‘And that’s your notion of harshness?’ said Catherine, laughing. ‘It was no hint that your company was superfluous; we didn’t care whether you kept with us or not; I merely thought Heathcliff’s talk would have nothing entertaining for your ears.’
‘Oh, no,’ wept the young lady, ‘you wished me away, because you knew I liked to be there!’
‘Is she sane?’ asked Mrs Linton, appealing to me. ‘I’ll repeat our conversation, word for word, Isabella; and you point out any charm it could have had for you.’
‘I don’t mind the conversation,’ she answered: ‘I wanted to be with—’
‘Well!’ said Catherine, perceiving her hesitate to complete the sentence.
‘With him; and I won’t be always sent off!’ she continued, kindling up. ‘You are a dog in the manger, Cathy, and desire no one to be loved but yourself!’
‘You are an impertinent little monkey!’ exclaimed Mrs Linton, in surprise. ‘But I’ll not believe this idiocy! It is impossible that you can covet the admiration of Heathcliff—that you can consider him an agreeable person! I hope I have misunderstood you, Isabella?’
‘No, you have not,’ said the infatuated girl. ‘I love him more than ever you loved Edgar; and he might love me if you would let him!’
‘I wouldn’t be you for a kingdom, then!’ Catherine declared, emphatically—and she seemed to speak sincerely. ‘Nelly, help me to convince her of her madness. Tell her what Heathcliff is—an unreclaimed creature, without refinement—without cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze and whinstone. I’d as soon put that little canary into the park on a winter’s day as recommend you to bestow your heart on him! It’s deplorable ignorance of his character, child, and nothing else, which makes that dream enter your head. Pray don’t imagine that he conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior! He’s not a rough diamond—a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic; he’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man. I never say to him “let this or that enemy alone, because it would be ungenerous or cruel to harm them,” I say “let them alone, becauseIshould hate them to be wronged:” and he’d crush you, like a sparrow’s egg, Isabella, if he found you a troublesome charge. I know he couldn’t love a Linton; and yet, he’d be quite capable of marrying your fortune, and expectations. Avarice is growing with him a besetting sin. There’s my picture; and I’m his friend—so much so, that had he thought seriously to catch you, I should, perhaps, have held my tongue, and let you fall into his trap.’
Miss Linton regarded her sister-in-law with indignation.
‘For shame! for shame!’ she repeated, angrily. ‘You are worse than twenty foes, you poisonous friend!’
‘Ah! you won’t believe me, then?’ said Catherine. ‘You think I speak from wicked selfishness?’
‘I’m certain you do,’ retorted Isabella; ‘and I shudder at you!’
‘Good!’ cried the other. ‘Try for yourself, if that be your spirit; I have done, and yield the argument to your saucy insolence.’
‘And I must suffer for her egotism!’ she sobbed, as Mrs Linton left the room. ‘All, all is against me; she has blighted my single consolation. But she uttered falsehoods, didn’t she? Mr Heathcliff is not a fiend; he has an honourable soul, and a true one, or how could he remember her?’
‘Banish him from your thoughts, miss,’ I said. ‘He’s a bird of bad omen; no mate for you. Mrs Linton spoke strongly, and yet, I can’t contradict her. She is better acquainted with his heart than I, or any one besides; and she never would represent him as worse than he is. Honest people don’t hide their deeds. How has he been living? how has he got rich? why is he staying at Wuthering Heights, the house of a man whom he abhors? They say Mr Earnshaw is worse and worse since he came. They sit up all night together continually: and Hindley has been borrowing money on his land; and does nothing but play and drink, I heard only a week ago; it was Joseph who told me—I met him at Gimmerton.
‘ “Nelly,” he said, “we’s hae a Crahnr’s ‘quest enah, at ahr folks. One on ‘em’s a’most getten his finger cut off wi’ hauding t’other froo’ sticking hisseln loike a cawlf. That’s maister, yah knaw, ut’s soa up uh going tuh t’grand ‘sizes. He’s noan feard uh t’ Bench uh judges, norther Paul, nur Peter, nur John, nor Mathew, nor noan on ‘em, nut he! He fair likes, he langs tuh set his brazened face agean ‘em! And yon bonny lad Heathcliff, yah mind, he’s a rare un! He can girn a laugh, as weel’s onybody at a raight divil’s jest. Does he niver say nowt of his fine living amang us, when he goas tuh t’ Grange? This is t’ way on’t—up at sun-dahn; dice, brandy, cloised shutters, und can’le lught till next day, at nooin—then, t’ fooil gangs banning un’ raving tuh his cham’er, makking dacent fowks dig thur fingers i’thur lugs fur varry shaume; un’ the knave, wah, he carn cahnt his brass, un’ ate, un’ sleep, un’ off tuh his neighbour’s tuh gossip wi’ t’ wife. I’ course, he tells Dame Catherine hah hor fathur’s goold runs intuh his pocket, and her fathur’s son gallops dahn t’ Broad road, while he flees afore tuh oppen t’ pikes?” Now, Miss Linton, Joseph is an old rascal, but no liar; and, if his account of Heathcliff’s conduct be true, you would never think of desiring such a husband, would you?’
