No More Learning

Nobody but I even did him the kindness to call him a dirty boy,
and bid him wash himself, once a week; and children of his age seldom
have a natural pleasure in soap and water. Therefore, not to mention his
clothes, which had seen three months' service in mire and dust, and his
thick uncombed hair, the surface of his face and hands was dismally
beclouded. He might well skulk behind the settle, on beholding such a
bright, graceful damsel enter the house, instead of a rough-headed
counterpart of himself, as he expected. 'Is Heathcliff not here? ' she
demanded, pulling off her gloves, and displaying fingers wonderfully
whitened with doing nothing and staying indoors.

'Heathcliff, you may come forward,' cried Mr. Hindley, enjoying his
discomfiture, and gratified to see what a forbidding young blackguard he
would be compelled to present himself. 'You may come and wish Miss
Catherine welcome, like the other servants. '

Cathy, catching a glimpse of her friend in his concealment, flew to
embrace him; she bestowed seven or eight kisses on his cheek within the
second, and then stopped, and drawing back, burst into a laugh,
exclaiming, 'Why, how very black and cross you look! and how--how funny
and grim! But that's because I'm used to Edgar and Isabella Linton.
Well, Heathcliff, have you forgotten me? '

She had some reason to put the question, 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 the merry tunes I chose as next door to songs. He had retired
to private prayer in his chamber, and Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw were engaging
Missy's attention by sundry gay trifles bought for her to present to the
little Lintons, as an acknowledgment of their kindness. They had invited
them to spend the morrow at Wuthering Heights, and the invitation had
been accepted, on one condition: Mrs. Linton begged that her darlings
might be kept carefully apart from that 'naughty swearing boy. '

Under these circumstances I remained solitary. I smelt the rich scent of
the heating spices; and admired the shining kitchen utensils, the
polished clock, decked in holly, the silver mugs ranged on a tray ready
to be filled with mulled ale for supper; and above all, the speckless
purity of my particular care--the scoured and well-swept floor. I gave
due inward applause to every object, and then I remembered how old
Earnshaw used to come in when all was tidied, and call me a cant lass,
and slip a shilling into my hand as a Christmas-box; and from that I went
on to think of his fondness for Heathcliff, and his dread lest he should
suffer neglect after death had removed him: and that naturally led me to
consider the poor lad's situation now, and from singing I changed my mind
to crying. It struck me soon, however, there would be more sense in
endeavouring to repair some of his wrongs than shedding tears over them:
I got up and walked into the court to seek him. He was not far; I found
him smoothing the glossy coat of the new pony in the stable, and feeding
the other beasts, according to custom.

'Make haste, Heathcliff! ' I said, 'the kitchen is so comfortable; and
Joseph is up-stairs: make haste, and let me dress you smart before Miss
Cathy comes out, and then you can sit together, with the whole hearth to
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 inquired, looking very serious.

'She cried when I told her you were off again this morning. '

'Well, _I_ cried last night,' he returned, 'and I had more reason to cry
than she. '

'Yes: you had the reason of going to bed with a proud heart and an empty
stomach,' said I. 'Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. But,
if you be ashamed of your touchiness, you must ask pardon, mind, when she
comes in. You must go up and offer to kiss her, and say--you know best
what to say; only do it heartily, and not as if you thought her converted
into a stranger by her grand dress. And now, though I have dinner to get
ready, I'll steal time to arrange you so that Edgar Linton shall look
quite a doll beside you: and that he does. You are younger, and yet,
I'll be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders;
you could knock him down in a twinkling; don't you feel that you could? '

Heathcliff's face brightened a moment; then it was overcast afresh, and
he sighed.

'But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn't make him
less handsome or me more so. I wish I had light hair and a fair skin,
and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as
he will be! '

'And cried for mamma at every turn,' I added, 'and trembled if a country
lad heaved his fist against you, and sat at home all day for a shower of
rain. Oh, Heathcliff, you are showing a poor spirit! Come to the glass,
and I'll let you see what you should wish. Do you mark those two lines
between your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched,
sink in the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply 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 furs, and the
Earnshaws dismount from their horses: they often rode to church in
winter. Catherine took a hand of each of the children, and brought them
into the house and set them before the fire, which quickly put colour
into their white faces.

