Wuthering Heights

Chapter 26

"Why?" she asked me aloud. "I'm tired of running, and the ground is so dewy, I can't sit here. Let's go, Ellen! Besides, he says I've seen his son. I think he's mistaken, but I guess he Where he lives, at the farm I visited on my return from Peniston. Don't you?"

"Yes. Come on, Nelly, hold your tongue. It was a great pleasure for her to come and see us. Hareton, go ahead with the girl, Nelly, you come with me."

"No, she will never go to this kind of place!" I yelled loudly, trying to break free from the grasped arm.But she ran quickly and turned around the hillside, almost reaching the stone steps in front of the door.Her appointed fellow-traveler did not pretend to be a companion. He timidly moved to the side of the road and disappeared.

"Mr. Heathcliff, this is very wrong," I went on. "You know you don't mean well. She will see Linton there, and as soon as we get home, the whole story will be revealed, and I will be scolded." .”

"I just want her to see Linton," he answered. "He's looking better these days, and he's not always attractive. What's the trouble if we persuade her to keep the visit a secret?"

"The hindrance is that her father will hate me if he finds out that I've allowed her into your house. And I'm sure there must be a trick behind you in encouraging her to do so," I replied.

"My plan is above board. I'm here to tell you all about it," he said. "These cousins ​​are likely to fall in love and marry. I would be very generous to your master in doing so. His little girl has nothing to hope for, and if she does what I want, she will be right away with Linton. joint heir."

"If Linton is dead," I asked, "his fate is so uncertain, that Catherine will be the heir."

"No, she can't," he said. "If there is no clause in the will to guarantee this, his property will pass into my name. But in order to avoid disputes, I hope they will be united, and I am determined to make this marriage possible. "

"And I am determined not to accompany her near your house again," I answered, and we reached the gate, where Miss Cathy was waiting for us.

Heathcliff told me to keep quiet, and he came up ahead of us, and hastened to open the door.My lady glanced at him several times, as if wondering how to see him.But now, when he met her gaze, he smiled and spoke to her in such a low voice, I was so foolish to think that thinking of her mother was enough to disarm him from planning. to hurt her.

Linton stood by the hearth.He had just been out for a walk in the fields, and because his hat was still on, he was calling for Joseph to bring him dry shoes.

He was a few months short of sixteen, tall for his age.His appearance is still very delicate, his eyes and complexion are brighter than I remember, although this is just a short-lived brilliance thanks to the fresh air and warm sunshine.

"Look, who is that?" asked Heathcliff, turning to Cathy. "Can you tell?"

"Is that your son?" she said, looking suspiciously at the first, then at the other.

"Yes, yes," he replied. "But is that the only time you've seen him? Think about it! Ah! You have a bad memory. Linton, you don't remember your cousin, don't you keep pestering us to see her?"

"What, Linton!" cried Cathy, overjoyed at the name. "Is that little Linton? He's taller than I am! Is that you, Linton?"

The young man took a step forward and admitted it was him.She kissed him passionately, and they looked at each other, wondering how time had changed each other's appearance.

Catherine has grown to a full height, her body is plump and slender, as flexible as steel, and her whole body exudes health and vitality.Linton looked and acted listlessly, and his frame was extremely slender, but his demeanor made up for the above defects and made him not annoying.

After exchanging numerous expressions of affection with him, his cousin walked up to Heathcliff, who was lingering at the door, with his attention half in and half out, that is to say, pretending to be looking out. , but actually stared at the door with all his heart.

"Then you are my uncle!" she cried, coming forward to greet him. "I think I liked you at first, though you're so queer. Why didn't you bring Linton to the Grange as a visitor? It's strange, we've been neighbors for so many years, and never come to see us. You What are you doing this for?"

"Before you were born, I went too often," he answered. "Well—hell! If you have any spare kisses, give them to Linton, and give them to me for nothing."

"Naughty Ellen," Catherine yelled, before flying over to me and showering me with caresses. "Vicious Ellen! Don't let me come this way. But I'm going to have to go through this every morning--can I, Uncle, sometimes bring Papa with me? Do you see we're not happy? "

"Of course I'm happy!" replied my uncle with a barely concealed grimace, because he also hated the two guests who said they wanted to come. "But don't go yet," he went on to the young lady. "Now that I've thought about it, I think I'd better tell you. Mr. Linton has a prejudice against me. We had a quarrel once, and it was very dark. If you mentioned it to him, he'd have nothing to do with it." Cancel your chance of coming again. So you must not mention it, unless you don't mind at all if you never see your cousin again. You may come if you like, but you must not mention it."

"Why are you arguing?" asked Catherine, dismayed.

"He thought me too poor to marry his sister," replied Heathcliff, "and he was so sad that I had her, and his pride was stabbed, and he never forgot."

