Wuthering Heights

Chapter 20

"Don't make me as crazy as you are," he cried, pulling his head back and gnashing his teeth.

These two men, to a dispassionate spectator, were making a strange and terrifying picture.Catherine might well consider heaven to be her exile, unless she cast off her mortal nature, along with her mortal body.There was a mad vengeful look on her face at the moment, which could be seen from her pale cheeks, bloodless lips, and piercing eyes.Between her clenched fingers, there was still a lock of hair that she had grabbed just now.As for her companion, he supported himself with one hand and grasped her arm with the other.His tenderness was so inconsistent with the needs of her condition. When he let go, I saw four distinct bruise marks left on her bloodless skin.

"Are you possessed by the devil?" He asked viciously, "You are going to die and still talk to me like this? Have you ever thought that after you leave me, these words will all be seared in my memory, devouring my memory? Deep in the sky forever? You know you're lying when you say I killed you, and, Catherine, you know I won't forget you as long as I live! It's not enough that you get peace while I writhe in hell Are you viciously selfish?"

"I have no peace," moaned Catherine, as her heart beat wildly and erratically, remembering her own weakness.Because of the excessive excitement, her heartbeat could be seen and heard.

She didn't say any more, and when the excitement passed, she continued in a more amiable manner:
"I don't want you to suffer more than I do, Heathcliff. I only want us never to be parted. If I have a word that will make you sad from now on, think of me being as sad underground. For my own sake, forgive me! Come here and get down on your knees again! You never hurt me in your life. No, if you were angry, it would surely hurt you later on than my foul language! You no longer Are you here? Come on.

Heathcliff went to the back of her chair, and bent down, but not so low that she could see his face, which was blue with excitement.She turned to look at him.Without letting her see, he turned suddenly and went to the hearth, where he stood, silent, with his back to us.

Mrs. Linton followed him with suspicious eyes: every movement aroused in her a new emotion.After pausing for a while, and staring at her for a long time, she continued to speak, this time speaking to me indignantly but not disappointed:

"Oh, you see, Nelly! He won't show mercy for a moment and get me out of the grave! I'm just so loved! Well, it's all right! That's not my Heathcliff. I'll come Look at my one, I take him away—he's in my soul. And," she went on musingly, "it's this shabby cell that annoys me the most, after all. I'm tired I'm tired of being shut up here. I'd like to escape to that glorious world, and stay there forever; instead of looking at it now through tears, looking forward through the walls of a wounded heart. It, but actually getting there and staying there. Nelly, you think you're luckier than me, healthy and strong, and you grieve for me—soon it's going to be reversed. I'll Sorrow for you. I shall be incomparably far above you, above all of you. I wonder if he would like to come near me!" She went on, talking to herself, "I think he would. Hope Heathcliff, dear! You mustn't be angry now. Come to me, Heathcliff."

She stood up in eager anticipation, and braced herself on the arm of the chair.Under this earnest appeal, he turned to her with a look of desperation in his eyes.His eyes were wide open, clouded with tears, and finally he shot straight at her ferociously.His chest rose and fell with excitement.For a moment they stood apart, and then I hardly saw how they came together when Catherine leaped forward and he caught her.They cling to each other so tightly that I feel like my mistress will never come out alive again.In fact, it seemed to me that she had lost her mind at the time.He collapsed in the nearest chair, and when I hurried up to see if she had fainted, he grinned at me, foamed like a mad dog, and hugged greedily and jealously. she.I feel that my company is not of our own kind.It seemed that even if I spoke to him, he would not understand.So I stood away and stopped talking, feeling extremely bewildered.

Catherine moved, and immediately cried out a little relief.She put an arm around his neck and pressed her face to his cheek in the embrace.In return, he covered her body with crazy caresses, saying frantically:
"Now you're teaching me how cruel you've been, cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I don't have a word to comfort you. You deserve it. You killed yourself .Yes, you can kiss me and cry and bring out my kisses and tears. My kisses and tears will destroy you, they will curse you. You love me, so what right do you have to leave me? What right, Answer me, is it your poor vision of Linton? For misery, humiliation, death, and all that God and Satan can make cannot separate us, and you, of your own will, did it. I didn't break your heart, you broke it, and you broke it, and you broke my heart. I'm strong, and that's why I'm so distressed. Am I going to live? What kind of life is that going to be? Fa, when you—oh God! would you have your soul with you in the grave?"

"Let me be quiet, let me be quiet," sobbed Catherine. "If I'm wrong, I'll die for my fault. That's enough! You deserted me too, but I don't want to blame you! I forgive you. Forgive me too."

"Look at those eyes, touch those crippled hands, and tell me how I can forgive you," he answered. "Kiss me again and don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you did to me. I love the man who murdered me. But how can I forgive the man who murdered you?"

