"But he looked so
different
from his usual look that I stopped a
moment to stare at him.
moment to stare at him.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v04 - Bes to Bro
What of him?
Do you know him?
»
"Mr. Mason does; Mr. Eyre has been the Funchal corre-
spondent of his house for some years. When your uncle received
your letter intimating the contemplated union between yourself
and Mr. Rochester, Mr. Mason, who was staying at Madeira to
recruit his health, on his way back to Jamaica happened to be
## p. 2397 (#599) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2397
with him. Mr. Eyre mentioned the intelligence; for he knew
that my client here was acquainted with a gentleman of the name
of Rochester. Mr. Mason, astonished and distressed, as you may
suppose, revealed the real state of matters. Your uncle, I am
sorry to say, is now on a sick-bed; from which, considering the
nature of his disease— decline—and the stage it has reached, it
is unlikely he will ever rise. He could not then hasten to Eng-
land himself, to extricate you from the snare into which you had
fallen, but he implored Mr. Mason to lose no time in taking
steps to prevent the false marriage. He referred him to me for
assistance. I used all dispatch, and am thankful I was not too
late: as you, doubtless, must be also. Were I not morally cer-
tain that your uncle will be dead ere you reach Madeira, I would
advise you to accompany Mr. Mason back; but as it is, I think
you had better remain in England till you can hear further, either
from or of Mr. Eyre. Have we anything else to stay for? " he
inquired of Mr. Mason.
"No, no; let us be gone, was the anxious reply; and with-
out waiting to take leave of Mr. Rochester, they made their exit
at the hall door. The clergyman stayed to exchange a few
sentences, either of admonition or reproof, with his haughty
parishioner: this duty done, he too departed.
I heard him go as I stood at the half-open door of my own
room, to which I had now withdrawn. The house cleared, I
shut myself in, fastened the bolt that none might intrude, and
proceeded -not to weep, not to mourn, I was yet too calm for
that, but-mechanically to take off the wedding-dress, and replace
if by the stuff gown I had worn yesterday, as I thought for the
last time. I then sat down: I felt weak and tired.
I leaned my
arms on a table, and my head dropped on them.
And now
thought: till now I had only heard, seen, moved - followed up
and down where I was led or dragged-watched event rush on
event, disclosure open beyond disclosure; but now I thought.
The morning had been a quiet morning enough-all except
the brief scene with the lunatic. The transaction in the church
had not been noisy; there was no explosion of passion, no loud
altercation, no dispute, no defiance or challenge, no tears, no
sobs: a few words had been spoken, a calmly pronounced objec-
tion to the marriage made; some stern, short questions put by
Mr. Rochester; answers, explanations given, evidence adduced;
an open admission of the truth had been uttered by my master:
-
>>
## p. 2398 (#600) ###########################################
2398
BRONTE SISTERS
then the living proof had been seen; the intruders were gone,
and all was over.
I was in my own room as usual—just myself, without obvious
change; nothing had smitten me, or scathed me, or maimed me.
And yet where was the Jane Eyre of yesterday? where was her
life? where were her prospects?
Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent, expectant woman-
almost a bride-was a cold, solitary girl again: her life was pale;
her prospects were desolate. A Christmas frost had come at
midsummer; a white December storm had whirled over June; ice
glazed the ripe apples; drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hay-
field and corn-field lay a frozen shroud; lanes which last night
blushed full of flowers, to-day were pathless with untrodden.
snow; and the woods, which twelve hours since waved leafy and
fragrant as groves between the tropics, now spread waste, wild,
and white as pine forests in wintry Norway.
My hopes were all dead--struck with a subtle doom, such as
in one night fell on all the first-born in the land of Egypt. I
looked on my cherished wishes, yesterday so blooming and glow-
ing; they lay stark, chill, livid corpses that could never revive.
I looked at my love, that feeling which was my master's- which
he had created: it shivered in my heart, like a suffering child in
a cold cradle; sickness and anguish had seized it; it could not
seek Mr. Rochester's arms-it could not derive warmth from his
breast. Oh, never more could it turn to him; for faith was
blighted confidence destroyed! Mr. Rochester was not to me
what he had been; for he was not what I had thought him. I
would not ascribe vice to him; I would not say he had betrayed.
me: but the attribute of stainless truth was gone from his idea;
and from his presence I must go; that I perceived well. When-
how-whither, I could not yet discern; but he himself, I doubted
not, would hurry me from Thornfield. Real affection, it seemed,
he could not have for me; it had been only fitful passion; that
was balked; he would want me no more. I should fear even to
cross his path now: my view must be hateful to him. Oh, how
blind had been my eyes! how weak my conduct!
--
-
## p. 2399 (#601) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2399
MADAME BECK
(From Villette')
ayre Engliss? " said a voice at my elbow. I almost
"You bounded, so unexpected was the sound; so certain had I
been of solitude.
2
No ghost stood beside me, nor anything of spectral aspect;
merely a motherly, dumpy little woman, in a large shawl, a
wrapping-gown, and a clean, trim nightcap.
I said I was English, and immediately, without further pre-
lude, we fell to a most remarkable conversation. Madame Beck
(for Madame Beck it was; she had entered by a little door
behind me, and being shod with the shoes of silence, I had
heard neither her entrance nor approach)- Madame Beck had
exhausted her command of insular speech when she said "You
ayre Engliss,” and she now proceeded to work away volubly in
her own tongue. I answered in mine. She partly understood
me, but as I did not at all understand her- though we made
together an awful clamor (anything like madame's gift of utter-
ance I had not hitherto heard or imagined) — we achieved little
progress. She rang, ere long, for aid; which arrived in the
shape of a "maîtresse," who had been partly educated in an
Irish convent, and was esteemed a perfect adept in the English
language. A bluff little personage this maîtresse was— Labasse-
courienne from top to toe: and how she did slaughter the speech
of Albion! However, I told her a plain tale, which she trans-
lated. I told her how I had left my own country, intent on
extending my knowledge and gaining my bread; how I was
ready to turn my hand to any useful thing, provided it was not
wrong or degrading: how I would be a child's nurse or a lady's-
maid, and would not refuse even housework adapted to my
strength. Madame heard this; and questioning her countenance,
I almost thought the tale won her ear.
"Il n'y a que les Anglaises pour ces sortes d'entreprises,"
said she: "sont-elles donc intrépides, ces femmes-là! "
not
She asked my name, my age; she sat and looked at me-
pityingly, not with interest: never a gleam of sympathy or a
shade of compassion crossed her countenance during the inter-
view. I felt she was not one to be led an inch by her feelings:
## p. 2400 (#602) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2400
grave and considerate, she gazed, consulting her judgment and
studying my narrative.
In the dead of night I suddenly awoke. All was hushed, but
a white figure stood in the room-Madame in her night-dress.
Moving without perceptible sound, she visited the three children.
in the three beds; she approached me; I feigned sleep, and she
studied me long. A small pantomime ensued, curious enough.
I dare say she sat a quarter of an hour on the edge of my bed,
gazing at my face. She then drew nearer, bent close over me;
slightly raised my cap, and turned back the border so as to
expose my hair; she looked at my hand lying on the bed-clothes.
This done, she turned to the chair where my clothes lay; it was
at the foot of the bed. Hearing her touch and lift them, I
opened my eyes with precaution, for I own I felt curious to see
how far her taste for research would lead her. It led her a good
way: every article did she inspect. I divined her motive for this
proceeding; viz. , the wish to form from the garments a judgment
respecting the wearer, her station, means, neatness, etc. The
end was not bad, but the means were hardly fair or justifiable.
In my dress was a pocket; she fairly turned it inside out; she
counted the money in my purse; she opened a little memorandum-
book, coolly perused its contents, and took from between the
leaves a small plaited lock of Miss Marchmont's gray hair. To a
bunch of three keys, being those of my trunk, desk, and work-
box, she accorded special attention: with these, indeed, she with-
drew a moment to her own room. I softly rose in my bed and
followed her with my eye: these keys, reader, were not brought
back till they had left on the toilet of the adjoining room the
impress of their wards in wax. All being thus done decently
and in order, my property was returned to its place, my clothes
were carefully refolded. Of what nature were the conclusions
deduced from this scrutiny? Were they favorable or otherwise?
Vain question. Madame's face of stone (for of stone in its pres-
ent night-aspect it looked: it had been human, and as I said
before, motherly, in the salon) betrayed no response.
Her duty done I felt that in her eyes this business was a
duty she rose, noiseless as a shadow: she moved toward her
own chamber; at the door she turned, fixing her eyes on the
heroine of the bottle, who still slept and loudly snored. Mrs.
