No More Learning

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! And so it was: he turned
abruptly, hastened into the house again, shut the door behind him; and
when I went in a while after to inform them that Earnshaw had come home
rabid drunk, ready to pull the whole place about our ears (his ordinary
frame of mind in that condition), I saw the quarrel had merely effected a
closer intimacy--had broken the outworks of youthful timidity, and
enabled them to forsake the disguise of friendship, and confess
themselves lovers.

Intelligence of Mr. Hindley's arrival drove Linton speedily to his horse,
and Catherine to her chamber. I went to hide little Hareton, and to take
the shot out of the master's fowling-piece, which he was fond of playing
with in his insane excitement, to the hazard of the lives of any who
provoked, or even attracted his notice too much; and I had hit upon the
plan of removing it, that he might do less mischief if he did go the
length of firing the gun.




CHAPTER IX


He entered, vociferating oaths dreadful to hear; and caught me in the act
of stowing his son away in the kitchen cupboard. Hareton was impressed
with a wholesome terror of encountering either his wild beast's fondness
or his madman's rage; for in one he ran a chance of being squeezed and
kissed to death, and in the other of being flung into the fire, or dashed
against the wall; and the poor thing remained perfectly quiet wherever I
chose to put him.

'There, I've found it out at last! ' cried Hindley, pulling me back by the
skin of my neck, like a dog. 'By heaven and hell, you've sworn between
you to murder that child! I know how it is, now, that he is always out
of my way. But, with the help of Satan, I shall make you swallow the
carving-knife, Nelly! You needn't laugh; for I've just crammed Kenneth,
head-downmost, in the Black-horse marsh; and two is the same as one--and
I want to kill some of you: I shall have no rest till I do! '

'But I don't like the carving-knife, Mr. Hindley,' I answered; 'it has
been cutting red herrings. I'd rather be shot, if you please. '

'You'd rather be damned! ' he said; 'and so you shall. No law in England
can hinder a man from keeping his house decent, and mine's abominable!
Open your mouth. ' He held the knife in his hand, and pushed its point
between my teeth: but, for my part, I was never much afraid of his
vagaries. I spat out, and affirmed it tasted detestably--I would not
take it on any account.

'Oh! ' said he, releasing me, 'I see that hideous little villain is not
Hareton: I beg your pardon, Nell. If it be, he deserves flaying alive
for not running to welcome me, and for screaming as if I were a goblin.
Unnatural cub, come hither! I'll teach thee to impose on a good-hearted,
deluded father. Now, don't you think the lad would be handsomer cropped?
It makes a dog fiercer, and I love something fierce--get me a
scissors--something fierce and trim! Besides, it's infernal
affectation--devilish conceit it is, to cherish our ears--we're asses
enough without them. Hush, child, hush! Well then, it is my darling!
wisht, dry thy eyes--there's a joy; kiss me. What! it won't? Kiss me,
Hareton! Damn thee, kiss me! By God, as if I would rear such a monster!
As sure as I'm living, I'll break the brat's neck. '

Poor Hareton was squalling and kicking in his father's arms with all his
might, and redoubled his yells when he carried him up-stairs and lifted
him over the banister. I cried out that he would frighten the child into
fits, and ran to rescue him. As I reached them, Hindley leant forward on
the rails to listen to a noise below; almost forgetting what he had in
his hands. 'Who is that? ' he asked, hearing some one approaching the
stairs'-foot. I leant forward also, for the purpose of signing to
Heathcliff, whose step I recognised, not to come further; and, at the
instant when my eye quitted Hareton, he gave a sudden spring, delivered
himself from the careless grasp that held him, and fell.

There was scarcely time to experience a thrill of horror before we saw
that the little wretch was safe. Heathcliff arrived underneath just at
the critical moment; by a natural impulse he arrested his descent, and
setting him on his feet, looked up to discover the author of the
accident. A miser who has parted with a lucky lottery ticket for five
shillings, and finds next day he has lost in the bargain five thousand
pounds, could not show a blanker countenance than he did on beholding the
figure of Mr. Earnshaw above. It expressed, plainer than words could do,
the intensest anguish at having made himself the instrument of thwarting
his own revenge. Had it been dark, I daresay he would have tried to
remedy the mistake by smashing Hareton's skull on the steps; but, we
witnessed his salvation; and I was presently below with my precious
charge pressed to my heart. Hindley descended more leisurely, sobered
and abashed.

'It is your fault, Ellen,' he said; 'you should have kept him out of
sight: you should have taken him from me! Is he injured anywhere? '

'Injured! ' I cried angrily; 'if he is not killed, he'll be an idiot! Oh!
I wonder his mother does not rise from her grave to see how you use him.
You're worse than a heathen--treating your own flesh and blood in that
manner! ' He attempted to touch the child, who, on finding himself with
me, sobbed off his terror directly. At the first finger his father laid
on him, however, he shrieked again louder than before, and struggled as
if he would go into convulsions.

'You shall not meddle with him! ' I continued. 'He hates you--they all
hate you--that's the truth! A happy family you have; and a pretty state
you're come to! '

'I shall come to a prettier, yet, Nelly,' laughed the misguided man,
recovering his hardness. 'At present, convey yourself and him away. And
hark you, Heathcliff! clear you too quite from my reach and hearing. I
wouldn't murder you to-night; unless, perhaps, I set the house on fire:
but that's as my fancy goes. '

While saying this he took a pint bottle of brandy from the dresser, and
poured some into a tumbler.

'Nay, don't! ' I entreated. 'Mr. Hindley, do take warning. Have mercy on
this unfortunate boy, if you care nothing for yourself! '

'Any one will do better for him than I shall,' he answered.

'Have mercy on your own soul! ' I said, endeavouring to snatch the glass
from his hand.

'Not I! On the contrary, I shall have great pleasure in sending it to
perdition to punish its Maker,' exclaimed the blasphemer. 'Here's to its
hearty damnation! '

He drank the spirits and impatiently bade us go; terminating his command
with a sequel of horrid imprecations too bad to repeat or remember.

'It's a pity he cannot kill himself with drink,' observed Heathcliff,
muttering an echo of curses back when the door was shut. 'He's doing his
very utmost; but his constitution defies him. Mr. Kenneth says he would
wager his mare that he'll outlive any man on this side Gimmerton, and go
to the grave a hoary sinner; unless some happy chance out of the common
course befall him. '

I went into the kitchen, and sat down to lull my little lamb to sleep.
Heathcliff, as I thought, walked through to the barn. It turned out
afterwards that he only got as far as the other side the settle, when he
flung himself on a bench by the wall, removed from the fire and remained
silent.

I was rocking Hareton on my knee, and humming a song that began,--

It was far in the night, and the bairnies grat,
The mither beneath the mools heard that,

when Miss Cathy, who had listened to the hubbub from her room, put her
head in, and whispered,--'Are you alone, Nelly? '

'Yes, Miss,' I replied.

She entered and approached the hearth. I, supposing she was going to say
something, looked up.