AS soon as I had perused this epistle I went to the master, and
informed him that his sister had arrived at the Heights, and sent
me a letter expressing her sorrow for Mrs. Linton's situation, and
her ardent desire to see him; with a wish that he would transmit to
her, as early as possible, some token of forgiveness by me.

'Forgiveness!' said Linton. 'I have nothing to forgive her, Ellen.
You may call at Wuthering Heights this afternoon, if you like, and
say that I am not angry, but I'm sorry to have lost her; especially
as I can never think she'll be happy. It is out of the question my
going to see her, however: we are eternally divided; and should
she really wish to oblige me, let her persuade the villain she has
married to leave the country.'

'And you won't write her a little note, sir?' I asked, imploringly.

'No,' he answered. 'It is needless. My communication with
Heathcliff's family shall be as sparing as his with mine. It shall
not exist!'

Mr. Edgar's coldness depressed me exceedingly; and all the way from
the Grange I puzzled my brains how to put more heart into what he
said, when I repeated it; and how to soften his refusal of even a
few lines to console Isabella. I daresay she had been on the watch
for me since morning: I saw her looking through the lattice as I
came up the garden causeway, and I nodded to her; but she drew
back, as if afraid of being observed. I entered without knocking.
There never was such a dreary, dismal scene as the formerly
cheerful house presented! I must confess, that if I had been in
the young lady's place, I would, at least, have swept the hearth,
and wiped the tables with a duster. But she already partook of the
pervading spirit of neglect which encompassed her. Her pretty face
was wan and listless; her hair uncurled: some locks hanging lankly
down, and some carelessly twisted round her head. Probably she had
not touched her dress since yester evening. Hindley was not there.
Mr. Heathcliff sat at a table, turning over some papers in his
pocket-book; but he rose when I appeared, asked me how I did, quite
friendly, and offered me a chair. He was the only thing there that
seemed decent; and I thought he never looked better. So much had
circumstances altered their positions, that he would certainly have
struck a stranger as a born and bred gentleman; and his wife as a
thorough little slattern! She came forward eagerly to greet me,
and held out one hand to take the expected letter. I shook my
head. She wouldn't understand the hint, but followed me to a
sideboard, where I went to lay my bonnet, and importuned me in a
whisper to give her directly what I had brought. Heathcliff
guessed the meaning of her manoeuvres, and said - 'If you have got
anything for Isabella (as no doubt you have, Nelly), give it to
her. You needn't make a secret of it: we have no secrets between
us.'

'Oh, I have nothing,' I replied, thinking it best to speak the
truth at once. 'My master bid me tell his sister that she must not
expect either a letter or a visit from him at present. He sends
his love, ma'am, and his wishes for your happiness, and his pardon
for the grief you have occasioned; but he thinks that after this
time his household and the household here should drop
intercommunication, as nothing could come of keeping it up.'

Mrs. Heathcliff's lip quivered slightly, and she returned to her
seat in the window. Her husband took his stand on the hearthstone,
near me, and began to put questions concerning Catherine. I told
him as much as I thought proper of her illness, and he extorted
from me, by cross-examination, most of the facts connected with its
origin. I blamed her, as she deserved, for bringing it all on
herself; and ended by hoping that he would follow Mr. Linton's
example and avoid future interference with his family, for good or
evil.

'Mrs. Linton is now just recovering,' I said; 'she'll never be like
she was, but her life is spared; and if you really have a regard
for her, you'll shun crossing her way again: nay, you'll move out
of this country entirely; and that you may not regret it, I'll
inform you Catherine Linton is as different now from your old
friend Catherine Earnshaw, as that young lady is different from me.
Her appearance is changed greatly, her character much more so; and
the person who is compelled, of necessity, to be her companion,
will only sustain his affection hereafter by the remembrance of
what she once was, by common humanity, and a sense of duty!'

'That is quite possible,' remarked Heathcliff, forcing himself to
seem calm: 'quite possible that your master should have nothing
but common humanity and a sense of duty to fall back upon. But do
you imagine that I shall leave Catherine to his DUTY and HUMANITY?
and can you compare my feelings respecting Catherine to his?
Before you leave this house, I must exact a promise from you that
you'll get me an interview with her: consent, or refuse, I WILL
see her! What do you say?'

'I say, Mr. Heathcliff,' I replied, 'you must not: you never
shall, through my means. Another encounter between you and the
master would kill her altogether.'