‘You are leagued with the rest, Ellen!’ she replied. ‘I’ll not listen to your slanders. What malevolence you must have to wish to convince me that there is no happiness in the world!’
Whether she would have got over this fancy if left to herself, or persevered in nursing it perpetually, I cannot say; she had little time to reflect. The day after, there was a justice-meeting at the next town; my master was obliged to attend; and Mr Heathcliff, aware of his absence, called rather earlier than usual.
Catherine and Isabella were sitting in the library, on hostile terms, but silent: the latter alarmed at her recent indiscretion, and the disclosure she had made of her secret feelings in a transient fit of passion; the former, on mature consideration, really offended with her companion; and, if she laughed again at her pertness, inclined to make it no laughing matter toher.
She did laugh as she saw Heathcliff pass the window. I was sweeping the hearth, and I noticed a mischievous smile on her lips. Isabella, absorbed in her meditations, or a book, remained till the door opened, and it was too late to attempt an escape, which she would gladly have done had it been practicable.
‘Come in, that’s right!’ exclaimed the mistress, gaily, pulling a chair to the fire. ‘Here are two people sadly in need of a third to thaw the ice between them; and you are the very one we should both of us choose. Heathcliff, I’m proud to show you, at last, somebody that dotes on you more than myself. I expect you to feel flattered—nay, it’s not Nelly; don’t look at her! My poor little sister-in-law is breaking her heart by mere contemplation of your physical and moral beauty. It lies in your own power to be Edgar’s brother! No, no,Isabella, you sha’n’t run off,’ she continued, arresting, with feigned playfulness, the confounded girl, who had risen indignantly. ‘We were quarrelling like cats about you, Heathcliff; and I was fairly beaten in protestations of devotion and admiration; and, moreover, I was informed that if I would but have the manners to stand aside, my rival, as she will have herself to be, would shoot a shaft into your soul that would fix you for ever, and send my image into eternal oblivion!’
‘Catherine,’ said Isabella, calling up her dignity, and disdaining to struggle from the tight grasp that held her. ‘I’d thank you to adhere to the truth and not slander me, even in joke! Mr Heathcliff, be kind enough to bid this friend of yours release me—she forgets that you and I are not intimate acquaintances, and what amuses her is painful to me beyond expression.’
As the guest answered nothing, but took his seat, and looked thoroughly indifferent what sentiments she cherished concerning him, she turned, and whispered an earnest appeal for liberty to her tormenter.
‘By no means!’ cried Mrs Linton in answer. ‘I won’t be named a dog in the manger again. Youshallstay, now then! Heathcliff, why don’t you evince satisfaction at my pleasant news? Isabella swears that the love Edgar has for me is nothing to that she entertains for you. I’m sure she made some speech of the kind, did she not, Ellen? And she has fasted ever since the day before yesterday’s walk, from sorrow and rage that I despatched her out of your society, under the idea of its being unacceptable.’
‘I think you belie her,’ said Heathcliff, twisting his chair to face them. ‘She wishes to be out of my society now, at any rate!’
And he stared hard at the object of discourse, as one might do at a strange repulsive animal, a centipede from the Indies, for instance, which curiosity leads one to examine in spite of the aversion it raises.
The poor thing couldn’t bear that; she grew white and red in rapid succession, and, while tears beaded her lashes, bent the strength of her small fingers to loosen the firm clutch of Catherine, andperceiving that, as fast as she raised one finger off her arm, another closed down, and she could not remove the whole together, she began to make use of her nails, and their sharpness presently ornamented the detainer’s with crescents of red.
‘There’s a tigress!’ exclaimed Mrs Linton, setting her free, and shaking her hand with pain. ‘Begone, for God’s sake, and hide your vixen face! How foolish to reveal those talons tohim. Can’t you fancy the conclusions he’ll draw? Look, Heathcliff! they are instruments that will do execution—you must beware of your eyes.’
‘I’d wrench them off her fingers, if they ever menaced me,’ he answered, brutally, when the door had closed after her. ‘But, what did you mean by teasing the creature in that manner, Cathy? You were not speaking the truth, were you?’