Svini (I presume this was Mrs. Svini, Anglicé or Hibernicé
Sweeny) Mrs. Sweeny's doom was in Madame Beck's eye-
―――――――――
•
## p. 2401 (#603) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2401
an immutable purpose that eye spoke: madame's visitations for
shortcomings might be slow, but they were sure. All this was
very un-English: truly I was in a foreign land. .
When attired, Madame Beck appeared a personage of a figure
rather short and stout, yet still graceful in its own peculiar way:
that is, with the grace resulting from proportion of parts. Her
complexion was fresh and sanguine, not too rubicund; her eye,
blue and serene; her dark silk dress fitted her as a French
sempstress alone can make a dress fit; she looked well, though
a little bourgeoise, as bourgeoise indeed she was. I know not
what of harmony pervaded her whole person; and yet her face
offered contrast too: its features were by no means such as are
usually seen in conjunction with a complexion of such blended.
freshness and repose: their outline was stern; her forehead was
high but narrow; it expressed capacity and some benevolence,
but no expanse; nor did her peaceful yet watchful eye ever
know the fire which is kindled in the heart or the softness which
flows thence. Her mouth was hard: it could be a little grim;
her lips were thin. For sensibility and genius, with all their
tenderness and temerity, I felt somehow that madame would be
the right sort of Minos in petticoats.
In the long run, I found that she was something else in pet-
ticoats too. Her name was Modeste Maria Beck, née Kint: it
ought to have been Ignacia. She was a charitable woman, and
did a great deal of good. There never was a mistress whose
rule was milder. I was told that she never once remonstrated
with the intolerable Mrs. Sweeny [the heroine's predecessor],
despite her tipsiness, disorder, and general neglect; yet Mrs.
Sweeny had to go, the moment her departure became conven-
ient. I was told too that neither masters nor teachers were
found fault with in that establishment: yet both masters and
teachers were often changed; they vanished and others filled
their places, none could well explain how.
The establishment was both a pensionnat and an externat:
the externes or day-pupils exceeded one hundred in number;
the boarders were about a score. Madame must have possessed
high administrative powers: she ruled all these, together with
four teachers, eight masters, six servants, and three children,
managing at the same time to perfection the pupil's parents and
friends; and that without apparent effort, without bustle, fatigue,
fever, or any symptom of undue excitement; occupied she always
IV-151
## p. 2402 (#604) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
was
--
- busy, rarely. It is true that madame had her own system
for managing and regulating this mass of machinery; and a very
pretty system it was: the reader has seen a specimen of it in
that small affair of turning my pocket inside out and reading
my private memoranda. Surveillance, espionnage, these were her
watchwords.
2402
Still, madame knew what honesty was, and liked it—that is,
when it did not obtrude its clumsy scruples in the way of her
will and interest. She had a respect for "Angleterre "; and as
to "les Anglaises," she would have the women of no other coun-
try about her own children, if she could help it.
Often in the evening, after she had been plotting and counter-
plotting, spying and receiving the reports of spies all day, she
would come up to my room, a trace of real weariness on her
brow, and she would sit down and listen while the children said
their little prayers to me in English: the Lord's Prayer and the
hymn beginning "Gentle Jesus," these little Catholics were per-
mitted to repeat at my knee; and when I had put them to bed,
she would talk to me (I soon gained enough French to be able
to understand and even answer her) about England and English-
women, and the reason for what she was pleased to term their
superior intelligence, and more real and reliable probity. Very
good sense she often showed; very sound opinions she often
broached: she seemed to know that keeping girls in distrustful
restraint, in blind ignorance, and under a surveillance that left
them no moment and no corner for retirement, was not the
best way to make them grow up honest and modest women; but
she averred that ruinous consequences would ensue if any other
method were tried with Continental children - they were SO
accustomed to restraint that relaxation, however guarded, would
be misunderstood and fatally presumed on: she was sick, she
would declare, of the means she had to use, but use them she
must; and after discoursing, often with dignity and delicacy, to
me, she would move away on her "souliers de silence," and glide
ghost-like through the house, watching and spying everywhere,
peering through every key-hole, listening behind every door.
After all, madame's system was not bad- let me do her just-
ice. Nothing could be better than all her arrangements for the
physical well-being of her scholars. No minds were overtasked;
the lessons were well distributed and made incomparably easy to
the learner; there was a liberty of amusement and a provision
## p. 2403 (#605) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2403
for exercise which kept the girls healthy; the food was abundant
and good: neither pale nor puny faces were anywhere to be seen
in the Rue Fossette. She never grudged a holiday; she allowed
plenty of time for sleeping, dressing, washing, eating:
her
method in all these matters was easy, liberal, salutary, and
rational; many an austere English schoolmistress would do vastly
well to imitate it and I believe many would be glad to do so,
if exacting English parents would let them.
As Madame Beck ruled by espionage, she of course had her
staff of spies; she perfectly knew the quality of the tools she
used, and while she would not scruple to handle the dirtiest for
a dirty occasion-flinging this sort from her like refuse rind,
after the orange has been duly squeezed - I have known her
fastidious in seeking pure metal for clean uses; and when once a
bloodless and rustless instrument was found, she was careful of
the prize, keeping it in silk and cotton-wool. Yet woe be to the
man or woman who relied on her one inch beyond the point
where it was her interest to be trustworthy; interest was the
master-key of madame's nature—the mainspring of her motives
-the alpha and omega of her life. I have seen her feelings
appealed to, and I have smiled in half-pity, half-scorn at the
appellants. None ever gained her ear through that channel, or
swayed her purpose by that means. On the contrary, to attempt
to touch her heart was the surest way to rouse her antipathy,
and to make of her a secret foe. It proved to her that she had
no heart to be touched: it reminded her where she was impotent
and dead. Never was the distinction between charity and mercy
better exemplified than in her. While devoid of sympathy, she
had a sufficiency of rational benevolence: she would give in the
readiest manner to people she had never seen — rather, however,
to classes than to individuals. "Pour les pauvres" she opened
her purse freely - against the poor man, as a rule, she kept it
closed. In philanthropic schemes, for the benefit of society at
large, she took a cheerful part; no private sorrow touched her:
no force or mass of suffering concentrated in one heart had
power to pierce hers. Not the agony of Gethsemane, not the
death on Calvary, could have wrung from her eyes one tear.
I say again, madame was a very great and a very capable
woman. That school offered for her powers too limited a
sphere: she ought to have swayed a nation; she should have
been the leader of a turbulent legislative assembly. Nobody
## p. 2404 (#606) ###########################################
2404
BRONTÉ SISTERS
could have browbeaten her, none irritated her nerves, exhausted
her patience, or overreached her astuteness. In her own single
person, she could have comprised the duties of a first minister
and a superintendent of police. Wise, firm, faithless, secret,
crafty, passionless; watchful and inscrutable; acute and insensate
withal perfectly decorous what more could be desired?
A YORKSHIRE LANDSCAPE
From Shirley'
ISS KEELDAR, just stand still now, and look down at
"M" Nunneley dale and wood. "
They both halted on the green brow of the Common.
They looked down on the deep valley robed in May raiment; on
varied meads, some pearled with daisies and some golden with
kingcups: to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight;
transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it. On Nunn-
wood- the sole remnant of antique British forest in a region
whose lowlands were once all sylvan chase, as its highlands were
breast-deep heather-slept the shadow of a cloud; the distant
hills were dappled, the horizon was shaded and tinted like mother-
of-pearl; silvery blues, soft purples, evanescent greens and rose-
shades, all melting into fleeces of white cloud, pure as azury
snow, allured the eye with a remote glimpse of heaven's founda-
tions. The air blowing on the brow was fresh and sweet and
bracing.
"Our England is a bonnie island," said Shirley, "and York-
shire is one of her bonniest nooks. "
-
"You are a Yorkshire girl too? "
"I am
Yorkshire in blood and birth. Five generations of
my race sleep under the aisles of Briarfield Church: I drew my
first breath in the old black hall behind us. "
Hereupon Caroline presented her hand, which was accordingly
taken and shaken. "We are compatriots," said she.
"Yes," agreed Shirley, with a grave nod.
"And that," asked Miss Keeldar, pointing to the forest-
"that is Nunnwood ? »
"It is. "
"Were you ever there? "
"Many a time. "
## p. 2405 (#607) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2405
"In the heart of it? "
"Yes. "
"What is it like ? "
"It is like an encampment of forest sons of Anak. The trees
are huge and old. When you stand at their roots, the summits
seem in another region: the trunks remain still and firm as pil-
lars, while the boughs sway to every breeze. In the deepest
calm their leaves are never quite hushed, and in a high wind a
flood rushes a sea thunders above you. "
"Was it not one of Robin Hood's haunts ? »
<< Yes, and there are mementos of him still existing. To pene-
trate into Nunnwood, Miss Keeldar, is to go far back into the
dim days of eld. Can you see a break in the forest, about the
centre?
