste, Ellen! ' she cried. 'I know where I wish to go; where a
colony of moor-game are settled: I want to see whether they have made
their nests yet. '

'That must be a good distance up,' I answered; 'they don't breed on the
edge of the moor. '

'No, it's not,' she said. 'I've gone very near with papa. '

I put on my bonnet and sallied out, thinking nothing more of the matter.
She bounded before me, and returned to my side, and was off again like a
young greyhound; and, at first, I found plenty of entertainment in
listening to the larks singing far and near, and enjoying the sweet, warm
sunshine; and watching her, my pet and my delight, with her golden
ringlets flying loose behind, and her bright cheek, as soft and pure in
its bloom as a wild rose, and her eyes radiant with cloudless pleasure.
She was a happy creature, and an angel, in those days. It's a pity she
could not be content.

'Well,' said I, 'where are your moor-game, Miss Cathy? We should be at
them: the Grange park-fence is a great way off now. '

'Oh, a little further--only a little further, Ellen,' was her answer,
continually. 'Climb to that hillock, pass that bank, and by the time you
reach the other side I shall have raised the birds. '

But there were so many hillocks and banks to climb and pass, that, at
length, I began to be weary, and told her we must halt, and retrace our
steps. I shouted to her, as she had outstripped me a long way; she
either did not hear or did not regard, for she still sprang on, and I was
compelled to follow.
Finally, she dived into a hollow; and before I came
in sight of her again, she was two miles nearer Wuthering Heights than
her own home; and I beheld a couple of persons arrest her, one of whom I
felt convinced was Mr. Heathcliff himself.

Cathy had been caught in the fact of plundering, or, at least, hunting
out the nests of the grouse. The Heights were Heathcliff's land, and he
was reproving the poacher.

'I've neither taken any nor found any,' she said, as I toiled to them,
expanding her hands in corroboration of the statement. 'I didn't mean to
take them; but papa told me there were quantities up here, and I wished
to see the eggs. '

Heathcliff glanced at me with an ill-meaning smile, expressing his
acquaintance with the party, and, consequently, his malevolence towards
it, and demanded who 'papa' was?

'Mr. Linton of Thrushcross Grange,' she replied. 'I thought you did not
know me, or you wouldn't have spoken in that way. '

'You suppose papa is highly esteemed and respected, then? ' he said,
sarcastically.

'And what are you? ' inquired Catherine, gazing curiously on the speaker.
'That man I've seen before. Is he your son? '

She pointed to Hareton, the other individual, who had gained nothing but
increased bulk and strength by the addition of two years to his age: he
seemed as awkward and rough as ever.

'Miss Cathy,' I interrupted, 'it will be three hours instead of one that
we are out, presently. We really must go back. '

'No, that man is not my son,' answered Heathcliff, pushing me aside. 'But
I have one, and you have seen him before too; and, though your nurse is
in a hurry, I think both you and she would be the better for a little
rest. Will you just turn this nab of heath, and walk into my house?
You'll get home earlier for the ease; and you shall receive a kind
welcome. '

I whispered Catherine that she mustn't, on any account, accede to the
proposal: it was entirely out of the question.

'Why? ' she asked, aloud. 'I'm tired of running, and the ground is dewy:
I can't sit here. Let us go, Ellen. Besides, he says I have seen his
son. He's mistaken, I think; but I guess where he lives: at the
farmhouse I visited in coming from Penistone Crags. Don't you? '

'I do. Come, Nelly, hold your tongue--it will be a treat for her to look
in on us. Hareton, get forwards with the lass. You shall walk with me,
Nelly. '

'No, she's not going to any such place,' I cried, struggling to release
my arm, which he had seized: but she was almost at the door-stones
already, scampering round the brow at full speed. Her appointed
companion did not pretend to escort her: he shied off by the road-side,
and vanished.

'Mr. Heathcliff, it's very wrong,' I continued: 'you know you mean no
good. And there she'll see Linton, and all will be told as soon as ever
we return; and I shall have the blame. '

'I want her to see Linton,' he answered; 'he's looking better these few
days; it's not often he's fit to be seen. And we'll soon persuade her to
keep the visit secret: where is the harm of it? '

'The harm of it is, that her father would hate me if he found I suffered
her to enter your house; and I am convinced you have a bad design in
encouraging her to do so,' I replied.

'My design is as honest as possible. I'll inform you of its whole
scope,' he said. 'That the two cousins may fall in love, and get
married. I'm acting generously to your master: his young chit has no
expectations, and should she second my wishes she'll be provided for at
once as joint successor with Linton. '

'If Linton died,' I answered, 'and his life is quite uncertain, Catherine
would be the heir. '

'No, she would not,' he said. 'There is no clause in the will to secure
it so: his property would go to me; but, to prevent disputes, I desire
their union, and am resolved to bring it about. '

'And I'm resolved she shall never approach your house with me again,' I
returned, as we reached the gate, where Miss Cathy waited our coming.