They were silent, their faces were rubbed together, and they were weeping each other's faces.At least, I think both of them are crying. It seems that Heathcliff will also cry on such an important occasion.

Meanwhile, my uneasiness grew stronger, for the afternoon passed quickly, and the servants who had sent me out were returning from their errands, and I could guess, too, from the light of the setting sun over the valley, that Gimmerton Church Outside the door, there was already a large crowd of people pouring out.

"The service is done," I announced. "My master will be home in half an hour."

A curse escaped Heathcliff's throat, and he held Catherine tighter—she did not move at all.

Presently I saw a group of servants passing by on the road, making their way towards the kitchen.Mr. Linton followed not far behind, opened the gate himself, and sauntered in, perhaps enjoying the lovely afternoon, which was breezy and summery.

"Here he is now," I yelled. "For God's sake, go down quickly! You can't even touch the front stairs. Hurry up, hide in the woods and wait for him to come in."

"I must go, Cathy," said Heathcliff, trying to free himself from his companion's arms. "But, as long as I live, I shall see you again before you go to bed. I shall not be five yards from your window."

"You must not go!" she replied, holding him as tight as she could. "You can't go, I tell you."

"Just go for an hour." He begged her earnestly.

"You can't go for a minute." She replied.

"I must go, Linton will be here soon," insisted the frightened visitor.

He wanted to stand up and wrenched her fingers away.But she hugged her tightly, gasping for breath.There was an insane determination in her face.

"NO!" she screamed. "Oh, don't, don't go. It's the last time! Edgar won't hurt us. Heathcliff, I'm dying! I'm dying!"

"Damned bastard! Here he comes," cried Heathcliff, sinking in his seat. "Hush, my darling! Shh, shh, Catherine! I'll stay. If he breaks me like this, I'll die with my blessing on my lips."

They hugged again.I heard my master come up the stairs, cold sweat pouring from my brow.I was terrified.

"Do you just listen to her nonsense?" I said angrily. "She doesn't know what she's talking about. Are you going to destroy her because she's delirious? Get up! You'll be free in no time. That's the worst thing you've ever done. We'll give Ruined—master, mistress, and servants."

I wrung my hands and yelled.Mr. Linton quickened his pace at the noise.In the midst of my rage, I was delighted to see Catherine's arms loosen and her head droop.

"She's passed out, not dead," I thought. "It's better. It's better for her to be dead than to procrastinate and become a burden, and an annoyance to all around her."

Edgar flung himself upon his intruder, pale with surprise and rage.What he was going to do, I can't tell.However, the other person immediately stopped all struggles and just sent the seemingly lifeless thing into his arms.

"Look here!" he said. "Unless you're a devil, help her first, then come talk to me!"

He walked into the living room and sat down.Mr. Linton beckoned me to come, and with great difficulty, and after many devices, we at last revived her.But she was still dazed, she sighed and groaned, and no one could recognize her.Edgar was so anxious for her that he forgot her hated friend.I have not forgotten.At the first opportunity, I went out and told him to leave, and told him Catherine was better, and to-morrow I would tell how she passed the night.

"I don't refuse to go out the door," he replied. "But I'm going to stay in the garden. And, Nelly, please keep your promise tomorrow. I'll stay here under these larch trees, remember! Or I'll come again, whether Linton is at home or not. "

He cast a quick glance through the half-open door of the bedroom to confirm that his words were true, and he freed the house from his ominous presence.

About twelve o'clock that night, the Catherine you saw at Wuthering Heights was born, a frail child of seven months.Two hours later the child's mother was dead, not having regained consciousness enough to think of Heathcliff or recognize Edgar.

Edgar's grief was so miserable that words cannot express it.The later effects of this grief show how deep it was.

One great additional annoyance, it seems to me, is that he has no heir.I stared at this frail orphan girl and sighed repeatedly.I scolded old Linton in my heart, because of his natural partiality, he passed the property to his own daughter, but ignored his son's daughter.

An unwanted baby, poor thing!In the first few hours of her life, she could have cried to death, and no one would care.We later made up for this omission, but the solitude of her first birth may well have been her end.

The next morning, when the sky was clear and clear outside, the light slipped through the shutters into the silent room, and a sweet, gentle light fell on the bed and its occupant.

Edgar Linton rested his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.His young and beautiful facial features seemed to be dead, almost like the corpse around him, almost frozen.But his tranquility was the result of exhaustion of pain, hers was utter tranquility indeed.Her brows were drawn, her eyelids were closed, and there was a hint of a smile on her lips.There is no angel in heaven that looks more beautiful than her, and even I share in the eternal peace that surrounds her.Never has my heart felt so holy as I gaze upon this image of undisturbed divine rest.I instinctively echoed what she had said a few hours earlier, "Incomparably far above us, above all of us! Whether still on earth or now in heaven, her spirit lives with God Already!"