>>>
"Yes, distinctly. "
"That break is a dell—a deep hollow cup, lined with turf as
green and short as the sod of this Common: the very oldest of
the trees, gnarled mighty oaks, crowd about the brink of this
dell; in the bottom lie the ruins of a nunnery.
"We will go you and I alone, Caroline-to that wood, early
some fine summer morning, and spend a long day there. We
can take pencils and sketch-books, and any interesting reading-
book we like; and of course we shall take something to eat. I
have two little baskets, in which Mrs. Gill, my house-keeper,
might pack our provisions, and we could each carry our own. It
would not tire you too much to walk so far? "
"Oh, no; especially if we rested the whole day in the wood;
and I know all the pleasantest spots. I know where we could
get nuts in nutting time; I know where wild strawberries abound;
I know certain lonely, quite untrodden glades, carpeted with
strange mosses, some yellow as if gilded, some
a sober gray,
some gem-green. I know groups of trees that ravish the eye
with their perfect, picture-like effects: rude oak, delicate birch,
glossy beech, clustered in contrast; and ash-trees, stately as Saul,
standing isolated; and superannuated wood-giants clad in bright
shrouds of ivy. "
## p. 2406 (#608) ###########################################
2406
BRONTÉ SISTERS
THE END OF HEATHCLIFF
From Emily Bronté's Wuthering Heights'
F
OR some days after that evening Mr. Heathcliff shunned
meeting us at meals; yet he would not consent formally to
exclude Hareton and Cathy. He had an aversion to yield-
ing so completely to his feelings, choosing rather to absent him-
self; and eating once in twenty-four hours seemed sufficient
sustenance for him.
One night, after the family were in bed, I heard him go
down-stairs and out at the front door: I did not hear him re-
enter, and in the morning I found he was still away.
We were
in April then, the weather was sweet and warm, the grass as
green as showers and sun could make it, and the two dwarf
apple-trees near the southern wall in full bloom.
After breakfast, Catherine insisted on my bringing a chair
and sitting with my work under the fir-trees at the end of the
house; and she beguiled Hareton, who had recovered from his
accident, to dig and arrange her little garden, which was shifted
to that corner by the influence of Joseph's complaints.
I was comfortably reveling in the spring fragrance around,
and the beautiful soft blue overhead, when my young lady, who
had run down near the gate to procure some primrose roots for
a border, returned only half laden, and informed us that Mr.
Heathcliff was coming in.
"And he spoke to me," she added with a perplexed look.
"What did he say? " asked Hareton.
"He told me to begone as fast as I could," she answered.
"But he looked so different from his usual look that I stopped a
moment to stare at him. "
"How? " he inquired.
"Why, almost bright and cheerful-no, almost nothing-
very much excited, and wild, and glad! " she replied.
"Night-walking amuses him, then," I remarked, affecting a
careless manner; in reality as surprised as she was, and anxious
to ascertain the truth of her statement. for to see the master
looking glad would not be an every-day spectacle: I framed an
excuse to go in.
Heathcliff stood at the open door-he was pale, and he trem-
bled; yet certainly he had a strange joyful glitter in his eyes,
that altered the aspect of his whole face.
## p. 2407 (#609) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2407
"Will you
have some breakfast? " I said. "You must be
hungry, rambling about all night! "
I wanted to discover where he had been; but I did not like
to ask directly.
"No, I'm not hungry," he answered, averting his head, and
speaking rather contemptuously, as if he guessed I was trying to
divine the occasion of his good humor.
I felt perplexed- I didn't know whether it were not a proper
opportunity to offer a bit of admonition.
"I don't think it right to wander out of doors," I observed,
"instead of being in bed: it is not wise, at any rate, this moist
season. I daresay you'll catch a bad cold, or a fever-you have
something the matter with you now! "
"Nothing but what I can bear," he replied, "and with the
greatest pleasure, provided you'll leave me alone-get in, and
don't annoy me. "
I obeyed; and in passing, I saw he breathed as fast as a cat.
"Yes! " I reflected to myself, "we shall have a fit of illness.
I cannot conceive what he has been doing! "
That noon he sat down to dinner with us, and received a
heaped-up plate from my hands, as if he intended to make
amends for previous fasting.
"I've neither cold nor fever, Nelly," he remarked, in allusion
to my morning speech. "And I'm ready to do justice to the
food you give me. "
He took his knife and fork, and was going to commence eat-
ing, when the inclination appeared to become suddenly extinct.
He laid them on the table, looked eagerly toward the window,
then rose and went out. We saw him walking to and fro in
the garden, while we concluded our meal; and Earnshaw said
he'd go and ask why he would not dine; he thought we had
grieved him some way.
"Well, is he coming? " cried Catherine, when he returned.
"Nay," he answered; "but he's not angry: he seemed rare
and pleased indeed; only I made him impatient by speaking to
him twice: and then he bid me be off to you; he wondered
how I could want the company of anybody else. "
I set his plate to keep warm on the fender; and after an
hour or two he re-entered, when the room was clear, in no
degree calmer: the same unnatural-it was unnatural! appear-
ance of joy under his black brows; the same bloodless hue; and
―――
## p. 2408 (#610) ###########################################
2408
BRONTÉ SISTERS
his teeth visible now and then in a kind of smile; his frame
shivering, not as one shivers with chill or weakness, but as a
tight-stretched cord vibrates a strong thrilling, rather than
trembling.
"I will ask what is the matter," I thought, "or who should? »
And I exclaimed, "Have you heard any good news, Mr. Heath-
cliff? You look uncommonly animated. "
« I'm
"Where should good news come from to me? " he said.
animated with hunger; and seemingly I must not eat. "
"Your dinner is here," I returned: "why won't you get it? "
"I don't want it now," he muttered hastily. "I'll wait till
supper. And, Nelly, once for all, let me beg you to warn Hare-
ton and the other away from me. I wish to be troubled by
nobody- I wish to have this place to myself. "
"Is there some new reason for this banishment? " I inquired.
"Tell me why you are so queer, Mr. Heathcliff. Where were you
last night? I'm not putting the question through idle curiosity,
but-»
"You are putting the question through very idle curiosity,"
he interrupted, with a laugh. "Yet I'll answer it. Last night I
was on the threshold of hell. To-day I am within sight of my
heaven- I have my eyes on it-hardly three feet to sever me.
And now you'd better go. You'll neither see nor hear anything
to frighten you if you refrain from prying. "
Having swept the hearth and wiped the table, I departed
more perplexed than ever. He did not quit the house again that
afternoon, and no one intruded on his solitude til at eight
o'clock I deemed it proper, though unsummoned, to carry a can-
dle and his supper to him.
He was leaning against the ledge of an open lattice, but not
looking out; his face was turned to the interior gloom. The fire
had smoldered to ashes; the room was filled with the damp, mild
air of the cloudy evening; and so still, that not only the murmur
of the beck down Gimmerton was distinguishable, but its ripples,
and its gurgling over the pebbles, or through the large stones
which it could not cover.
I uttered an ejaculation of discontent at seeing the dismal
grate, and commenced shutting the casements, one after another,
till I came to his.
"Must I close this? " I asked, in order to rouse him, for he
would not stir.
## p. 2409 (#611) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2409
The light flashed on his features as I spoke. O Mr. Lock-
wood, I cannot express what a terrible start I got by the
momentary view! Those deep black eyes! That smile and
ghastly paleness! It appeared to me not Mr. Heathcliff, but a
goblin; and in my terror I let the candle bend toward the wall,
and it left me in darkness.
"Yes, close it," he replied in his familiar voice. "There, that
is pure awkwardness! Why did you hold the candle horizontally?
Be quick, and bring another. ”
I hurried out in a foolish state of dread, and said to Joseph,
"The master wishes you to take him a light and rekindle the
fire. " For I dare not go in myself again just then.
Joseph rattled some fire into the shovel and went; but he
brought it back immediately, with the supper tray in his other
hand, explaining that Mr. Heathcliff was going to bed, and he
wanted nothing to eat till morning.
We heard him mount the stairs directly. He did not pro-
ceed to his ordinary chamber, but turned into that with the
paneled bed; its window, as I mentioned before, is wide enough
for anybody to get through, and it struck me that he plotted
another midnight excursion, which he had rather we had no sus-
picion of.
