Wuthering Heights

Chapter 34

"You're a big talker!" replied Heathcliff. "But I haven't liked you enough to hurt him. You have to take this torture slowly, as long as you can. It's not that I made him very annoying in your eyes, That's his own goodness. He hates you for abandoning him and what it's all about. Don't expect him to be loyal and grateful to you. I've heard him tell Zira vividly how he'll take revenge if If he is as strong as I am. He already has this idea, and his weakness just makes his ghost ideas sharper, to find a way to replace being strong."

"I know he's a bad nature," said Catherine, "and he's your son. But I'm glad I have a little better nature to forgive it. And I know he loves me, and I love him for that reason. Besides, no matter how much pain you have caused us, we can still take revenge, knowing that your cruelty stems from your greater pain! You do suffer, don't you? Alone, like a devil, like him Are you jealous? No one loves you, and when you die, no one will cry for you! I don’t want to be you!”

Catherine said this with a poignant triumph: she seemed determined to enter the spirit of her future family, and wrest joy from the misery of her enemy.

"You're going to regret being who you are soon," said her father-in-law, "if you stand there another minute. Go away, little witch, and pack your things."

She backed away dismissively.

After she left, I started begging for Qila's place at the Heights, offering to give her my transfer.But he didn't care at all.He told me to be quiet, and then, for the first time ever, scanned the room, from portrait to portrait.He examined Mrs Linton's portrait sufficiently, and said:

"I'm taking this home. Not because I need it, but—"

He turned sharply toward the fire, and an expression so indescribable came to his face that I had to make it smile.He continued:

"I'll tell you what I did yesterday! I let the gravediggers who were digging Linton's grave dig the earth off the lid of her coffin, and I opened it. When I saw her face again-- It's still her face, and I thought for a moment that I should have been lying here too. He tried to make no difference to me. But he said it would change if the air was blowing over it, so I put one side of the coffin Dig it loose and cover it up again--not Linton's side, damn him! I wish he'd be sealed up--I've paid off the gravediggers, and when I'm buried there, Get her coffin out, and mine out, and I'll make mine exactly like hers, so that when Linton finds us, he won't be able to tell which is which!"

"You are wicked, Mr. Heathcliff!" I cried. "Aren't you ashamed to harass the dead?"

"I'm not harassing anyone, Nelly," he answered. "I'm just relaxing my nerves. I'm much more comfortable now. You can count on me to lie down when I get there. Molested her." No! She harassed me, day and night, 18 years, endless, unyielding, until last night, last night, I slept soundly. I dreamed that I was sleeping for the last time, with At the sight of the sleeping one, my heart stopped beating, and my cheek was as cold as ice against hers."

"If she had turned to dust and nothing worse, what could you dream of then?" I said.

"It would be happier to be in the dust with her!" he replied. "Do you think I dread the change? I was ready to see it when I lifted the lid. But I am glad it It hasn't changed yet, it's waiting for me to change it together. And, unless I have a clear impression of her dead face, that strange emotion is really difficult to get rid of. It comes at a strange time. You know, she After death I go mad, endlessly, from one dawn to another, praying for her to come back to see me, I mean her spirit, I am a big believer in ghosts and gods. I firmly believe that the ghost is real and just among us!
"On the day of her burial, it snowed. I went to the cemetery at night. The wind was cold and bleak like winter, and there was silence everywhere. I'm not afraid that her foolish husband will come to wander around the grave so late, and no one else will come here for business. Come.

"Alone, realizing we were only two yards of loose dirt between us, I said to myself:
"'I'll hold her in my arms again! If she's cold, I'll think the north wind makes me shiver; if she's still, she's asleep.'

"I took a shovel from the tool room and started digging with all my strength. The shovel scratched the coffin, so I bent down and lifted it with both hands. The joints of the wood creaked, and I almost wanted to I got my things, but suddenly I seemed to hear someone sighing from above, right on the edge of the tomb, and leaned down. 'As long as I can lift this thing,' I said to myself, 'I'd rather they shovel the earth Bury us both!' Then I lifted it up even more desperately. There was another sigh, right next to my ear. I seemed to feel that the warmth of that sigh displaced the cold wind with ice and snow I know there is no living creature of flesh and blood in front of me, but in the dark, you can clearly feel something approaching. Although you can't see it. So of course I think Cathy is there. Not under me, but on the ground .

"A sudden relief flowed from my heart to my extremities. I gave up my painful labors and felt at once comfort, unspeakable comfort. She was with me, and she was with me when I filled the grave. There, and lead me home. Laugh at me if you want to laugh, but I'm sure I should see her there. I'm sure she's there, and I can't help talking to her.