I urged my companion to hasten now and show his amiable humour, and he
willingly obeyed; but ill luck would have it that, as he opened the door
leading from the kitchen on one side, Hindley opened it on the other.
They met, and the master, irritated at seeing him clean and cheerful, or,
perhaps, eager to keep his promise to Mrs. Linton, shoved him back with a
sudden thrust, and angrily bade Joseph 'keep the fellow out of the
room--send him into the garret till dinner is over. He'll be cramming
his fingers in the tarts and stealing the fruit, if left alone with them
a minute. '

'Nay, sir,' I could not avoid answering, 'he'll touch nothing, not he:
and I suppose he must have his share of the dainties as well as we. '

'He shall have his share of my hand, if I catch him downstairs till
dark,' cried Hindley. 'Begone, you vagabond! What! you are attempting
the coxcomb, are you? Wait till I get hold of those elegant locks--see
if I won't pull them a bit longer! '

'They are long enough already,' observed Master Linton, peeping from the
doorway; 'I wonder they don't make his head ache. It's like a colt's
mane over his eyes! '

He ventured this remark without any intention to insult; but Heathcliff's
violent nature was not prepared to endure the appearance of impertinence
from one whom he seemed to hate, even then, as a rival. He seized a
tureen of hot apple sauce (the first thing that came under his gripe) 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 talk. I waited behind her chair,
and was pained to behold Catherine, with dry eyes and an indifferent air,
commence cutting up the wing of a goose before her. 'An unfeeling
child,' I thought to myself; 'how lightly she dismisses her old
playmate's troubles. I could not have imagined her to be so selfish. '
She lifted a mouthful to her lips: then she set it down again: her cheeks
flushed, and the tears gushed over them. She slipped her fork to the
floor, and hastily dived under the cloth to conceal her emotion. I did
not call her unfeeling long; for I perceived she was in purgatory
throughout the day, and wearying to find an opportunity of getting by
herself, or paying a visit to Heathcliff, who had been locked up by the
master: as I discovered, on endeavouring to introduce to him a private
mess of victuals.

In the evening we had a dance. Cathy begged that he might be liberated
then, as Isabella Linton had no partner: her entreaties were vain, and I
was appointed to supply the deficiency. We got rid of all gloom in the
excitement of the exercise, and our pleasure was increased by the arrival
of the Gimmerton band, mustering fifteen strong: a trumpet, a trombone,
clarionets, bassoons, French horns, and a bass viol, besides singers.
They go the rounds of all the respectable houses, and receive
contributions every Christmas, and we esteemed it a first-rate treat to
hear them. After the usual carols had been sung, we set them to songs
and glees. Mrs. Earnshaw loved the music, and so they gave us plenty.

Catherine loved it too: but she said it sounded sweetest at the top of
the steps, and she went up in the dark: I followed. They shut the house
door below, never noting our absence, it was so full of people. She made
no stay at the stairs'-head, but mounted farther, to the garret where
Heathcliff was 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 cannot divert you. I'm annoyed
how I should dream of chattering on at such a rate; and your gruel cold,
and you nodding for bed! I could have told Heathcliff's history, all
that you need hear, in half a dozen words. '

* * * * *

Thus interrupting herself, the housekeeper rose, and proceeded to lay
aside her sewing; but I felt incapable of moving from the hearth, and I
was very far from nodding. 'Sit still, Mrs. Dean,' I cried; 'do sit
still another half-hour. You've done just right to tell the story
leisurely. That is the method I like; and you must finish it in the same
style. I am interested in every character you have mentioned, more or
less. '

'The clock is on the stroke of eleven, sir. '

'No matter--I'm not accustomed to go to bed in the long hours. One or
two is early enough for a person who lies till ten. '

'You shouldn't lie till ten. There's the very prime of the morning gone
long before that time. A person who has not done one-half his day's work
by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone. '

'Nevertheless, Mrs. Dean, resume your chair; because to-morrow I intend
lengthening the night till afternoon. I prognosticate for myself an
obstinate cold, at least. '

'I hope not, sir. Well, you must allow me to leap over some three years;
during that space Mrs. Earnshaw--'