"Is he a ghoul, or a vampire? " I mused. I had read of such
hideous incarnate demons. And then I set myself to reflect how
I had tended him in infancy, and watched him grow to youth,
and followed him almost through his whole course, and what
nonsense it was to yield to that sense of horror.
"But where did he come from, the little dark thing, harbored
by a good man to his bane? " muttered Superstition, as I dozed
into unconsciousness. And I began, half dreaming, to weary
myself with imagining some fit parentage for him: and repeating
my waking meditations I tracked his existence over again, with
grim variations; at last picturing his death and funeral; of
which all I can remember is being exceedingly vexed at having
the task of dictating an inscription for his monument, and con-
sulting the sexton about it; and as he had no surname, and we
could not tell his age, we were obliged to content ourselves with
the single word "Heathcliff. " That came true-we were. If
you enter the kirkyard, you'll read on his headstone only that,
and the date of his death. Dawn restored me to common-sense.
I rose, and went into the garden, as soon as I could see, to
## p. 2410 (#612) ###########################################
2410
BRONTÉ SISTERS
ascertain if there were any foot-marks under his window. There
were none.
"He has staid at home," I thought, "and he'll be all right
to-day! "
I prepared breakfast for the household, as was my usual cus-
tom, but told Hareton and Catherine to get theirs ere the master
came down, for he lay late. They preferred taking it out of
doors, under the trees, and I set a little table to accommodate
them.
On my re-entrance I found Mr. Heathcliff below. He and
Joseph were conversing about some farming business; he gave
clear, minute directions concerning the matter discussed, but he
spoke rapidly, and turned his head continually aside, and had the
same excited expression, even more exaggerated.
When Joseph quitted the room, he took his seat in the place
he generally chose, and I put a basin of coffee before him. He
drew it nearer, and then rested his arms on the table, and looked
at the opposite wall, as I supposed surveying one particular por-
tion, up and down, with glittering, restless eyes, and with such
eager interest that he stopped breathing during half a minute
together.
"Come now," I exclaimed, pushing some bread against his
hand, "eat and drink that while it is hot. It has been waiting
near an hour. "
I'd rather have seen
He didn't notice me, and yet he smiled.
him gnash his teeth than smile so.
«< Mr. Heathcliff! master! " I cried. "Don't, for God's sake,
stare as if you saw an unearthly vision. "
"Don't, for God's sake, shout so loud," he replied. “Turn
round and tell me, are we by ourselves? "
"Of course," was my answer, "of course we are! "
Still I involuntarily obeyed him, as if I were not quite sure.
With a sweep of his hand he cleared a vacant space in front
among the breakfast things, and leaned forward to gaze more at
his ease.
Now I perceived he was not looking at the wall; for when I
regarded him alone, it seemed exactly that he gazed at something
within two yards' distance. And, whatever it was, it communi-
cated apparently both pleasure and pain in exquisite extremes;
at least the anguished yet raptured expression of his countenance
suggested that idea.
## p. 2411 (#613) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2411
The fancied object was not fixed either; his eyes pursued it
with unwearied vigilance, and even in speaking to me, were never
weaned away.
I vainly reminded him of his protracted abstinence from food.
If he stirred to touch anything in compliance with my entreaties -
if he stretched his hand out to get a piece of bread-his fingers
clenched before they reached it, and remained on the table, for-
getful of their aim.
I sat, a model of patience, trying to attract his absorbed at-
tention from its engrossing speculation till he grew irritable and
got up, asking why I would not allow him to have his own time
in taking his meals? and saying that on the next occasion I
needn't wait—I might set the things down and go. Having
uttered these words, he left the house, slowly sauntered down the
garden path, and disappeared through the gate.
The hours crept anxiously by: another evening came. I did
not retire to rest till late, and when I did I could not sleep. He
returned after midnight, and instead of going to bed, shut him-
self into the room beneath. I listened and tossed about, and
finally dressed and descended. It was too irksome to lie up there,
harassing my brain with a hundred idle misgivings.
I distinguished Mr. Heathcliff's step, restlessly measuring the
floor; and he frequently broke the silence by a deep inspiration,
resembling a groan. He muttered detached words also; the only
one I could catch was the name of Catherine, coupled with some
wild term of endearment or suffering, and spoken as one would
speak to a person present-low and earnest, and wrung from the
depth of his soul.
I had not courage to walk straight into the apartment; but I
desired to divert him from his revery, and therefore fell foul of
the kitchen fire; stirred it and began to scrape the cinders. It
drew him forth sooner than I expected. He opened the door
immediately, and said:-
-
"Nelly, come here- is it morning? Come in with your light. ”
"It is striking four," I answered; "you want a candle to take
upstairs you might have lighted one at this fire. "
"No, I don't wish to go upstairs," he said. "Come in, and
kindle me a fire, and do anything there is to do about the
room. "
"I must blow the coals red first, before I can carry any," >> I
replied, getting a chair and the bellows.
## p. 2412 (#614) ###########################################
2412
BRONTÉ SISTERS
He roamed to and fro, meantime, in a state approaching dis-
traction, his heavy sighs succeeding each other so thick as to
leave no space for common breathing between.
"When day breaks, I'll send for Green," he said; "I wish to
make some legal inquiries of him, while I can bestow a thought
on those matters, and while I can act calmly. I have not written
my will yet, and how to leave my property I cannot determine!
I wish I could annihilate it from the face of the earth. "
"I would not talk so, Mr. Heathcliff," I interposed. "Let
your will be a while-you'll be spared to repent of your many
injustices yet! I never expected that your nerves would be dis-
ordered they are, at present, marvelously so, however; and
almost entirely through your own fault. The way you've passed
these last three days might knock up a Titan. Do take some
food and some repose. You need only look at yourself in a
glass to see how you require both. Your cheeks are hollow and
your eyes bloodshot, like a person starving with hunger and
going blind with loss of sleep. "
"It is not my fault that I cannot eat or rest," he replied.
"I assure you it is through no settled designs. I'll do both as
soon as I possibly can. But you might as well bid a man strug-
gling in the water rest within arm's-length of the shore! I must
reach it first, and then I'll rest. Well, never mind Mr. Green;
as to repenting of my injustices, I've done no injustice, and I
repent of nothing. I'm too happy, and yet I'm not happy
enough. My soul's bliss kills my body, but does not satisfy
itself. "
(
If you
«<
Happy, master? " I cried. Strange happiness!
would hear me without being angry, I might offer some advice
that would make you happier. "
"What is that? " he asked. "Give it. "
"You are aware, Mr. Heathcliff," I said, "that from the time
you were thirteen years old you have lived a selfish, unchristian
life: and probably hardly had a Bible in your hands during all
that period. You must have forgotten the contents of the book,
and you may not have space to search it now. Could it be hurt-
ful to send for some one-
it does not matter which -to explain it, and show you how
very far you have erred from its precepts, and how unfit you
will be for its heaven, unless a change takes place before you
die? "
some minister of any denomination,
-
―
## p. 2413 (#615) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2413
"I'm rather obliged than angry, Nelly," he said, “for you
remind me of the manner that I desire to be buried in. It is
to be carried to the churchyard in the evening. You and Hare-
ton may, if you please, accompany me—and mind, particularly,
to notice that the sexton obeys my directions concerning the two
coffins! No minister need come; nor need anything be said over
me. I tell you, I have nearly attained my heaven; and that of
others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by me! "
"And supposing you persevered in your obstinate fast, and
died by that means, and they refused to bury you in the pre-
cincts of the kirk? " I said, shocked at his godless indifference.
"How would you like it? "
"They won't do that," he replied; "if they did, you must
have me removed secretly; and if you neglect it, you shall prove
practically that the dead are not annihilated! "
As soon as he heard the other members of the family stir-
ring, he retired to his den, and I breathed freer. But in the
afternoon, while Joseph and Hareton were at their work, he
came into the kitchen again, and with a wild look bid me come
and sit in the house-he wanted somebody with him.
I declined, telling him plainly that his strange talk and man-
ner frightened me, and I had neither the nerve nor the will to
be his companion alone.
"I believe you think me a fiend! " he said, with his dismal
laugh; "something too horrible to live under a decent roof! "
Then turning to Catherine, who was there, and who drew
behind me at his approach, he added, half sneeringly:-
"Will you come, chuck? I'll not hurt you. No! to you I've
made myself worse than the devil. Well, there is one who won't
shrink from my company! By God! she's relentless. Oh, damn
it! It's unutterably too much for flesh and blood to bear, even
mine. "
He solicited the society of no one more. At dusk he went
into his chamber.