Heathcliff bade me be quiet; and, preceding us up the path, hastened to
open the door. My young lady gave him several looks, as if she could not
exactly make up her mind what to think of him; but now he smiled when he
met her eye, and softened his voice in addressing her; and I was foolish
enough to imagine the memory of her mother might disarm him from desiring
her injury. Linton stood on the hearth. He had been out walking in the
fields, for his cap was on, and he was calling to Joseph to bring him dry
shoes. He had grown tall of his age, still wanting some months of
sixteen. His features were pretty yet, and his eye and complexion
brighter than I remembered them, though with merely temporary lustre
borrowed from the salubrious air and genial sun.

'Now, who is that? ' asked Mr. Heathcliff, turning to Cathy. 'Can you
tell? '

'Your son? ' she said, having doubtfully surveyed, first one and then the
other.

'Yes, yes,' answered he: 'but is this the only time you have beheld him?
Think! Ah! you have a short memory. Linton, don't you recall your
cousin, that you used to tease us so with wishing to see? '

'What, Linton! ' cried Cathy, kindling into joyful surprise at the name.
'Is that little Linton? He's taller than I am! Are you Linton? '

The youth stepped forward, and acknowledged himself: she kissed him
fervently, and they gazed with wonder at the change time had wrought in
the appearance of each. Catherine had reached her full height; her
figure was both plump and slender, elastic as steel, and her whole aspect
sparkling with health and spirits. Linton's looks and movements were
very languid, and his form extremely slight; but there was a grace in his
manner that mitigated these defects, and rendered him not unpleasing.
After exchanging numerous marks of fondness with him, his cousin went to
Mr. Heathcliff, who lingered by the door, dividing his attention between
the objects inside and those that lay without: pretending, that is, to
observe the latter, and really noting the former alone.

'And you are my uncle, then! ' she cried, reaching up to salute him. 'I
thought I liked you, though you were cross at first. Why don't you visit
at the Grange with Linton? To live all these years such close
neighbours, and never see us, is odd: what have you done so for? '

'I visited it once or twice too often before you were born,' he answered.
'There--damn it! If you have any kisses to spare, give them to Linton:
they are thrown away on me. '

'Naughty Ellen! ' exclaimed Catherine, flying to attack me next with her
lavish caresses. 'Wicked Ellen! to try to hinder me from entering. But
I'll take this walk every morning in future: may I, uncle? and sometimes
bring papa. Won't you be glad to see us? '

'Of course,' replied the uncle, with a hardly suppressed grimace,
resulting from his deep aversion to both the proposed visitors. 'But
stay,' he continued, turning towards the young lady. 'Now I think of it,
I'd better tell you. Mr. Linton has a prejudice against me: we
quarrelled at one time of our lives, with unchristian ferocity; and, if
you mention coming here to him, he'll put a veto on your visits
altogether. Therefore, you must not mention it, unless you be careless
of seeing your cousin hereafter: you may come, if you will, but you must
not mention it. '

'Why did you quarrel? ' asked Catherine, considerably crestfallen.

'He thought me too poor to wed his sister,' answered Heathcliff, 'and was
grieved that I got her: his pride was hurt, and he'll never forgive it. '

'That's wrong! ' said the young lady: 'some time I'll tell him so. But
Linton and I have no share in your quarrel. I'll not come here, then; he
shall come to the Grange. '

'It will be too far for me,' murmured her cousin: 'to walk four miles
would kill me. No, come here, Miss Catherine, now and then: not every
morning, but once or twice a week. '

The father launched towards his son a glance of bitter contempt.

'I am afraid, Nelly, I shall lose my labour,' he muttered to me. 'Miss
Catherine, as the ninny calls her, will discover his value, and send him
to the devil. Now, if it had been Hareton! --Do you know that, twenty
times a day, I covet Hareton, with all his degradation? I'd have loved
the lad had he been some one else. But I think he's safe from _her_
love. I'll pit him against that paltry creature, unless it bestir itself
briskly. We calculate it will scarcely last till it is eighteen. Oh,
confound the vapid thing! He's absorbed in drying his feet, and never
looks at her. --Linton! '

'Yes, father,' answered the boy.

'Have you nothing to show your cousin anywhere about, not even a rabbit
or a weasel's nest? Take her into the garden, before you change your
shoes; and into the stable to see your horse. '

'Wouldn't you rather sit here? ' asked Linton, addressing Cathy in a tone
which expressed reluctance to move again.