'No, no, I'll allow nothing of the sort! Are you acquainted with the
mood of mind in which, if you were seated alone, and the cat licking its
kitten on the rug before you, you would watch the operation so intently
that puss's neglect of one ear would put you seriously out of temper? '

'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 exactly from living among the hills and seeing one set of faces, and
one series of actions, from year's end to year's end; but I have
undergone sharp discipline, which has taught me wisdom; and then, I have
read more than you would fancy, Mr. Lockwood. You could not open a book
in this library that I have not looked into, and got something out of
also: unless it be that range of Greek and Latin, and that of French; and
those I know one from another: it is as much as you can expect of a poor
man's daughter. However, if I am to follow my story in true gossip's
fashion, I had better go on; and instead of leaping three years, I will
be content to pass to the next summer--the summer of 1778, that is nearly
twenty-three years ago.
'




CHAPTER VIII


On the morning of a fine June day my first bonny little nursling, and the
last of the ancient Earnshaw stock, was born. We were busy with the hay
in a far-away field, when the girl that usually brought our breakfasts
came running an hour too soon across the meadow and up the lane, calling
me as she ran.

'Oh, such a grand bairn! ' she panted out. 'The finest lad that ever
breathed! But the doctor says missis must go: he says she's been in a
consumption these many months. I heard him tell Mr. Hindley: and now she
has nothing to keep her, and she'll be dead before winter. You must come
home directly. You're to nurse it, Nelly: to feed it with sugar and
milk, and take care of it day and night. I wish I were you, because it
will be all yours when there is no missis! '

'But is she very ill? ' I asked, flinging down my rake and tying my
bonnet.

'I guess she is; yet she looks bravely,' 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 you going
up-stairs? will you tell her that I'll come, if she'll promise not to
talk. I left her because she would not hold her tongue; and she
must--tell her Mr. Kenneth says she must be quiet. '

I delivered this message to Mrs. Earnshaw; she seemed in flighty spirits,
and replied merrily, 'I hardly spoke a word, Ellen, and there he has gone
out twice, crying. Well, say I promise I won't speak: but that does not
bind me not to laugh at him! '

Poor soul! Till within a week of her death that gay heart never failed
her; and her husband persisted doggedly, nay, furiously, in affirming her
health improved every day. When Kenneth warned him that his medicines
were useless at that stage of the malady, and he needn't put him to
further expense by attending her, he retorted, 'I know you need not--she's
well--she does not want any more attendance from you! She never was in a
consumption. It was a fever; and it is gone: her pulse is as slow as
mine now, and her cheek as cool. '

He told his wife the same story, and she seemed to believe him; but one
night, while leaning on his shoulder, in the act of saying she thought
she should be able to get up to-morrow, a fit of coughing took her--a
very slight one--he raised her in his arms; she put her two hands about
his neck, her face changed, and she was dead.

As the girl had anticipated, the child Hareton fell wholly into my hands.
Mr. Earnshaw, provided he saw him healthy and never heard him cry, was
contented, as far as regarded him. For himself, he grew desperate: his
sorrow was of that kind that will not lament. He neither wept nor
prayed; he cursed and defied: execrated God and man, and gave himself up
to reckless dissipation. The servants could not bear his 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 the Heights, but more pensive
and amiable in expression. It formed a sweet picture. The long light
hair curled slightly on the temples; the eyes were large and serious; the
figure almost too graceful. I did not marvel how Catherine Earnshaw
could forget her first friend for such an individual. I marvelled much
how he, with a mind to correspond with his person, could fancy my idea of
Catherine Earnshaw.

'A very agreeable portrait,' I observed to the house-keeper. 'Is it
like? '

'Yes,' she answered; 'but he looked better when he was animated; that is
his everyday countenance: he wanted spirit in general. '

Catherine had kept up her acquaintance with the Lintons since her
five-weeks' residence among them; and as she had no temptation to show
her rough side in their company, and had the sense to be ashamed of
being rude where she experienced such invariable courtesy, she imposed
unwittingly on the old lady and gentleman by her ingenious cordiality;
gained the admiration of Isabella, and the heart and soul of her
brother: acquisitions that flattered her from the first--for she was
full of ambition--and led her to adopt a double character without
exactly intending to deceive any one. In the place where she heard
Heathcliff termed a 'vulgar young ruffian,' and 'worse than a brute,'
she took care not to act like him; but at home she had small inclination
to practise politeness that would only be laughed at, and restrain an
unruly nature when it would bring her neither credit nor praise.