"Mr. Mason does; Mr. Eyre has been the Funchal corre-
spondent of his house for some years. When your uncle received
your letter intimating the contemplated union between yourself
and Mr. Rochester, Mr. Mason, who was staying at Madeira to
recruit his health, on his way back to Jamaica happened to be
## p. 2397 (#599) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2397
with him. Mr. Eyre mentioned the intelligence; for he knew
that my client here was acquainted with a gentleman of the name
of Rochester. Mr. Mason, astonished and distressed, as you may
suppose, revealed the real state of matters. Your uncle, I am
sorry to say, is now on a sick-bed; from which, considering the
nature of his disease— decline—and the stage it has reached, it
is unlikely he will ever rise. He could not then hasten to Eng-
land himself, to extricate you from the snare into which you had
fallen, but he implored Mr. Mason to lose no time in taking
steps to prevent the false marriage. He referred him to me for
assistance. I used all dispatch, and am thankful I was not too
late: as you, doubtless, must be also. Were I not morally cer-
tain that your uncle will be dead ere you reach Madeira, I would
advise you to accompany Mr. Mason back; but as it is, I think
you had better remain in England till you can hear further, either
from or of Mr. Eyre. Have we anything else to stay for? " he
inquired of Mr. Mason.
"No, no; let us be gone, was the anxious reply; and with-
out waiting to take leave of Mr. Rochester, they made their exit
at the hall door. The clergyman stayed to exchange a few
sentences, either of admonition or reproof, with his haughty
parishioner: this duty done, he too departed.
I heard him go as I stood at the half-open door of my own
room, to which I had now withdrawn. The house cleared, I
shut myself in, fastened the bolt that none might intrude, and
proceeded -not to weep, not to mourn, I was yet too calm for
that, but-mechanically to take off the wedding-dress, and replace
if by the stuff gown I had worn yesterday, as I thought for the
last time. I then sat down: I felt weak and tired.
I leaned my
arms on a table, and my head dropped on them.
And now
thought: till now I had only heard, seen, moved - followed up
and down where I was led or dragged-watched event rush on
event, disclosure open beyond disclosure; but now I thought.
The morning had been a quiet morning enough-all except
the brief scene with the lunatic. The transaction in the church
had not been noisy; there was no explosion of passion, no loud
altercation, no dispute, no defiance or challenge, no tears, no
sobs: a few words had been spoken, a calmly pronounced objec-
tion to the marriage made; some stern, short questions put by
Mr. Rochester; answers, explanations given, evidence adduced;
an open admission of the truth had been uttered by my master:
-
>>
## p. 2398 (#600) ###########################################
2398
BRONTE SISTERS
then the living proof had been seen; the intruders were gone,
and all was over.
I was in my own room as usual—just myself, without obvious
change; nothing had smitten me, or scathed me, or maimed me.
And yet where was the Jane Eyre of yesterday? where was her
life? where were her prospects?
Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent, expectant woman-
almost a bride-was a cold, solitary girl again: her life was pale;
her prospects were desolate. A Christmas frost had come at
midsummer; a white December storm had whirled over June; ice
glazed the ripe apples; drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hay-
field and corn-field lay a frozen shroud; lanes which last night
blushed full of flowers, to-day were pathless with untrodden.
snow; and the woods, which twelve hours since waved leafy and
fragrant as groves between the tropics, now spread waste, wild,
and white as pine forests in wintry Norway.
My hopes were all dead--struck with a subtle doom, such as
in one night fell on all the first-born in the land of Egypt. I
looked on my cherished wishes, yesterday so blooming and glow-
ing; they lay stark, chill, livid corpses that could never revive.
I looked at my love, that feeling which was my master's- which
he had created: it shivered in my heart, like a suffering child in
a cold cradle; sickness and anguish had seized it; it could not
seek Mr. Rochester's arms-it could not derive warmth from his
breast. Oh, never more could it turn to him; for faith was
blighted confidence destroyed! Mr. Rochester was not to me
what he had been; for he was not what I had thought him. I
would not ascribe vice to him; I would not say he had betrayed.
me: but the attribute of stainless truth was gone from his idea;
and from his presence I must go; that I perceived well. When-
how-whither, I could not yet discern; but he himself, I doubted
not, would hurry me from Thornfield. Real affection, it seemed,
he could not have for me; it had been only fitful passion; that
was balked; he would want me no more. I should fear even to
cross his path now: my view must be hateful to him. Oh, how
blind had been my eyes! how weak my conduct!
--
-
## p. 2399 (#601) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2399
MADAME BECK
(From Villette')
ayre Engliss? " said a voice at my elbow. I almost
"You bounded, so unexpected was the sound; so certain had I
been of solitude.
2
No ghost stood beside me, nor anything of spectral aspect;
merely a motherly, dumpy little woman, in a large shawl, a
wrapping-gown, and a clean, trim nightcap.
I said I was English, and immediately, without further pre-
lude, we fell to a most remarkable conversation. Madame Beck
(for Madame Beck it was; she had entered by a little door
behind me, and being shod with the shoes of silence, I had
heard neither her entrance nor approach)- Madame Beck had
exhausted her command of insular speech when she said "You
ayre Engliss,” and she now proceeded to work away volubly in
her own tongue. I answered in mine. She partly understood
me, but as I did not at all understand her- though we made
together an awful clamor (anything like madame's gift of utter-
ance I had not hitherto heard or imagined) — we achieved little
progress. She rang, ere long, for aid; which arrived in the
shape of a "maîtresse," who had been partly educated in an
Irish convent, and was esteemed a perfect adept in the English
language. A bluff little personage this maîtresse was— Labasse-
courienne from top to toe: and how she did slaughter the speech
of Albion! However, I told her a plain tale, which she trans-
lated. I told her how I had left my own country, intent on
extending my knowledge and gaining my bread; how I was
ready to turn my hand to any useful thing, provided it was not
wrong or degrading: how I would be a child's nurse or a lady's-
maid, and would not refuse even housework adapted to my
strength. Madame heard this; and questioning her countenance,
I almost thought the tale won her ear.
"Il n'y a que les Anglaises pour ces sortes d'entreprises,"
said she: "sont-elles donc intrépides, ces femmes-là! "
not
She asked my name, my age; she sat and looked at me-
pityingly, not with interest: never a gleam of sympathy or a
shade of compassion crossed her countenance during the inter-
view. I felt she was not one to be led an inch by her feelings:
## p. 2400 (#602) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2400
grave and considerate, she gazed, consulting her judgment and
studying my narrative.
In the dead of night I suddenly awoke. All was hushed, but
a white figure stood in the room-Madame in her night-dress.
Moving without perceptible sound, she visited the three children.
in the three beds; she approached me; I feigned sleep, and she
studied me long. A small pantomime ensued, curious enough.
I dare say she sat a quarter of an hour on the edge of my bed,
gazing at my face. She then drew nearer, bent close over me;
slightly raised my cap, and turned back the border so as to
expose my hair; she looked at my hand lying on the bed-clothes.
This done, she turned to the chair where my clothes lay; it was
at the foot of the bed. Hearing her touch and lift them, I
opened my eyes with precaution, for I own I felt curious to see
how far her taste for research would lead her. It led her a good
way: every article did she inspect. I divined her motive for this
proceeding; viz. , the wish to form from the garments a judgment
respecting the wearer, her station, means, neatness, etc. The
end was not bad, but the means were hardly fair or justifiable.
In my dress was a pocket; she fairly turned it inside out; she
counted the money in my purse; she opened a little memorandum-
book, coolly perused its contents, and took from between the
leaves a small plaited lock of Miss Marchmont's gray hair. To a
bunch of three keys, being those of my trunk, desk, and work-
box, she accorded special attention: with these, indeed, she with-
drew a moment to her own room. I softly rose in my bed and
followed her with my eye: these keys, reader, were not brought
back till they had left on the toilet of the adjoining room the
impress of their wards in wax. All being thus done decently
and in order, my property was returned to its place, my clothes
were carefully refolded. Of what nature were the conclusions
deduced from this scrutiny? Were they favorable or otherwise?
Vain question. Madame's face of stone (for of stone in its pres-
ent night-aspect it looked: it had been human, and as I said
before, motherly, in the salon) betrayed no response.
Her duty done I felt that in her eyes this business was a
duty she rose, noiseless as a shadow: she moved toward her
own chamber; at the door she turned, fixing her eyes on the
heroine of the bottle, who still slept and loudly snored. Mrs.