"As soon as I got to the Grange, I rushed to the door. It was bolted. And I remember that damned Earnshaw and my wife wouldn't let me in. I remember holding back and kicking him Out of breath, I rushed upstairs, into my room, into her room. I looked around anxiously—I felt her presence, I almost saw her, but I couldn't Saw her! My agony longed, I prayed wildly for even a look at her, when it should have made me bleed! I didn't get the look. As she always did in life, she played with me like a devil Since then, more or less, I've played with that unbearable torment! Hell, make my nerves so strained, if they weren't like guts, they would sooner It slackened down, just like Linton's weakness.

"When I sat in the 'house' with Hareton, it seemed as if I should meet her as soon as I went out; It must be somewhere in the Heights, I'm sure! When I sleep in her bedroom and have to be kicked out--I can't lie there, because when I close my eyes, she's either out of the window, Either sneak behind the partition, or walk into the room, or even put her lovely head on the same pillow she used when she was a child. I must open my eyes to see carefully. So my eyes opened and closed a hundred times all night. Back and forth, always a great disappointment! It drives me mad! I've often been tempted to groan aloud till that old rascal Joseph, no doubt, has decided that my conscience is playing tricks in me.

"Now that I've seen her, I'm relieved, a little. It's a queer way of killing, not by inch, but by strand of hair, with a vain hope Tempted me for 18 years!"

Heathcliff stopped and wiped his brow.His hair hung over his forehead, soaked with sweat.He fixed his eyes on the red ashes in the stove, and his eyebrows were not furrowed, but were raised close to his temples, which made his face less gloomy, but with a special troubled expression, A pained expression that shows the mind is preoccupied with tension.He talks to me absent-mindedly, and I keep silent, I don't like to hear him talk!

After a while, he meditated on the portrait again, took it down, and leaned on the sofa so that he could appreciate it from a better angle.While he was so absorbed Catherine came in and said she was ready to saddle her pony.

"Bring it to-morrow," said Heathcliff to me, and then, turning to her, "you don't need your pony, it's a good night and you don't need a pony at Wuthering Heights , no matter where you go, your own two legs will serve you, let’s go.”

"Good-bye, Ellen!" whispered my dear little mistress.Her lips were cold when she kissed me. "Come and see me, Ellen, don't forget."

"Be careful you don't do such things, Mrs. Death!" said her new father. "I want to talk to you, I will come here. I don't want you to come to my house and spy on J"

He waved her to walk ahead of him.She gave me a look back that broke my heart, and she complied.

I watched from the window as they came down the garden, and Heathcliff took her arm, although it was evident that she had resisted his doing so at first.He hurriedly dragged her to the path with long strides, where the trees on the side of the road hid their figures.

I've been to Wuthering Heights once, but since she left, I haven't seen her again!When I went to see her, Joseph held the door with his hand and would not let me in.He said that Mrs. Linton was "fucked" and that the master was not at home.Zira had told me something about their relationship, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to tell who was dead and who was alive.

She thought Catherine arrogant, and I could guess from her words that she didn't like her.My lady asked her for a little help when she first came, but Mr. Heathcliff told her to mind her own business, and leave his daughter-in-law to look after herself.Qi La was originally a narrow-minded and selfish woman, so she agreed happily.Catherine, annoyed at being slighted, responded with childish contempt, and thus classified my informer among her enemies, as if she had really done her wrong.

I had a long conversation with Zilla about six weeks ago, not long before you came, when we bumped into one day in the moors, and this is what she told me.

"The first thing Mrs. Linton did when she came to the Heights," she said, "was to run straight up the stairs without even saying good evening to Joseph and me. She locked herself in Linton's room until Next morning. Then, while the master and Earnshaw were having breakfast, she came into the 'house' and asked tremblingly if the doctor could be sent? Her cousin was very ill.

"'We know!' replied Heathcliff, 'but his life is worth nothing, and I would not spend one on him.'

"'But I don't know what to do,' she said. 'He's going to die if nobody helps me!'

"'Get out!' cried the master, 'don't tell me any more about him! No one here cares how he is. If you care, go and take care of him; if you don't, lock him in his room and leave him.'

"Then she began to pester me, and I said that I had had enough of this odious thing. We had our duties, and it was her duty to attend to Linton, and Mr. Heathcliff left that errand. Made it for her.

"How the two of them got on with it I don't know. I guess he must have lost his temper and moaned day and night. You could see from her pale face and heavy eyelids that she was really rare. Rest. She comes into the kitchen sometimes, looking out of her wits, looking like she wants help. But I don't intend to disobey the master's orders, I never dare to disobey him, Mrs. Dean, although I don't think please Kenneth is wrong, but it's none of my business, and I'm never one to mind my own business, whether it's about giving advice or blaming somebody.