"That's wrong!" said the lady. "When will I tell him so? But Linton and I have nothing to do with your quarrels. I shall not come here, then, and let him go to the Grange."

"That's too far for me," muttered her cousin. "Four miles will kill me. No, come here, Miss Catherine, come often, not every morning, but once a week." or two."

The father glanced at his son with genuine contempt.

"Nellie, I'm afraid I'm wasting my efforts," he whispered to me. "Miss Catherine, that's what the fool calls her, will find out what he's worth, and throw him to the devil. Hareton! Do you know I'm jealous of Hareton twenty times a day? , though he's depraved? If the kid had been someone else, I'd have loved him. But I don't think he'd be too attractive for her. I'm going to beat that chick with him, unless he Pull yourself together at once. We reckon he won't live. Oh, damned wretch! He's so absorbed in wiping his feet that he doesn't even look at her—Linton!"

"Well, Daddy," the kid replied.

"Can't you take your cousin around, even find a hare or a weasel's nest? You change your shoes slowly, take her to the garden first, and then go to the stables to see your horses."

"Would you rather sit here?" Linton said to Cathy, in a tone of reluctance to stir.

"I don't know," she answered, looking very eagerly toward the door, evidently eager for action.

He sat still and drew back a little more towards the fire.

Heathcliff got up, went into the kitchen, and from the kitchen out into the yard, calling to Hareton.

Hareton answered, and in a moment the two were back again.The young man had just taken a shower, which was evident from his flushed face and damp hair.

"Oh, I want to ask you," cried Miss Cathy, remembering what the butler had said. "That's not my cousin, is it?"

"He is," he answered, "your mother's nephew. Don't you like him?"

Catherine was dumbfounded.

"Isn't he a beautiful boy?" he continued.

The brutish little thing stood on tiptoe and whispered something in Heathcliff's ear.

He laughed, and Hareton's countenance changed instantly.I saw that he was very sensitive, that he was afraid of being slighted, and that he had a distinct and vague sense of his inferiority.But his master, or protector, blew his cloud away with a cry.

"You're the lucky one among us, Hareton! She says you're a, what? Well, it's a compliment anyway—come on! You walk in the fields with her. Be a gentleman. Remember! Don't Swear. When the lady is not looking at you, don't stare at her. When looking at you, remember to hide your face. Also, speak slowly and keep your hands out of your trouser pockets. Go, do your best Make her happy."

He watched the pair pass by the window.Earnshaw looked away from his companion altogether.He seemed to be studying familiar landscapes with the eyes of a stranger, an artist.

Catherine stole a glance at him, but not much admiration.Then she put her mind on making fun of herself, walked lightly and happily, and since she had nothing to talk about, she sang a little song.

"I tied his tongue," said Heathcliff. "He didn't dare say a word, all the way! Nelly, you remember me when I was his age, no, younger, and I ever looked so stupid, in Joseph's words, so 'no Brainless'?"

"It's worse than that," I answered, "because it's more gloomy."

"I take pleasure in him!" he said aloud, thinking. "He lived up to my expectations. If he was born a fool, I wouldn't have half the fun. But he's not a fool, and I can feel all his emotions and experience them myself. I know what he's going through right now. Although this was the beginning of his misery. He will never try to crawl out of his savage ignorance. I hold him tighter than his goddam old man held me, and crush him Even lower, because he has a kind of pride in his brutality. I taught him that everything but bestiality is stupid and useless. You don't think Hindley would be proud of his son if he saw him Is it almost like I'm proud of my son. But here it's different, one is gold pawned for pavement, the other is pewter polished for silver. Mine is worthless, but I have That's what keeps the poor scum going. He's got first-rate gifts. They're buried. Worse than useless. I have nothing to regret. No one knows his pain but me. How deep. And best of all, Hareton is madly fond of me! You must admit that I am better than Hindley here. If the wretch rises from the grave and scolds me for mistreating his descendants, then I'll feast my eyes and see the scion beat him back, resenting him for daring to insult the only friend he has in the world!"

Thinking of this, Heathcliff laughed like a devil.I didn't answer, because I saw that he didn't expect an answer.

At this time, our young companion, although he was sitting too far away to hear what we said, began to show symptoms of restlessness, perhaps regretting that he refused to go with Catherine for fear of being a little tired. fun.

His father noticed his restless eyes wandering to the window, and a hand hesitatingly reaching for his hat.

"Get up, you lazy boy!" he cried with affected enthusiasm. "Go after them! They're just around the corner, beyond the hive."

Linton summoned up his courage and left the fireplace.The latticed window was open, and as he went out I heard Cathy asking her awkward squire what was the inscription on the door!

Hareton stared up and scratched his head like a true bumpkin.

"Damn words," he replied. "I can't read it."

"Can't read it?" cried Catherine. "I might read...it's English...but I wonder how it's written there."