Svini (I presume this was Mrs. Svini, Anglicé or Hibernicé
Sweeny) Mrs. Sweeny's doom was in Madame Beck's eye-
―――――――――
•
## p. 2401 (#603) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2401
an immutable purpose that eye spoke: madame's visitations for
shortcomings might be slow, but they were sure. All this was
very un-English: truly I was in a foreign land. .
When attired, Madame Beck appeared a personage of a figure
rather short and stout, yet still graceful in its own peculiar way:
that is, with the grace resulting from proportion of parts. Her
complexion was fresh and sanguine, not too rubicund; her eye,
blue and serene; her dark silk dress fitted her as a French
sempstress alone can make a dress fit; she looked well, though
a little bourgeoise, as bourgeoise indeed she was. I know not
what of harmony pervaded her whole person; and yet her face
offered contrast too: its features were by no means such as are
usually seen in conjunction with a complexion of such blended.
freshness and repose: their outline was stern; her forehead was
high but narrow; it expressed capacity and some benevolence,
but no expanse; nor did her peaceful yet watchful eye ever
know the fire which is kindled in the heart or the softness which
flows thence. Her mouth was hard: it could be a little grim;
her lips were thin. For sensibility and genius, with all their
tenderness and temerity, I felt somehow that madame would be
the right sort of Minos in petticoats.
In the long run, I found that she was something else in pet-
ticoats too. Her name was Modeste Maria Beck, née Kint: it
ought to have been Ignacia. She was a charitable woman, and
did a great deal of good. There never was a mistress whose
rule was milder. I was told that she never once remonstrated
with the intolerable Mrs. Sweeny [the heroine's predecessor],
despite her tipsiness, disorder, and general neglect; yet Mrs.
Sweeny had to go, the moment her departure became conven-
ient. I was told too that neither masters nor teachers were
found fault with in that establishment: yet both masters and
teachers were often changed; they vanished and others filled
their places, none could well explain how.
The establishment was both a pensionnat and an externat:
the externes or day-pupils exceeded one hundred in number;
the boarders were about a score. Madame must have possessed
high administrative powers: she ruled all these, together with
four teachers, eight masters, six servants, and three children,
managing at the same time to perfection the pupil's parents and
friends; and that without apparent effort, without bustle, fatigue,
fever, or any symptom of undue excitement; occupied she always
IV-151
## p. 2402 (#604) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
was
--
- busy, rarely. It is true that madame had her own system
for managing and regulating this mass of machinery; and a very
pretty system it was: the reader has seen a specimen of it in
that small affair of turning my pocket inside out and reading
my private memoranda. Surveillance, espionnage, these were her
watchwords.
2402
Still, madame knew what honesty was, and liked it—that is,
when it did not obtrude its clumsy scruples in the way of her
will and interest. She had a respect for "Angleterre "; and as
to "les Anglaises," she would have the women of no other coun-
try about her own children, if she could help it.
Often in the evening, after she had been plotting and counter-
plotting, spying and receiving the reports of spies all day, she
would come up to my room, a trace of real weariness on her
brow, and she would sit down and listen while the children said
their little prayers to me in English: the Lord's Prayer and the
hymn beginning "Gentle Jesus," these little Catholics were per-
mitted to repeat at my knee; and when I had put them to bed,
she would talk to me (I soon gained enough French to be able
to understand and even answer her) about England and English-
women, and the reason for what she was pleased to term their
superior intelligence, and more real and reliable probity. Very
good sense she often showed; very sound opinions she often
broached: she seemed to know that keeping girls in distrustful
restraint, in blind ignorance, and under a surveillance that left
them no moment and no corner for retirement, was not the
best way to make them grow up honest and modest women; but
she averred that ruinous consequences would ensue if any other
method were tried with Continental children - they were SO
accustomed to restraint that relaxation, however guarded, would
be misunderstood and fatally presumed on: she was sick, she
would declare, of the means she had to use, but use them she
must; and after discoursing, often with dignity and delicacy, to
me, she would move away on her "souliers de silence," and glide
ghost-like through the house, watching and spying everywhere,
peering through every key-hole, listening behind every door.
After all, madame's system was not bad- let me do her just-
ice. Nothing could be better than all her arrangements for the
physical well-being of her scholars. No minds were overtasked;
the lessons were well distributed and made incomparably easy to
the learner; there was a liberty of amusement and a provision
## p. 2403 (#605) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2403
for exercise which kept the girls healthy; the food was abundant
and good: neither pale nor puny faces were anywhere to be seen
in the Rue Fossette. She never grudged a holiday; she allowed
plenty of time for sleeping, dressing, washing, eating:
her
method in all these matters was easy, liberal, salutary, and
rational; many an austere English schoolmistress would do vastly
well to imitate it and I believe many would be glad to do so,
if exacting English parents would let them.
As Madame Beck ruled by espionage, she of course had her
staff of spies; she perfectly knew the quality of the tools she
used, and while she would not scruple to handle the dirtiest for
a dirty occasion-flinging this sort from her like refuse rind,
after the orange has been duly squeezed - I have known her
fastidious in seeking pure metal for clean uses; and when once a
bloodless and rustless instrument was found, she was careful of
the prize, keeping it in silk and cotton-wool. Yet woe be to the
man or woman who relied on her one inch beyond the point
where it was her interest to be trustworthy; interest was the
master-key of madame's nature—the mainspring of her motives
-the alpha and omega of her life. I have seen her feelings
appealed to, and I have smiled in half-pity, half-scorn at the
appellants. None ever gained her ear through that channel, or
swayed her purpose by that means. On the contrary, to attempt
to touch her heart was the surest way to rouse her antipathy,
and to make of her a secret foe. It proved to her that she had
no heart to be touched: it reminded her where she was impotent
and dead. Never was the distinction between charity and mercy
better exemplified than in her. While devoid of sympathy, she
had a sufficiency of rational benevolence: she would give in the
readiest manner to people she had never seen — rather, however,
to classes than to individuals. "Pour les pauvres" she opened
her purse freely - against the poor man, as a rule, she kept it
closed. In philanthropic schemes, for the benefit of society at
large, she took a cheerful part; no private sorrow touched her:
no force or mass of suffering concentrated in one heart had
power to pierce hers. Not the agony of Gethsemane, not the
death on Calvary, could have wrung from her eyes one tear.
I say again, madame was a very great and a very capable
woman. That school offered for her powers too limited a
sphere: she ought to have swayed a nation; she should have
been the leader of a turbulent legislative assembly. Nobody
## p. 2404 (#606) ###########################################
2404
BRONTÉ SISTERS
could have browbeaten her, none irritated her nerves, exhausted
her patience, or overreached her astuteness. In her own single
person, she could have comprised the duties of a first minister
and a superintendent of police. Wise, firm, faithless, secret,
crafty, passionless; watchful and inscrutable; acute and insensate
withal perfectly decorous what more could be desired?
A YORKSHIRE LANDSCAPE
From Shirley'
ISS KEELDAR, just stand still now, and look down at
"M" Nunneley dale and wood. "
They both halted on the green brow of the Common.
They looked down on the deep valley robed in May raiment; on
varied meads, some pearled with daisies and some golden with
kingcups: to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight;
transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it. On Nunn-
wood- the sole remnant of antique British forest in a region
whose lowlands were once all sylvan chase, as its highlands were
breast-deep heather-slept the shadow of a cloud; the distant
hills were dappled, the horizon was shaded and tinted like mother-
of-pearl; silvery blues, soft purples, evanescent greens and rose-
shades, all melting into fleeces of white cloud, pure as azury
snow, allured the eye with a remote glimpse of heaven's founda-
tions. The air blowing on the brow was fresh and sweet and
bracing.
"Our England is a bonnie island," said Shirley, "and York-
shire is one of her bonniest nooks. "
-
"You are a Yorkshire girl too? "
"I am
Yorkshire in blood and birth. Five generations of
my race sleep under the aisles of Briarfield Church: I drew my
first breath in the old black hall behind us. "
Hereupon Caroline presented her hand, which was accordingly
taken and shaken. "We are compatriots," said she.
"Yes," agreed Shirley, with a grave nod.
"And that," asked Miss Keeldar, pointing to the forest-
"that is Nunnwood ? »
"It is. "
"Were you ever there? "
"Many a time. "
## p. 2405 (#607) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2405
"In the heart of it? "
"Yes. "
"What is it like ? "
"It is like an encampment of forest sons of Anak. The trees
are huge and old. When you stand at their roots, the summits
seem in another region: the trunks remain still and firm as pil-
lars, while the boughs sway to every breeze. In the deepest
calm their leaves are never quite hushed, and in a high wind a
flood rushes a sea thunders above you. "
"Was it not one of Robin Hood's haunts ? »
<< Yes, and there are mementos of him still existing. To pene-
trate into Nunnwood, Miss Keeldar, is to go far back into the
dim days of eld. Can you see a break in the forest, about the
centre?