'With your aid that may be avoided,' he continued; 'and should
there be danger of such an event - should he be the cause of adding
a single trouble more to her existence - why, I think I shall be
justified in going to extremes! I wish you had sincerity enough to
tell me whether Catherine would suffer greatly from his loss: the
fear that she would restrains me. And there you see the
distinction between our feelings: had he been in my place, and I
in his, though I hated him with a hatred that turned my life to
gall, I never would have raised a hand against him. You may look
incredulous, if you please! I never would have banished him from
her society as long as she desired his. The moment her regard
ceased, I would have torn his heart out, and drunk his blood! But,
till then - if you don't believe me, you don't know me - till then,
I would have died by inches before I touched a single hair of his
head!'

'And yet,' I interrupted, 'you have no scruples in completely
ruining all hopes of her perfect restoration, by thrusting yourself
into her remembrance now, when she has nearly forgotten you, and
involving her in a new tumult of discord and distress.'

'You suppose she has nearly forgotten me?' he said. 'Oh, Nelly!
you know she has not! You know as well as I do, that for every
thought she spends on Linton she spends a thousand on me! At a
most miserable period of my life, I had a notion of the kind: it
haunted me on my return to the neighbourhood last summer; but only
her own assurance could make me admit the horrible idea again. And
then, Linton would be nothing, nor Hindley, nor all the dreams that
ever I dreamt. Two words would comprehend my future - DEATH and
HELL: existence, after losing her, would be hell. Yet I was a
fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton's
attachment more than mine. If he loved with all the powers of his
puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in
a day. And Catherine has a heart as deep as I have: the sea could
be as readily contained in that horse-trough as her whole affection
be monopolised by him. Tush! He is scarcely a degree dearer to
her than her dog, or her horse. It is not in him to be loved like
me: how can she love in him what he has not?'

'Catherine and Edgar are as fond of each other as any two people
can be,' cried Isabella, with sudden vivacity. 'No one has a right
to talk in that manner, and I won't hear my brother depreciated in
silence!'

'Your brother is wondrous fond of you too, isn't he?' observed
Heathcliff, scornfully. 'He turns you adrift on the world with
surprising alacrity.'

'He is not aware of what I suffer,' she replied. 'I didn't tell
him that.'

'You have been telling him something, then: you have written, have
you?'

'To say that I was married, I did write - you saw the note.'

'And nothing since?'

'No.'

'My young lady is looking sadly the worse for her change of
condition,' I remarked. 'Somebody's love comes short in her case,
obviously; whose, I may guess; but, perhaps, I shouldn't say.'

'I should guess it was her own,' said Heathcliff. 'She degenerates
into a mere slut! She is tired of trying to please me uncommonly
early. You'd hardly credit it, but the very morrow of our wedding
she was weeping to go home. However, she'll suit this house so
much the better for not being over nice, and I'll take care she
does not disgrace me by rambling abroad.'

'Well, sir,' returned I, 'I hope you'll consider that Mrs.
Heathcliff is accustomed to be looked after and waited on; and that
she has been brought up like an only daughter, whom every one was
ready to serve. You must let her have a maid to keep things tidy
about her, and you must treat her kindly. Whatever be your notion
of Mr. Edgar, you cannot doubt that she has a capacity for strong
attachments, or she wouldn't have abandoned the elegancies, and
comforts, and friends of her former home, to fix contentedly, in
such a wilderness as this, with you.'