Linton giggled, for the first time he showed pleasure.

"He can't even read the alphabet," he said to his cousin. "Can you believe that there are such big fools in the world?"

"Is there anything wrong with him?" Miss Cathy asked earnestly. "Isn't he simple-minded...not normal? I've asked him twice now, and both times he's stupid. I don't think he understands me." If you don't, I really don't understand him, I promise!"

Linton laughed again, and gave Hareton a sneering look. At this moment, Hareton obviously didn't understand what was going on.

"It's all right, but lazy, isn't it, Earnshaw?" said he. "My cousin thought you were an idiot... You laughed at what you said about 'eating a book', and this time you got what you wanted... Catherine, did you notice his horrible Yorkie accent?"

"Why, what's the use of that?" bellowed Hareton, preferring to pay back his usual companion.He wanted to go on and on, but the two young men laughed out loud.My frivolous young lady was especially delighted to find that his strange conversation could really be transformed into a joke.

"What's the use of the ghost in your sentence?" Linton sneered. "Father told you not to swear, but you uttered swear words... Try to be a gentleman, just do it!"

"If you didn't look like a girl, not like a boy, I would have knocked you down right now, sure, you little skinny monkey!" The angry countryman counterattacked and was defeated. His face was flushed with awareness of being insulted, but he was too embarrassed to know how to resist it.

Mr. Heathcliff and I both heard the conversation, and watched him go, smiling.But then, he glanced at the frivolous couple again, his eyes full of disgust, and the two were still chattering at the door.The boy was animated by Hareton's faults and weaknesses, and told his anecdotes and scandals; the girl listened to his sharp words with relish, without thinking of the malice in them.But my sympathy for Linton ceased so much, and I began to loathe him, and I was justified in his father's contempt for him.

We stayed until the afternoon.I couldn't drag her away before that.Fortunately, my master never went out of his room, so he didn't know that we stayed outside for a long time.

On the way home, I wanted to tell my young lady what kind of people we were saying goodbye to.But she decided that I was prejudiced against them.

"Ah!" she cried, "you're on papa's side, Ellen, you're partial. I know, or you wouldn't have lied to me all these years that Linton was far away. I really Very angry, it's all because I was happy just now, so I can't lose my temper! But you must shut up and stop talking badly about my uncle. He is my uncle. Remember, I want to scold Dad, Dad shouldn't quarrel with him of."

So she talked on and on until I gave up trying and never expected her to admit she was wrong.

She made no mention of the visit that night because she did not see Mr. Linton.The next day she confessed everything, which really discouraged me, but I was not entirely sad. I felt that the responsibility of teaching and warning was more on him than on me, but he was evasive and could not say anything satisfactory. Reason, to explain why he didn't want her to associate with the family in the villa.As for Catherine, spoiled and spoiled, she asked for a sufficient reason for every unsatisfactory constraint.

"Father!" she cried after saying good-morning, "guess who I saw yesterday when I was walking on the Moor... Oh, Daddy, you're astonished that you've done something wrong, aren't you, huh? I see— —but listen, you'll hear how I see through you, and Ellen, who conspires with you, and pretends to take pity on me, and see what I hope for, and I hope for Linton's return and I'm always disappointed !"

She narrated her excursion and its results, and my master, though more than once casting reproachful glances at me, listened to her without a word.Then he drew her close to him, and asked her if she knew why he had kept little Linton living near her, without telling her?Can she think that it is deliberately depriving her of happiness, which is beneficial and harmless?
"That's because you don't like Mr. Heathcliff," she answered.

"Then you believe I'm not caring about yours, Cathy?" he said. "No, it's not because I don't like Heathcliff, but because Heathcliff doesn't like me, because he's a most vicious man, and takes pleasure in bullying and destroying those he hates, if they give him a little I know that if you are in contact with your cousin, you must also be in contact with him. And I also know that for my sake, he hates you. So, purely for your own good, and nothing else, I am on guard Don't let you see Linton again. I meant to wait until you were older to explain, and I regret that I should not have delayed!"

"But Heathcliff is kind, father," said Catherine, who was not at all remarked upon. "He didn't object to our meeting. He said I could go to his house, if I liked, but I must not tell you, because you had a quarrel with him and would not forgive him for marrying Aunt Isabella. You won't—it's you to blame, at least, he would have Linton and me as friends, and you wouldn't."

My master, seeing her refusal to take advice, and being acquainted with her uncle's wickedness, gave a hasty overview of his behavior towards Isabella, and how Wuthering Heights had become his property.He really didn't want to talk about this topic in detail, because it was rare for him to mention it.The fear and loathing which his old enemy had cast upon him since Mrs. Linton's death were still vivid in his memory. "If it wasn't for him, she might still be alive!" This was the thought he couldn't get rid of.In his eyes, Heathcliff is a murderer.

(End of this chapter)