>>>
"Yes, distinctly. "
"That break is a dell—a deep hollow cup, lined with turf as
green and short as the sod of this Common: the very oldest of
the trees, gnarled mighty oaks, crowd about the brink of this
dell; in the bottom lie the ruins of a nunnery.
"We will go you and I alone, Caroline-to that wood, early
some fine summer morning, and spend a long day there. We
can take pencils and sketch-books, and any interesting reading-
book we like; and of course we shall take something to eat. I
have two little baskets, in which Mrs. Gill, my house-keeper,
might pack our provisions, and we could each carry our own. It
would not tire you too much to walk so far? "
"Oh, no; especially if we rested the whole day in the wood;
and I know all the pleasantest spots. I know where we could
get nuts in nutting time; I know where wild strawberries abound;
I know certain lonely, quite untrodden glades, carpeted with
strange mosses, some yellow as if gilded, some
a sober gray,
some gem-green. I know groups of trees that ravish the eye
with their perfect, picture-like effects: rude oak, delicate birch,
glossy beech, clustered in contrast; and ash-trees, stately as Saul,
standing isolated; and superannuated wood-giants clad in bright
shrouds of ivy. "
## p. 2406 (#608) ###########################################
2406
BRONTÉ SISTERS
THE END OF HEATHCLIFF
From Emily Bronté's Wuthering Heights'
F
OR some days after that evening Mr. Heathcliff shunned
meeting us at meals; yet he would not consent formally to
exclude Hareton and Cathy. He had an aversion to yield-
ing so completely to his feelings, choosing rather to absent him-
self; and eating once in twenty-four hours seemed sufficient
sustenance for him.
One night, after the family were in bed, I heard him go
down-stairs and out at the front door: I did not hear him re-
enter, and in the morning I found he was still away.
We were
in April then, the weather was sweet and warm, the grass as
green as showers and sun could make it, and the two dwarf
apple-trees near the southern wall in full bloom.
After breakfast, Catherine insisted on my bringing a chair
and sitting with my work under the fir-trees at the end of the
house; and she beguiled Hareton, who had recovered from his
accident, to dig and arrange her little garden, which was shifted
to that corner by the influence of Joseph's complaints.
I was comfortably reveling in the spring fragrance around,
and the beautiful soft blue overhead, when my young lady, who
had run down near the gate to procure some primrose roots for
a border, returned only half laden, and informed us that Mr.
Heathcliff was coming in.
"And he spoke to me," she added with a perplexed look.
"What did he say? " asked Hareton.
"He told me to begone as fast as I could," she answered.
"But he looked so different from his usual look that I stopped a
moment to stare at him. "
"How? " he inquired.
"Why, almost bright and cheerful-no, almost nothing-
very much excited, and wild, and glad! " she replied.
"Night-walking amuses him, then," I remarked, affecting a
careless manner; in reality as surprised as she was, and anxious
to ascertain the truth of her statement. for to see the master
looking glad would not be an every-day spectacle: I framed an
excuse to go in.
Heathcliff stood at the open door-he was pale, and he trem-
bled; yet certainly he had a strange joyful glitter in his eyes,
that altered the aspect of his whole face.
## p. 2407 (#609) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2407
"Will you
have some breakfast? " I said. "You must be
hungry, rambling about all night! "
I wanted to discover where he had been; but I did not like
to ask directly.
"No, I'm not hungry," he answered, averting his head, and
speaking rather contemptuously, as if he guessed I was trying to
divine the occasion of his good humor.
I felt perplexed- I didn't know whether it were not a proper
opportunity to offer a bit of admonition.
"I don't think it right to wander out of doors," I observed,
"instead of being in bed: it is not wise, at any rate, this moist
season. I daresay you'll catch a bad cold, or a fever-you have
something the matter with you now! "
"Nothing but what I can bear," he replied, "and with the
greatest pleasure, provided you'll leave me alone-get in, and
don't annoy me. "
I obeyed; and in passing, I saw he breathed as fast as a cat.
"Yes! " I reflected to myself, "we shall have a fit of illness.
I cannot conceive what he has been doing! "
That noon he sat down to dinner with us, and received a
heaped-up plate from my hands, as if he intended to make
amends for previous fasting.
"I've neither cold nor fever, Nelly," he remarked, in allusion
to my morning speech. "And I'm ready to do justice to the
food you give me. "
He took his knife and fork, and was going to commence eat-
ing, when the inclination appeared to become suddenly extinct.
He laid them on the table, looked eagerly toward the window,
then rose and went out. We saw him walking to and fro in
the garden, while we concluded our meal; and Earnshaw said
he'd go and ask why he would not dine; he thought we had
grieved him some way.
"Well, is he coming? " cried Catherine, when he returned.
"Nay," he answered; "but he's not angry: he seemed rare
and pleased indeed; only I made him impatient by speaking to
him twice: and then he bid me be off to you; he wondered
how I could want the company of anybody else. "
I set his plate to keep warm on the fender; and after an
hour or two he re-entered, when the room was clear, in no
degree calmer: the same unnatural-it was unnatural! appear-
ance of joy under his black brows; the same bloodless hue; and
―――
## p. 2408 (#610) ###########################################
2408
BRONTÉ SISTERS
his teeth visible now and then in a kind of smile; his frame
shivering, not as one shivers with chill or weakness, but as a
tight-stretched cord vibrates a strong thrilling, rather than
trembling.
"I will ask what is the matter," I thought, "or who should? »
And I exclaimed, "Have you heard any good news, Mr. Heath-
cliff? You look uncommonly animated. "
« I'm
"Where should good news come from to me? " he said.
animated with hunger; and seemingly I must not eat. "
"Your dinner is here," I returned: "why won't you get it? "
"I don't want it now," he muttered hastily. "I'll wait till
supper. And, Nelly, once for all, let me beg you to warn Hare-
ton and the other away from me. I wish to be troubled by
nobody- I wish to have this place to myself. "
"Is there some new reason for this banishment? " I inquired.
"Tell me why you are so queer, Mr. Heathcliff. Where were you
last night? I'm not putting the question through idle curiosity,
but-»
"You are putting the question through very idle curiosity,"
he interrupted, with a laugh. "Yet I'll answer it. Last night I
was on the threshold of hell. To-day I am within sight of my
heaven- I have my eyes on it-hardly three feet to sever me.
And now you'd better go. You'll neither see nor hear anything
to frighten you if you refrain from prying. "
Having swept the hearth and wiped the table, I departed
more perplexed than ever. He did not quit the house again that
afternoon, and no one intruded on his solitude til at eight
o'clock I deemed it proper, though unsummoned, to carry a can-
dle and his supper to him.
He was leaning against the ledge of an open lattice, but not
looking out; his face was turned to the interior gloom. The fire
had smoldered to ashes; the room was filled with the damp, mild
air of the cloudy evening; and so still, that not only the murmur
of the beck down Gimmerton was distinguishable, but its ripples,
and its gurgling over the pebbles, or through the large stones
which it could not cover.
I uttered an ejaculation of discontent at seeing the dismal
grate, and commenced shutting the casements, one after another,
till I came to his.
"Must I close this? " I asked, in order to rouse him, for he
would not stir.
## p. 2409 (#611) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2409
The light flashed on his features as I spoke. O Mr. Lock-
wood, I cannot express what a terrible start I got by the
momentary view! Those deep black eyes! That smile and
ghastly paleness! It appeared to me not Mr. Heathcliff, but a
goblin; and in my terror I let the candle bend toward the wall,
and it left me in darkness.
"Yes, close it," he replied in his familiar voice. "There, that
is pure awkwardness! Why did you hold the candle horizontally?
Be quick, and bring another. ”
I hurried out in a foolish state of dread, and said to Joseph,
"The master wishes you to take him a light and rekindle the
fire. " For I dare not go in myself again just then.
Joseph rattled some fire into the shovel and went; but he
brought it back immediately, with the supper tray in his other
hand, explaining that Mr. Heathcliff was going to bed, and he
wanted nothing to eat till morning.
We heard him mount the stairs directly. He did not pro-
ceed to his ordinary chamber, but turned into that with the
paneled bed; its window, as I mentioned before, is wide enough
for anybody to get through, and it struck me that he plotted
another midnight excursion, which he had rather we had no sus-
picion of.