'She abandoned them under a delusion,' he answered; 'picturing in
me a hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my
chivalrous devotion. I can hardly regard her in the light of a
rational creature, so obstinately has she persisted in forming a
fabulous notion of my character and acting on the false impressions
she cherished. But, at last, I think she begins to know me: I
don't perceive the silly smiles and grimaces that provoked me at
first; and the senseless incapability of discerning that I was in
earnest when I gave her my opinion of her infatuation and herself.
It was a marvellous effort of perspicacity to discover that I did
not love her. I believed, at one time, no lessons could teach her
that! And yet it is poorly learnt; for this morning she announced,
as a piece of appalling intelligence, that I had actually succeeded
in making her hate me! A positive labour of Hercules, I assure
you! If it be achieved, I have cause to return thanks. Can I
trust your assertion, Isabella? Are you sure you hate me? If I
let you alone for half a day, won't you come sighing and wheedling
to me again? I daresay she would rather I had seemed all
tenderness before you: it wounds her vanity to have the truth
exposed. But I don't care who knows that the passion was wholly on
one side: and I never told her a lie about it. She cannot accuse
me of showing one bit of deceitful softness. The first thing she
saw me do, on coming out of the Grange, was to hang up her little
dog; and when she pleaded for it, the first words I uttered were a
wish that I had the hanging of every being belonging to her, except
one: possibly she took that exception for herself. But no
brutality disgusted her: I suppose she has an innate admiration of
it, if only her precious person were secure from injury! Now, was
it not the depth of absurdity - of genuine idiotcy, for that
pitiful, slavish, mean-minded brach to dream that I could love her?
Tell your master, Nelly, that I never, in all my life, met with
such an abject thing as she is. She even disgraces the name of
Linton; and I've sometimes relented, from pure lack of invention,
in my experiments on what she could endure, and still creep
shamefully cringing back! But tell him, also, to set his fraternal
and magisterial heart at ease: that I keep strictly within the
limits of the law. I have avoided, up to this period, giving her
the slightest right to claim a separation; and, what's more, she'd
thank nobody for dividing us. If she desired to go, she might:
the nuisance of her presence outweighs the gratification to be
derived from tormenting her!'

'Mr. Heathcliff,' said I, 'this is the talk of a madman; your wife,
most likely, is convinced you are mad; and, for that reason, she
has borne with you hitherto: but now that you say she may go,
she'll doubtless avail herself of the permission. You are not so
bewitched, ma'am, are you, as to remain with him of your own
accord?'

'Take care, Ellen!' answered Isabella, her eyes sparkling irefully;
there was no misdoubting by their expression the full success of
her partner's endeavours to make himself detested. 'Don't put
faith in a single word he speaks. He's a lying fiend! a monster,
and not a human being! I've been told I might leave him before;
and I've made the attempt, but I dare not repeat it! Only, Ellen,
promise you'll not mention a syllable of his infamous conversation
to my brother or Catherine. Whatever he may pretend, he wishes to
provoke Edgar to desperation: he says he has married me on purpose
to obtain power over him; and he sha'n't obtain it - I'll die
first! I just hope, I pray, that he may forget his diabolical
prudence and kill me! The single pleasure I can imagine is to die,
or to see him dead!'

'There - that will do for the present!' said Heathcliff. 'If you
are called upon in a court of law, you'll remember her language,
Nelly! And take a good look at that countenance: she's near the
point which would suit me. No; you're not fit to be your own
guardian, Isabella, now; and I, being your legal protector, must
retain you in my custody, however distasteful the obligation may
be. Go up-stairs; I have something to say to Ellen Dean in
private. That's not the way: up-stairs, I tell you! Why, this is
the road upstairs, child!'

He seized, and thrust her from the room; and returned muttering -
'I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe, the
more I yearn to crush out their entrails! It is a moral teething;
and I grind with greater energy in proportion to the increase of
pain.'

'Do you understand what the word pity means?' I said, hastening to
resume my bonnet. 'Did you ever feel a touch of it in your life?'

'Put that down!' he interrupted, perceiving my intention to depart.
'You are not going yet. Come here now, Nelly: I must either
persuade or compel you to aid me in fulfilling my determination to
see Catherine, and that without delay. I swear that I meditate no
harm: I don't desire to cause any disturbance, or to exasperate or
insult Mr. Linton; I only wish to hear from herself how she is, and
why she has been ill; and to ask if anything that I could do would
be of use to her. Last night I was in the Grange garden six hours,
and I'll return there to-night; and every night I'll haunt the
place, and every day, till I find an opportunity of entering. If
Edgar Linton meets me, I shall not hesitate to knock him down, and
give him enough to insure his quiescence while I stay. If his
servants oppose me, I shall threaten them off with these pistols.
But wouldn't it be better to prevent my coming in contact with
them, or their master? And you could do it so easily. I'd warn
you when I came, and then you might let me in unobserved, as soon
as she was alone, and watch till I departed, your conscience quite
calm: you would be hindering mischief.'

I protested against playing that treacherous part in my employer's
house: and, besides, I urged the cruelty and selfishness of his
destroying Mrs. Linton's tranquillity for his satisfaction. 'The
commonest occurrence startles her painfully,' I said. 'She's all
nerves, and she couldn't bear the surprise, I'm positive. Don't
persist, sir! or else I shall be obliged to inform my master of
your designs; and he'll take measures to secure his house and its
inmates from any such unwarrantable intrusions!'