I don't know if it's my eccentricity, but when I'm in the cell of the dead, I'm seldom not happy if there's no crazy, screaming dead man to share my duties with.I see a rest that neither earth nor hell can break, and feel a guarantee that one has no end.A future without shadows.They entered the eternal world, where the continuation of life has no boundaries, the harmony of love is infinite, and the joy is infinite.How much selfishness there was, then, even in a love like that of Mr. Linton's, when he mourned Catherine's beautiful detachment!
Really, it is doubtful whether she is finally worthy of such a peaceful haven after her tricky and willful life.One could doubt it when one was thinking calmly, but not in front of her dead body.She had a kind of calmness of her own, as if to guarantee that she was just as quiet.

Do you believe such a man is happy in that world, sir?I really want to know about it.

I declined to answer Mrs. Dean's question, which I thought was a bit of an evil question.She continued:

Looking back on Katherine Linton's life, I am afraid we have no right to think that she was happy, but we leave her to the God who made her.

The master seemed to be asleep, and as soon as the sun rose, I ventured out of the room and slipped outside into the pure, fresh air.The servants thought I was going out to wake up from the drowsiness after a long vigil, but in fact my main motive was to see Heathcliff.If he had stayed all night among the larch-trees he would not have heard any commotion in the Grange, unless, perhaps, he would have heard the tramp of the messenger's horses on their way to Gimmerton.If he got closer, from the flickering lights and the frequent opening and closing of the outside door, he might realize that something was wrong inside.

I longed and dreaded to find him.I feel that this terrible news must be conveyed, and I long to get rid of it, but how to get rid of it, I do not know.

There he was, at least, only a few yards away in the garden.He leaned against an old poplar tree, without a hat, and the budding branches were covered with dew, which drenched his hair and was still dripping around.He stood a long time in this position, for I saw a pair of thrushes busily building their nest to and fro within three feet of him, mistaking his neighbor for a log.As soon as I approached them and flew away, he raised his eyes and said:

"She's dead!" he said, "I'm waiting for you to hear the news. Put away your handkerchief and don't cry in front of me. To hell! She doesn't want your tears!"

I cry for her and for him.Sometimes we do pity those who are indifferent to themselves or to others.The first time I looked at his face, I saw that he had heard of the calamity.A foolish thought came to me suddenly, and I thought his heart was at peace and he was praying, for his lips were moving and his eyes were lowered to the ground.

"Yes, she's dead!" I replied, suppressing a sob and drying my face. "Go to heaven, I hope, there we, and everyone, can go to meet her, as long as we accept the due warning, avoid evil and do good!"

"And she's taken her due warning, so?" said Heathcliff deliberately sarcastically. "Did she die like a saint? Come here and tell me the truth about it. How—"

He tried to say the name, but he couldn't.He kept his mouth shut, and the silence he maintained clashed fiercely with the pain in his heart, and at the same time he resisted my sympathy with an unflinching ferocity.

"How did she die?" Finally he asked again, even though he was tough, he had to hope that there would be a support behind him, because after the fierce conflict, he couldn't help shaking all over his body, until his fingertips trembled.

"Poor fellow!" thought I, "you have the same heart and nerves as your fellow-creatures! Why are you so eager to conceal them? Your pride cannot hide from God; you have induced him to torment them till they You scream out in humiliation!"

"Quiet as a lamb!" I answered aloud. "She sighed, stretched, like a child waking up, and then fell asleep again. After 5 minutes, I felt her heart skip a beat, and it stopped!"

"So—did she mention me?" he asked, hesitantly, as if the answer to his question would introduce details he couldn't bear to hear.

"She never recovered. She hasn't recognized anyone since the moment you left," I said. "She lay there with a sweet smile on her face, and her last thoughts went back to her happy childhood. Her life ended in a gentle dream, and may she wake up just as gently in another world!"

"May she wake up in torment!" he cried, stamping his feet with terrible excitement, and a sudden burst of irrepressible passion made him groan. "Why, she lied till she died! Where is she? Not there, not in heaven, not in hell, where? Oh, you said you didn't care about my pain! I'll just say a prayer, and I'll repeat Speak till the tongue grows tired and the lips burn - Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest in peace as long as I live! You said I killed you, so come and haunt me! The slain always haunt and kill them of the murderer. I believe, I know ghosts roam the ground. Be with me forever, in whatever form, and drive me crazy! Just don't leave me in this abyss, so I can't find you! Oh God What can I say! I can't live without my life! I can't live without my soul!"

He bumped his head straight at the knotty tree trunk, raised his eyes again, and growled, not like a human being, but like a dying beast that was poked by a knife and gun.

(End of this chapter)