"Is he a ghoul, or a vampire? " I mused. I had read of such
hideous incarnate demons. And then I set myself to reflect how
I had tended him in infancy, and watched him grow to youth,
and followed him almost through his whole course, and what
nonsense it was to yield to that sense of horror.
"But where did he come from, the little dark thing, harbored
by a good man to his bane? " muttered Superstition, as I dozed
into unconsciousness. And I began, half dreaming, to weary
myself with imagining some fit parentage for him: and repeating
my waking meditations I tracked his existence over again, with
grim variations; at last picturing his death and funeral; of
which all I can remember is being exceedingly vexed at having
the task of dictating an inscription for his monument, and con-
sulting the sexton about it; and as he had no surname, and we
could not tell his age, we were obliged to content ourselves with
the single word "Heathcliff. " That came true-we were. If
you enter the kirkyard, you'll read on his headstone only that,
and the date of his death. Dawn restored me to common-sense.
I rose, and went into the garden, as soon as I could see, to
## p. 2410 (#612) ###########################################
2410
BRONTÉ SISTERS
ascertain if there were any foot-marks under his window. There
were none.
"He has staid at home," I thought, "and he'll be all right
to-day! "
I prepared breakfast for the household, as was my usual cus-
tom, but told Hareton and Catherine to get theirs ere the master
came down, for he lay late. They preferred taking it out of
doors, under the trees, and I set a little table to accommodate
them.
On my re-entrance I found Mr. Heathcliff below. He and
Joseph were conversing about some farming business; he gave
clear, minute directions concerning the matter discussed, but he
spoke rapidly, and turned his head continually aside, and had the
same excited expression, even more exaggerated.
When Joseph quitted the room, he took his seat in the place
he generally chose, and I put a basin of coffee before him. He
drew it nearer, and then rested his arms on the table, and looked
at the opposite wall, as I supposed surveying one particular por-
tion, up and down, with glittering, restless eyes, and with such
eager interest that he stopped breathing during half a minute
together.
"Come now," I exclaimed, pushing some bread against his
hand, "eat and drink that while it is hot. It has been waiting
near an hour. "
I'd rather have seen
He didn't notice me, and yet he smiled.
him gnash his teeth than smile so.
«< Mr. Heathcliff! master! " I cried. "Don't, for God's sake,
stare as if you saw an unearthly vision. "
"Don't, for God's sake, shout so loud," he replied. “Turn
round and tell me, are we by ourselves? "
"Of course," was my answer, "of course we are! "
Still I involuntarily obeyed him, as if I were not quite sure.
With a sweep of his hand he cleared a vacant space in front
among the breakfast things, and leaned forward to gaze more at
his ease.
Now I perceived he was not looking at the wall; for when I
regarded him alone, it seemed exactly that he gazed at something
within two yards' distance. And, whatever it was, it communi-
cated apparently both pleasure and pain in exquisite extremes;
at least the anguished yet raptured expression of his countenance
suggested that idea.
## p. 2411 (#613) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2411
The fancied object was not fixed either; his eyes pursued it
with unwearied vigilance, and even in speaking to me, were never
weaned away.
I vainly reminded him of his protracted abstinence from food.
If he stirred to touch anything in compliance with my entreaties -
if he stretched his hand out to get a piece of bread-his fingers
clenched before they reached it, and remained on the table, for-
getful of their aim.
I sat, a model of patience, trying to attract his absorbed at-
tention from its engrossing speculation till he grew irritable and
got up, asking why I would not allow him to have his own time
in taking his meals? and saying that on the next occasion I
needn't wait—I might set the things down and go. Having
uttered these words, he left the house, slowly sauntered down the
garden path, and disappeared through the gate.
The hours crept anxiously by: another evening came. I did
not retire to rest till late, and when I did I could not sleep. He
returned after midnight, and instead of going to bed, shut him-
self into the room beneath. I listened and tossed about, and
finally dressed and descended. It was too irksome to lie up there,
harassing my brain with a hundred idle misgivings.
I distinguished Mr. Heathcliff's step, restlessly measuring the
floor; and he frequently broke the silence by a deep inspiration,
resembling a groan. He muttered detached words also; the only
one I could catch was the name of Catherine, coupled with some
wild term of endearment or suffering, and spoken as one would
speak to a person present-low and earnest, and wrung from the
depth of his soul.
I had not courage to walk straight into the apartment; but I
desired to divert him from his revery, and therefore fell foul of
the kitchen fire; stirred it and began to scrape the cinders. It
drew him forth sooner than I expected. He opened the door
immediately, and said:-
-
"Nelly, come here- is it morning? Come in with your light. ”
"It is striking four," I answered; "you want a candle to take
upstairs you might have lighted one at this fire. "
"No, I don't wish to go upstairs," he said. "Come in, and
kindle me a fire, and do anything there is to do about the
room. "
"I must blow the coals red first, before I can carry any," >> I
replied, getting a chair and the bellows.
## p. 2412 (#614) ###########################################
2412
BRONTÉ SISTERS
He roamed to and fro, meantime, in a state approaching dis-
traction, his heavy sighs succeeding each other so thick as to
leave no space for common breathing between.
"When day breaks, I'll send for Green," he said; "I wish to
make some legal inquiries of him, while I can bestow a thought
on those matters, and while I can act calmly. I have not written
my will yet, and how to leave my property I cannot determine!
I wish I could annihilate it from the face of the earth. "
"I would not talk so, Mr. Heathcliff," I interposed. "Let
your will be a while-you'll be spared to repent of your many
injustices yet! I never expected that your nerves would be dis-
ordered they are, at present, marvelously so, however; and
almost entirely through your own fault. The way you've passed
these last three days might knock up a Titan. Do take some
food and some repose. You need only look at yourself in a
glass to see how you require both. Your cheeks are hollow and
your eyes bloodshot, like a person starving with hunger and
going blind with loss of sleep. "
"It is not my fault that I cannot eat or rest," he replied.
"I assure you it is through no settled designs. I'll do both as
soon as I possibly can. But you might as well bid a man strug-
gling in the water rest within arm's-length of the shore! I must
reach it first, and then I'll rest. Well, never mind Mr. Green;
as to repenting of my injustices, I've done no injustice, and I
repent of nothing. I'm too happy, and yet I'm not happy
enough. My soul's bliss kills my body, but does not satisfy
itself. "
(
If you
«<
Happy, master? " I cried. Strange happiness!
would hear me without being angry, I might offer some advice
that would make you happier. "
"What is that? " he asked. "Give it. "
"You are aware, Mr. Heathcliff," I said, "that from the time
you were thirteen years old you have lived a selfish, unchristian
life: and probably hardly had a Bible in your hands during all
that period. You must have forgotten the contents of the book,
and you may not have space to search it now. Could it be hurt-
ful to send for some one-
it does not matter which -to explain it, and show you how
very far you have erred from its precepts, and how unfit you
will be for its heaven, unless a change takes place before you
die? "
some minister of any denomination,
-
―
## p. 2413 (#615) ###########################################
BRONTÉ SISTERS
2413
"I'm rather obliged than angry, Nelly," he said, “for you
remind me of the manner that I desire to be buried in. It is
to be carried to the churchyard in the evening. You and Hare-
ton may, if you please, accompany me—and mind, particularly,
to notice that the sexton obeys my directions concerning the two
coffins! No minister need come; nor need anything be said over
me. I tell you, I have nearly attained my heaven; and that of
others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by me! "
"And supposing you persevered in your obstinate fast, and
died by that means, and they refused to bury you in the pre-
cincts of the kirk? " I said, shocked at his godless indifference.
"How would you like it? "
"They won't do that," he replied; "if they did, you must
have me removed secretly; and if you neglect it, you shall prove
practically that the dead are not annihilated! "
As soon as he heard the other members of the family stir-
ring, he retired to his den, and I breathed freer. But in the
afternoon, while Joseph and Hareton were at their work, he
came into the kitchen again, and with a wild look bid me come
and sit in the house-he wanted somebody with him.
I declined, telling him plainly that his strange talk and man-
ner frightened me, and I had neither the nerve nor the will to
be his companion alone.
"I believe you think me a fiend! " he said, with his dismal
laugh; "something too horrible to live under a decent roof! "
Then turning to Catherine, who was there, and who drew
behind me at his approach, he added, half sneeringly:-
"Will you come, chuck? I'll not hurt you. No! to you I've
made myself worse than the devil. Well, there is one who won't
shrink from my company! By God! she's relentless. Oh, damn
it! It's unutterably too much for flesh and blood to bear, even
mine. "
He solicited the society of no one more. At dusk he went
into his chamber.