'I don't know,' she replied, casting a longing look to the door, and
evidently eager to be active.

He kept his seat, and shrank closer to the fire. Heathcliff rose, and
went into the kitchen, and from thence to the yard, calling out for
Hareton. Hareton responded, and presently the two re-entered. The young
man had been washing himself, as was visible by the glow on his cheeks
and his wetted hair.

'Oh, I'll ask _you_, uncle,' cried Miss Cathy, recollecting the
housekeeper's assertion. 'That is not my cousin, is he? '

'Yes,' he, replied, 'your mother's nephew. Don't you like him! '

Catherine looked queer.

'Is he not a handsome lad? ' he continued.

The uncivil little thing stood on tiptoe, and whispered a sentence in
Heathcliff's ear. He laughed; Hareton darkened: I perceived he was very
sensitive to suspected slights, and had obviously a dim notion of his
inferiority. But his master or guardian chased the frown by exclaiming--

'You'll be the favourite among us, Hareton! She says you are a--What was
it? Well, something very flattering. Here! you go with her round the
farm. And behave like a gentleman, mind! Don't use any bad words; and
don't stare when the young lady is not looking at you, and be ready to
hide your face when she is; and, when you speak, say your words slowly,
and keep your hands out of your pockets. Be off, and entertain her as
nicely as you can. '

He watched the couple walking past the window. Earnshaw had his
countenance completely averted from his companion. He seemed studying
the familiar landscape with a stranger's and an artist's interest.
Catherine took a sly look at him, expressing small admiration. She then
turned her attention to seeking out objects of amusement for herself, and
tripped merrily on, lilting a tune to supply the lack of conversation.

'I've tied his tongue,' observed Heathcliff. 'He'll not venture a single
syllable all the time! Nelly, you recollect me at his age--nay, some
years younger. Did I ever look so stupid: so "gaumless," as Joseph calls
it? '

'Worse,' I replied, 'because more sullen with it. '

'I've a pleasure in him,' he continued, reflecting aloud. 'He has
satisfied my expectations. If he were a born fool I should not enjoy it
half so much. But he's no fool; and I can sympathise with all his
feelings, having felt them myself. I know what he suffers now, for
instance, exactly: it is merely a beginning of what he shall suffer,
though. And he'll never be able to emerge from his bathos of coarseness
and ignorance. I've got him faster than his scoundrel of a father
secured me, and lower; for he takes a pride in his brutishness. I've
taught him to scorn everything extra-animal as silly and weak. Don't you
think Hindley would be proud of his son, if he could see him? almost as
proud as I am of mine. But there's this difference; one is gold put to
the use of paving-stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service
of silver. _Mine_ has nothing valuable about it; yet I shall have the
merit of making it go as far as such poor stuff can go. _His_ had
first-rate qualities, and they are lost: rendered worse than unavailing.
I have nothing to regret; he would have more than any but I are aware
of. And the best of it is, Hareton is damnably fond of me! You'll own
that I've outmatched Hindley there. If the dead villain could rise from
his grave to abuse me for his offspring's wrongs, I should have the fun
of seeing the said offspring fight him back again, indignant that he
should dare to rail at the one friend he has in the world! '

Heathcliff chuckled a fiendish laugh at the idea. I made no reply,
because I saw that he expected none. Meantime, our young companion, who
sat too removed from us to hear what was said, began to evince symptoms
of uneasiness, probably repenting that he had denied himself the treat of
Catherine's society for fear of a little fatigue. His father remarked
the restless glances wandering to the window, and the hand irresolutely
extended towards his cap.

'Get up, you idle boy! ' he exclaimed, with assumed heartiness.

'Away after them! they are just at the corner, by the stand of hives. '

Linton gathered his energies, and left the hearth. The lattice was open,
and, as he stepped out, I heard Cathy inquiring of her unsociable
attendant what was that inscription over the door? Hareton stared up, and
scratched his head like a true clown.

'It's some damnable writing,' he answered. 'I cannot read it. '

'Can't read it? ' cried Catherine; 'I can read it: it's English. But I
want to know why it is there. '

Linton giggled: the first appearance of mirth he had exhibited.

'He does not know his letters,' he said to his cousin. 'Could you
believe in the existence of such a colossal dunce? '

'Is he all as he should be? ' asked Miss Cathy, seriously; 'or is he
simple: not right? I've questioned him twice now, and each time he
looked so stupid I think he does not understand me. I can hardly
understand him, I'm sure! '

Linton repeated his laugh, and glanced at Hareton tauntingly; who
certainly did not seem quite clear of comprehension at that moment.

'There's nothing the matter but laziness; is there, Earnshaw? ' he said.
'My cousin fancies you are an idiot.