Therefore I said nothing when I met the master coming towards the parlour; but I took the liberty of turning back to listen whether they would resume their quarrel together.
He began to speak first.
‘Remain where you are, Catherine,’ he said, without any anger in his voice, but with much sorrowful despondency. ‘I shall not stay. I am neither come to wrangle, nor be reconciled: but I wish just tolearn whether, after this evening’s events, you intend to continue your intimacy with–’
‘Oh, for mercy’s sake,’ interrupted the mistress, stamping her foot, ‘for mercy’s sake, let us hear no more of it now! Your cold blood cannot be worked into a fever—your veins are full of ice-water—but mine are boiling, and the sight of such chillness makes them dance.’
‘To get rid of me—answer my question,’ persevered Mr Linton. ‘Youmustanswer it; and that violence does not alarm me. I have found that you can be as stoical as any one, when you please. Will you give up Heathcliff hereafter, or will you give up me? It is impossible for you to bemyfriend, andhisat the same time; and I absolutelyrequireto know which you choose.’
‘I require to be let alone!’ exclaimed Catherine, furiously. ‘I demand it! Don’t you see I can scarcely stand? Edgar, you—you leave me!’
She rung the bell till it broke with a twang: I entered leisurely. It was enough to try the temper of a saint, such senseless, wicked rages! There she lay dashing her head against the arm of the sofa, and grinding her teeth, so that you might fancy she would crash them to splinters!
Mr Linton stood looking at her in sudden compunction and fear. He told me to fetch some water. She had no breath for speaking.
I brought a glass full; and, as she would not drink, I sprinkled it on her face. In a few seconds she stretched herself out stiff, and turned up her eyes, while her cheeks, at once blanched and livid, assumed the aspect of death.
Linton looked terrified.
‘There is nothing in the world the matter,’ I whispered. I did not want him to yield, though I could not help being afraid in my heart.
‘She has blood on her lips!’ he said, shuddering.
‘Never mind!’ I answered, tartly. And I told him how she had resolved, previous to his coming, on exhibiting a fit of frenzy.
I incautiously gave the account aloud, and she heard me, for she started up—her hair flying over her shoulders, her eyes flashing, the muscles of her neck and arms standing out preternaturally. I made up my mind for broken bones, at least; but she only glared about her, for an instant, and then rushed from the room.
The master directed me to follow; I did, to her chamber door; she hindered me from going farther by securing it against me.
As she never offered to descend to breakfast next morning, I went to ask whether she would have some carried up.
‘No!’ she replied, peremptorily.
The same question was repeated at dinner, and tea; and again on the morrow after, and received the same answer.
Mr Linton, on his part, spent his time in the library, and did not inquire concerning his wife’s occupations. Isabella and he had had an hour’s interview, during which he tried to elicit from her some sentiment of proper horror for Heathcliff’s advances; but he could make nothing of her evasive replies, and was obliged to close the examination, unsatisfactorily; adding, however, a solemn warning, that if she were so insane as to encourage that worthless suitor, it would dissolve all bonds of relationship between herself and him.
Chapter XII
While Miss Linton moped about the park and garden, always silent, and almost always in tears; and her brother shut himself up among books that he never opened; wearying, I guessed, with a continual vague expectation that Catherine, repenting her conduct, would come of her own accord to ask pardon, and seek a reconciliation; andshefasted pertinaciously, under the idea, probably, that at every meal, Edgar was ready to choke for her absence, and pride alone held him from running to cast himself at her feet; I went about my household duties, convinced that the Grange had but one sensible soul in its walls, and that lodged in my body.
I wasted no condolences on miss, nor any expostulations on my mistress, nor did I pay attention to the sighs of my master, who yearned to hear his lady’s name, since he might not hear her voice.
I determined they should come about as they pleased for me; and though it was a tiresomely slow process, I began to rejoice at length in a faint dawn of its progress, as I thought at first.
Mrs Linton, on the third day, unbarred her door; and having finished the water in her pitcher and decanter, desired a renewed supply, and a basin of gruel, for she believed she was dying. That I set down as a speech meant for Edgar’s ears; I believed no such thing, so I kept it to myself, and brought her some tea and dry toast.
She ate and drank eagerly; and sank back on her pillow again, clenching her hands and groaning.
‘Oh, I will die,’ she exclaimed, ‘since no one cares anything about me. I wish I had not taken that.’
Then a good while after I heard her murmur,
‘No, I’ll not die—he’d be glad—he does not love me at all—he would never miss me!’
‘Did you want anything, ma’am?’ I enquired, still preserving my external composure, in spite of her ghastly countenance, and strange exaggerated manner.
‘What is that apathetic being doing?’ she demanded, pushing the thick entangled locks from her wasted face. ‘Has he fallen into a lethargy, or is he dead?’