'In that case I'll take measures to secure you, woman!' exclaimed
Heathcliff; 'you shall not leave Wuthering Heights till to-morrow
morning. It is a foolish story to assert that Catherine could not
bear to see me; and as to surprising her, I don't desire it: you
must prepare her - ask her if I may come. You say she never
mentions my name, and that I am never mentioned to her. To whom
should she mention me if I am a forbidden topic in the house? She
thinks you are all spies for her husband. Oh, I've no doubt she's
in hell among you! I guess by her silence, as much as anything,
what she feels. You say she is often restless, and anxious-
looking: is that a proof of tranquillity? You talk of her mind
being unsettled. How the devil could it be otherwise in her
frightful isolation? And that insipid, paltry creature attending
her from DUTY and HUMANITY! From PITY and CHARITY! He might as
well plant an oak in a flower-pot, and expect it to thrive, as
imagine he can restore her to vigour in the soil of his shallow
cares? Let us settle it at once: will you stay here, and am I to
fight my way to Catherine over Linton and his footman? Or will you
be my friend, as you have been hitherto, and do what I request?
Decide! because there is no reason for my lingering another minute,
if you persist in your stubborn ill-nature!'

Well, Mr. Lockwood, I argued and complained, and flatly refused him
fifty times; but in the long run he forced me to an agreement. I
engaged to carry a letter from him to my mistress; and should she
consent, I promised to let him have intelligence of Linton's next
absence from home, when he might come, and get in as he was able:
I wouldn't be there, and my fellow-servants should be equally out
of the way. Was it right or wrong? I fear it was wrong, though
expedient. I thought I prevented another explosion by my
compliance; and I thought, too, it might create a favourable crisis
in Catherine's mental illness: and then I remembered Mr. Edgar's
stern rebuke of my carrying tales; and I tried to smooth away all
disquietude on the subject, by affirming, with frequent iteration,
that that betrayal of trust, if it merited so harsh an appellation,
should be the last. Notwithstanding, my journey homeward was
sadder than my journey thither; and many misgivings I had, ere I
could prevail on myself to put the missive into Mrs. Linton's hand.

But here is Kenneth; I'll go down, and tell him how much better you
are. My history is DREE, as we say, and will serve to while away
another morning.

Dree, and dreary! I reflected as the good woman descended to
receive the doctor: and not exactly of the kind which I should
have chosen to amuse me. But never mind! I'll extract wholesome
medicines from Mrs. Dean's bitter herbs; and firstly, let me beware
of the fascination that lurks in Catherine Heathcliff's brilliant
eyes. I should be in a curious taking if I surrendered my heart to
that young person, and the daughter turned out a second edition of
the mother.

CHAPTER XV

ANOTHER week over - and I am so many days nearer health, and
spring! I have now heard all my neighbour's history, at different
sittings, as the housekeeper could spare time from more important
occupations. I'll continue it in her own words, only a little
condensed. She is, on the whole, a very fair narrator, and I don't
think I could improve her style.

In the evening, she said, the evening of my visit to the Heights, I
knew, as well as if I saw him, that Mr. Heathcliff was about the
place; and I shunned going out, because I still carried his letter
in my pocket, and didn't want to be threatened or teased any more.
I had made up my mind not to give it till my master went somewhere,
as I could not guess how its receipt would affect Catherine. The
consequence was, that it did not reach her before the lapse of
three days. The fourth was Sunday, and I brought it into her room
after the family were gone to church. There was a manservant left
to keep the house with me, and we generally made a practice of
locking the doors during the hours of service; but on that occasion
the weather was so warm and pleasant that I set them wide open,
and, to fulfil my engagement, as I knew who would be coming, I told
my companion that the mistress wished very much for some oranges,
and he must run over to the village and get a few, to be paid for
on the morrow. He departed, and I went up-stairs.

Mrs. Linton sat in a loose white dress, with a light shawl over her
shoulders, in the recess of the open window, as usual. Her thick,
long hair had been partly removed at the beginning of her illness,
and now she wore it simply combed in its natural tresses over her
temples and neck. Her appearance was altered, as I had told
Heathcliff; but when she was calm, there seemed unearthly beauty in
the change. The flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a dreamy
and melancholy softness; they no longer gave the impression of
looking at the objects around her: they appeared always to gaze
beyond, and far beyond - you would have said out of this world.
Then, the paleness of her face - its haggard aspect having vanished
as she recovered flesh - and the peculiar expression arising from
her mental state, though painfully suggestive of their causes,
added to the touching interest which she awakened; and - invariably
to me, I know, and to any person who saw her, I should think -
refuted more tangible proofs of convalescence, and stamped her as
one doomed to decay.