Mr. Edgar seldom mustered courage to visit Wuthering Heights openly. He
had a terror of Earnshaw's reputation, and shrunk from encountering him;
and yet he was always received with our best attempts at civility: 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 him to take a step in the way of moving
upward, when he found he must, necessarily, sink beneath his former
level. Then personal appearance sympathised with mental deterioration:
he acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally reserved
disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable
moroseness; and he took a grim pleasure, apparently, in exciting the
aversion rather than the esteem of his few acquaintances.

Catherine and he were constant companions still at his seasons of respite
from labour; but he had ceased to express his fondness for her in words,
and recoiled with angry suspicion from her girlish caresses, as if
conscious there could be no gratification in lavishing such marks of
affection on him. On the before-named occasion he came into the house to
announce his intention of doing nothing, while I was assisting Miss Cathy
to arrange her dress: she had not reckoned on his taking it into his head
to be idle; and imagining she would have the whole place to herself, she
managed, by some means, to inform Mr. Edgar of her brother's absence, and
was then preparing to receive him.

'Cathy, are you busy this afternoon? ' asked Heathcliff. 'Are you going
anywhere? '

'No, it is raining,' she answered.

'Why have you that silk frock on, then? ' he said. 'Nobody coming here, I
hope? '

'Not that I know of,' stammered Miss: 'but you should be in the field
now, Heathcliff. It is an hour past dinnertime: I thought you were
gone. '

'Hindley does not often free us from his accursed presence,' observed the
boy. 'I'll 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 Heathcliff.

'And should I always be sitting with you? ' she demanded, growing more
irritated. 'What good do I get? What do you talk about? You might be
dumb, or a baby, for anything you say to amuse me, or for anything you
do, either! '

'You never told me before that I talked too little, or that you disliked
my company, Cathy! ' exclaimed Heathcliff, in much agitation.

'It's no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing,' she
muttered.

Her companion rose up, but he hadn't time to express his feelings
further, for a horse's feet were heard on the flags, and having knocked
gently, young Linton entered, his face brilliant with delight at the
unexpected summon she had received. Doubtless Catherine marked the
difference between her friends, as one came in and the other went out.
The contrast resembled what you see in exchanging a bleak, hilly, coal
country for a beautiful fertile valley; and his voice and greeting were
as opposite as his aspect. He had a sweet, low manner of speaking, and
pronounced his words as you do: that's less gruff than we talk here, and
softer.

'I'm not come too soon, am I? ' he said, casting a look at me: I had begun
to wipe the plate, and tidy some drawers at the far end in the dresser.

'No,' answered Catherine. 'What are you doing there, Nelly? '

'My work, Miss,' I replied. (Mr. Hindley had given me directions to make
a third party in any private visits Linton chose to pay. )

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 water.

'Catherine, love! Catherine! ' interposed Linton, greatly shocked at the
double fault of falsehood and violence which his idol had committed.

'Leave the room, Ellen! ' she repeated, trembling all over.

Little Hareton, who followed me everywhere, and was sitting near me on
the floor, at seeing my tears commenced crying himself, and sobbed out
complaints against 'wicked aunt Cathy,' which drew her fury on to his
unlucky head: she seized his shoulders, and shook him till the poor child
waxed livid, and Edgar thoughtlessly laid hold of her hands to deliver
him. In an instant one was wrung free, and the astonished young man felt
it applied over his own ear in a way that could not be mistaken for jest.
He drew back in consternation. I lifted Hareton in my arms, and walked
off to the kitchen with him, leaving the door of communication open, for
I was curious to watch how they would settle their disagreement. The
insulted visitor moved to the spot where he had laid his hat, pale and
with a quivering lip.

'That's right! ' I said to myself. 'Take warning and begone! It's a
kindness to let you have a glimpse of her genuine disposition. '

'Where are you going? ' demanded Catherine, advancing to the door.

He swerved aside, and attempted to pass.

'You must not go! ' she exclaimed, energetically.

'I must and shall! ' he replied in a subdued voice.

'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!