"Once or twice, after we had gone to bed, I happened to open my door again, and saw her sitting on the top of the stairs, weeping. Then I shut the door hastily, lest a soft heart might interfere. Pity me too. She's coming, there's no doubt about it. But I still don't want to lose my job, you know that!
"Finally, one night she boldly walked through my bedroom, and scared me to death, because she said:

"'Tell Mr. Heathcliff that his son is going to die—this time he is sure he is. Get up, get up at once, and tell him to go!'

"After saying these words, she went away again. I lay there for a quarter of an hour, listening, trembling, and still, the house was silent.

"'She's wrong,' I said to myself. 'He's coming through again, I don't have to disturb them.' Then I began to doze off. But my sleep was broken again by a shrill bell, which was The only bell we had was for Linton, and the master sent me to see what was the matter, and tell them he didn't want to hear the noise any more.

"I delivered Catherine's message. He muttered a curse to himself, and in a few minutes came out with a lighted candle, and went to their room. I followed—Mrs. Heathcliff sat on the edge of the bed, With his hands on his knees, her father-in-law stepped forward, shone a candle in Linton's face, looked at him, touched him, and then turned to her.

"'Now, Catherine,' said he, 'how do you feel?'

"She was silent.

"'How do you feel, Catherine?' he asked again.

"'He's safe and I'm free,' she replied, 'and I should feel all right, but,' she went on, with unconcealed poignancy, 'you left me alone to fight death so long, I feel only death and see only death! I feel like death!'

"She looks like death, too! I gave her a drink. Hareton and Joseph, woken by bells and footsteps, and heard voices outside, came in now. I believe Joseph wished the boy would be let go." Going west, Hareton seemed to be a little disturbed, although he was more concerned with looking at Catherine than thinking of Linton. But the master told him to go back to bed, and we don't want his help. He later told Joseph to take the body to his room, and told me to go to my own, leaving Mrs Heathcliff alone.

"In the morning he called me to tell her she must come down to breakfast, she had undressed, and seemed to be going to bed, and said she was ill, which I had little doubt about. I informed Heathcliff Sir, he replied:

"'Well, leave her alone until after the funeral. You'll go upstairs later and see what she wants, and let me know as soon as she's better.''

Cathy stayed upstairs for two weeks, Zilla said, visiting her twice a day, trying to show her kindness, but her kindness was returned arrogantly and quickly.

Heathcliff went upstairs once and showed her Linton's will.He bequeathed to his father all his property, together with what had previously belonged to her.The poor thing had been coerced into writing this will during the week his uncle died and she was absent.As for the land property, because he is underage, he has no way to ask.But Mr. Heathcliff has inherited it, in his wife's right and his own, legally, I think.In any case, Catherine has no money, no friends, and cannot shake his property rights.

"No one has ever approached her door," said Zillar, "except me and Mr. Heathcliff. No one has heard anything about her. The first time she came down into the hall, It's a Sunday afternoon.

"When I brought her lunch, she said she couldn't bear to be in this cold place any longer. I told her the master was going to Thrushcross Grange, and that neither Earnshaw nor I would prevent her from going downstairs. So, upon hearing Heathcliff rode off, and she appeared in black, with yellow curls combed behind her ears, so simple as a Quaker, that she could not untangle her hair.

"Joseph and I usually go to church on Sundays," (You know, there's no priest in that chapel now, Mrs. Dean explains Livestock, they run Methodist or Baptist places in Gimmerton, I can't tell which one is called the Chapel). "Joseph is gone," she went on, "but I think it's better to stay at home. It's always better for young people to have grown-ups to look after them, and besides, Hareton, who is terribly shy, is not a model of conformity. I Let him know that his cousin is likely to sit with us, and as she is wont to observe the Sabbath, he'd better lay down his guns and the miscellaneous work of his house while she's there. Son.

"He blushed when he heard the news, and his eyes fell on his hands and clothes. The whale oil and gunpowder were gone in a second. I saw that he meant to keep her company. And look at him That look, I guess he also wants to look decent. So I laughed--I dare not laugh when the master is around, and I offered to help him if he wanted me to, and made fun of him. He looked flustered. His face darkened, and he began to curse.

"Now, Mrs. Dean," she went on, seeing that I was not pleased with what she was doing, "you may think your lady is too refined for Hareton to be good enough for her, and you may be right. But, I confess, I like to crush her arrogance a little. What use is all her learning and refinement to her now? She's as poor as you and me, poorer I dare say. You're saving, I’m also doing my best on that road.”

Haweden promised Zira to help him, and she flattered him, which turned his anger into joy.So, when Catherine came in, he half-forgotten her earlier insult, and tried to be as affectionate as possible, the housekeeper told me.

(End of this chapter)