A book lay spread on the sill before her, and the scarcely
perceptible wind fluttered its leaves at intervals. I believe
Linton had laid it there: for she never endeavoured to divert
herself with reading, or occupation of any kind, and he would spend
many an hour in trying to entice her attention to some subject
which had formerly been her amusement. She was conscious of his
aim, and in her better moods endured his efforts placidly, only
showing their uselessness by now and then suppressing a wearied
sigh, and checking him at last with the saddest of smiles and
kisses. At other times, she would turn petulantly away, and hide
her face in her hands, or even push him off angrily; and then he
took care to let her alone, for he was certain of doing no good.

Gimmerton chapel bells were still ringing; and the full, mellow
flow of the beck in the valley came soothingly on the ear. It was
a sweet substitute for the yet absent murmur of the summer foliage,
which drowned that music about the Grange when the trees were in
leaf. At Wuthering Heights it always sounded on quiet days
following a great thaw or a season of steady rain. And of
Wuthering Heights Catherine was thinking as she listened: that is,
if she thought or listened at all; but she had the vague, distant
look I mentioned before, which expressed no recognition of material
things either by ear or eye.

'There's a letter for you, Mrs. Linton,' I said, gently inserting
it in one hand that rested on her knee. 'You must read it
immediately, because it wants an answer. Shall I break the seal?'
'Yes,' she answered, without altering the direction of her eyes. I
opened it - it was very short. 'Now,' I continued, 'read it.' She
drew away her hand, and let it fall. I replaced it in her lap, and
stood waiting till it should please her to glance down; but that
movement was so long delayed that at last I resumed - 'Must I read
it, ma'am? It is from Mr. Heathcliff.'

There was a start and a troubled gleam of recollection, and a
struggle to arrange her ideas. She lifted the letter, and seemed
to peruse it; and when she came to the signature she sighed: yet
still I found she had not gathered its import, for, upon my
desiring to hear her reply, she merely pointed to the name, and
gazed at me with mournful and questioning eagerness.

'Well, he wishes to see you,' said I, guessing her need of an
interpreter. 'He's in the garden by this time, and impatient to
know what answer I shall bring.'

As I spoke, I observed a large dog lying on the sunny grass beneath
raise its ears as if about to bark, and then smoothing them back,
announce, by a wag of the tail, that some one approached whom it
did not consider a stranger. Mrs. Linton bent forward, and
listened breathlessly. The minute after a step traversed the hall;
the open house was too tempting for Heathcliff to resist walking
in: most likely he supposed that I was inclined to shirk my
promise, and so resolved to trust to his own audacity. With
straining eagerness Catherine gazed towards the entrance of her
chamber. He did not hit the right room directly: she motioned me
to admit him, but he found it out ere I could reach the door, and
in a stride or two was at her side, and had her grasped in his
arms.

He neither spoke nor loosed his hold for some five minutes, during
which period he bestowed more kisses than ever he gave in his life
before, I daresay: but then my mistress had kissed him first, and
I plainly saw that he could hardly bear, for downright agony, to
look into her face! The same conviction had stricken him as me,
from the instant he beheld her, that there was no prospect of
ultimate recovery there - she was fated, sure to die.

'Oh, Cathy! Oh, my life! how can I bear it?' was the first
sentence he uttered, in a tone that did not seek to disguise his
despair. And now he stared at her so earnestly that I thought the
very intensity of his gaze would bring tears into his eyes; but
they burned with anguish: they did not melt.

'What now?' said Catherine, leaning back, and returning his look
with a suddenly clouded brow: her humour was a mere vane for
constantly varying caprices. 'You and Edgar have broken my heart,
Heathcliff! And you both come to bewail the deed to me, as if you
were the people to be pitied! I shall not pity you, not I. You
have killed me - and thriven on it, I think. How strong you are!
How many years do you mean to live after I am gone?'

Heathcliff had knelt on one knee to embrace her; he attempted to
rise, but she seized his hair, and kept him down.

'I wish I could hold you,' she continued, bitterly, 'till we were
both dead! I shouldn't care what you suffered. I care nothing for
your sufferings. Why shouldn't you suffer? I do! Will you forget
me? Will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you say twenty
years hence, "That's the grave of Catherine Earnshaw? I loved her
long ago, and was wretched to lose her; but it is past. I've loved
many others since: my children are dearer to me than she was; and,
at death, I shall not rejoice that I are going to her: I shall be
sorry that I must leave them!" Will you say so, Heathcliff?'

'Don't torture me till I'm as mad as yourself,' cried he, wrenching
his head free, and grinding his teeth.

The two, to a cool spectator, made a strange and fearful picture.
Well might Catherine deem that heaven would be a land of exile to
her, unless with her mortal body she cast away her moral character
also. Her present countenance had a wild vindictiveness in its
white cheek, and a bloodless lip and scintillating eye; and she
retained in her closed fingers a portion of the locks she had been
grasping. As to her companion, while raising himself with one
hand, he had taken her arm with the other; and so inadequate was
his stock of gentleness to the requirements of her condition, that
on his letting go I saw four distinct impressions left blue in the
colourless skin.

'Are you possessed with a devil,' he pursued, savagely, 'to talk in
that manner to me when you are dying? Do you reflect that all
those words will be branded in my memory, and eating deeper
eternally after you have left me? You know you lie to say I have
killed you: and, Catherine, you know that I could as soon forget
you as my existence! Is it not sufficient for your infernal
selfishness, that while you are at peace I shall writhe in the
torments of hell?'

'I shall not be at peace,' moaned Catherine, recalled to a sense of
physical weakness by the violent, unequal throbbing of her heart,
which beat visibly and audibly under this excess of agitation. She
said nothing further till the paroxysm was over; then she
continued, more kindly -

'I'm not wishing you greater torment than I have, Heathcliff. I
only wish us never to be parted: and should a word of mine
distress you hereafter, think I feel the same distress underground,
and for my own sake, forgive me! Come here and kneel down again!
You never harmed me in your life. Nay, if you nurse anger, that
will be worse to remember than my harsh words! Won't you come here
again? Do!'

Heathcliff went to the back of her chair, and leant over, but not
so far as to let her see his face, which was livid with emotion.
She bent round to look at him; he would not permit it: turning
abruptly, he walked to the fireplace, where he stood, silent, with
his back towards us. Mrs. Linton's glance followed him
suspiciously: every movement woke a new sentiment in her. After a
pause and a prolonged gaze, she resumed; addressing me in accents
of indignant disappointment:-

'Oh, you see, Nelly, he would not relent a moment to keep me out of
the grave. THAT is how I'm loved! Well, never mind. That is not
MY Heathcliff. I shall love mine yet; and take him with me: he's
in my soul. And,' added she musingly, 'the thing that irks me most
is this shattered prison, after all. I'm tired of being enclosed
here. I'm wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be
always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for
it through the walls of an aching heart: but really with it, and
in it. Nelly, you think you are better and more fortunate than I;
in full health and strength: you are sorry for me - very soon that
will be altered. I shall be sorry for YOU. I shall be
incomparably beyond and above you all. I WONDER he won't be near
me!' She went on to herself. 'I thought he wished it.
Heathcliff, dear! you should not be sullen now. Do come to me,
Heathcliff.'

In her eagerness she rose and supported herself on the arm of the
chair. At that earnest appeal he turned to her, looking absolutely
desperate. His eyes, wide and wet, at last flashed fiercely on
her; his breast heaved convulsively. An instant they held asunder,
and then how they met I hardly saw, but Catherine made a spring,
and he caught her, and they were locked in an embrace from which I
thought my mistress would never be released alive: in fact, to my
eyes, she seemed directly insensible. He flung himself into the
nearest seat, and on my approaching hurriedly to ascertain if she
had fainted, he gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad dog, and
gathered her to him with greedy jealousy. I did not feel as if I
were in the company of a creature of my own species: it appeared
that he would not understand, though I spoke to him; so I stood
off, and held my tongue, in great perplexity.

A movement of Catherine's relieved me a little presently: she put
up her hand to clasp his neck, and bring her cheek to his as he
held her; while he, in return, covering her with frantic caresses,
said wildly -

'You teach me now how cruel you've been - cruel and false. WHY did
you despise me? WHY did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have
not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed
yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses
and tears: they'll blight you - they'll damn you. You loved me -
then what RIGHT had you to leave me? What right - answer me - for
the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and
degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict
would have parted us, YOU, of your own will, did it. I have not
broken your heart - YOU have broken it; and in breaking it, you
have broken mine. So much the worse for me that I am strong. Do I
want to live? What kind of living will it be when you - oh, God!
would YOU like to live with your soul in the grave?'

'Let me alone. Let me alone,' sobbed Catherine. 'If I've done
wrong, I'm dying for it. It is enough! You left me too: but I
won't upbraid you! I forgive you. Forgive me!'

'It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those
wasted hands,' he answered. 'Kiss me again; and don't let me see
your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love MY murderer
- but YOURS! How can I?'

They were silent-their faces hid against each other, and washed by
each other's tears. At least, I suppose the weeping was on both
sides; as it seemed Heathcliff could weep on a great occasion like
this.

I grew very uncomfortable, meanwhile; for the afternoon wore fast
away, the man whom I had sent off returned from his errand, and I
could distinguish, by the shine of the western sun up the valley, a
concourse thickening outside Gimmerton chapel porch.

'Service is over,' I announced. 'My master will be here in half an
hour.'

Heathcliff groaned a curse, and strained Catherine closer: she
never moved.

Ere long I perceived a group of the servants passing up the road
towards the kitchen wing. Mr. Linton was not far behind; he opened
the gate himself and sauntered slowly up, probably enjoying the
lovely afternoon that breathed as soft as summer.

'Now he is here,' I exclaimed. 'For heaven's sake, hurry down!
You'll not meet any one on the front stairs. Do be quick; and stay
among the trees till he is fairly in.'

'I must go, Cathy,' said Heathcliff, seeking to extricate himself
from his companion's arms. 'But if I live, I'll see you again
before you are asleep. I won't stray five yards from your window.'

'You must not go!' she answered, holding him as firmly as her
strength allowed. 'You SHALL not, I tell you.'

'For one hour,' he pleaded earnestly.

'Not for one minute,' she replied.

'I MUST - Linton will be up immediately,' persisted the alarmed
intruder.

He would have risen, and unfixed her fingers by the act - she clung
fast, gasping: there was mad resolution in her face.

'No!' she shrieked. 'Oh, don't, don't go. It is the last time!
Edgar will not hurt us. Heathcliff, I shall die! I shall die!'

'Damn the fool! There he is,' cried Heathcliff, sinking back into
his seat. 'Hush, my darling! Hush, hush, Catherine! I'll stay.
If he shot me so, I'd expire with a blessing on my lips.'

And there they were fast again. I heard my master mounting the
stairs - the cold sweat ran from my forehead: I was horrified.

'Are you going to listen to her ravings?' I said, passionately.
'She does not know what she says. Will you ruin her, because she
has not wit to help herself? Get up! You could be free instantly.
That is the most diabolical deed that ever you did. We are all
done for - master, mistress, and servant.'

I wrung my hands, and cried out; and Mr. Linton hastened his step
at the noise. In the midst of my agitation, I was sincerely glad
to observe that Catherine's arms had fallen relaxed, and her head
hung down.

'She's fainted, or dead,' I thought: 'so much the better. Far
better that she should be dead, than lingering a burden and a
misery-maker to all about her.'

Edgar sprang to his unbidden guest, blanched with astonishment and
rage. What he meant to do I cannot tell; however, the other
stopped all demonstrations, at once, by placing the lifeless-
looking form in his arms.

'Look there!' he said. 'Unless you be a fiend, help her first -
then you shall speak to me!'

He walked into the parlour, and sat down. Mr. Linton summoned me,
and with great difficulty, and after resorting to many means, we
managed to restore her to sensation; but she was all bewildered;
she sighed, and moaned, and knew nobody. Edgar, in his anxiety for
her, forgot her hated friend. I did not. I went, at the earliest
opportunity, and besought him to depart; affirming that Catherine
was better, and he should hear from me in the morning how she
passed the night.

'I shall not refuse to go out of doors,' he answered; 'but I shall
stay in the garden: and, Nelly, mind you keep your word to-morrow.
I shall be under those larch-trees. Mind! or I pay another visit,
whether Linton be in or not.'

He sent a rapid glance through the half-open door of the chamber,
and, ascertaining that what I stated was apparently true, delivered
the house of his luckless presence.

Next Chapter

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