‘ “I’ll not hold my tongue!” I said, “You mustn’t touch him…Let the door remain shut and be quiet!”
‘ “No! I’ve formed my resolution, and by God, I’ll execute it!” cried the desperate being. “I’ll do you a kindness in spite of your self, and Hareton justice! And you needn’t trouble your head to screen me, Catherine is gone—Nobody alive would regret me, or be ashamed, though I cut my throat this minute—and it’s time to make an end!”
‘I might as well have struggled with a bear, or reasoned with a lunatic. The only resource left me was to run to a lattice, and warn his intended victim of the fate which awaited him.
‘ “You’d better seek shelter somewhere else to-night!” I exclaimed in a rather triumphant tone. “Mr Earnshaw has a mind to shoot you, if you persist in endeavouring to enter.”
‘ “You’d better open the door, you—” he answered, addressing me by some elegant term that I don’t care to repeat.
‘ “I shall not meddle in the matter,” I retorted again. “Come in, and get shot, if you please! I’ve done my duty.”
‘With that I shut the window, and returned to my place by the fire; having too small a stock of hypocrisy at my command to pretend any anxiety for the danger that menaced him.
‘Earnshaw swore passionately at me; affirming that I loved the villain yet; and calling me all sorts of names for the base spirit I evinced. And I, in my secret heart (and conscience never reproached me) thought what a blessing it would be forhim, should Heathcliff put him out of misery; and what a blessing forme, should he send Heathcliff to his right abode! As I sat nursing these reflections, the casement behind me was banged on to the floor by a blow from the latter individual, and his black countenance looked blightingly through. The stanchions stood too close to suffer his shoulders to follow; and I smiled, exulting in my fancied security. His hair and clothes were whitened with snow, and his sharp cannibal teeth, revealed by cold and wrath, gleamed through the dark.
‘ “Isabella, let me in, or I’ll make you repent!” he “girned”,’ as Joseph calls it.
‘ “I cannot commit murder,” I replied. “Mr Hindley stands sentinel with a knife, and loaded pistol.”
‘ “Let me in by the kitchen door!” he said.
‘ “Hindley will be there before me,” I answered. “And that’s a poor love of yours, that cannot bear a shower of snow! We were left at peace in our beds, as long as the summer moon shone, but the moment a blast of winter returns, you must run for shelter! Heathcliff, if I were you, I’d go stretch myself over her grave, and die like a faithful dog…The world is surely not worth living in now, is it? You had distinctly impressed on me, the idea that Catherine was the whole joy of your life—I can’t imagine how you think of surviving her loss.”
‘ “He’s there…is he?” exclaimed my companion, rushing to the gap. “If I can get my arm out I can hit him!”
‘I’m afraid, Ellen, you’ll set me down as really wicked—but you don’t know all, so don’t judge! I wouldn’t have aided or abetted anattempt on evenhislife, for anything—Wish that he were dead, I must; and therefore, I was fearfully disappointed, and unnerved by terror for the consequences of my taunting speech, when he flung himself on Earnshaw’s weapon and wrenched it from his grasp.
‘The charge exploded, and the knife, in springing back, closed into its owner’s wrist. Heathcliff pulled it away by main force, slitting up the flesh as it passed on, and thrust it dripping into his pocket. He then took a stone, struck down the division between two windows and sprung in. His adversary had fallen senseless with excessive pain, and the flow of blood that gushed from an artery, or a large vein.
‘The ruffian kicked and trampled on him, and dashed his head repeatedly against the flags; holding me with one hand, meantime, to prevent me summoning Joseph.
‘He exerted preter-human self-denial in abstaining from finishing him, completely; but getting out of breath, he finally desisted, and dragged the apparently inanimate body onto the settle.
‘There he tore off the sleeve of Earnshaw’s coat, and bound up the wound with brutal roughness, spitting and cursing, during the operation, as energetically as he had kicked before.
‘Being at liberty, I lost no time in seeking the old servant; who, having gathered by degrees the purport of my hasty tale, hurried below, gasping, as he descended the steps two at once.
‘ “Whet is thur tuh do, nah? whet is thur tuh do, nah?”
‘ “There’s this to do,” thundered Heathcliff, “that your master’s mad; and should he last another month, I’ll have him to an asylum. And how the devil did you come to fasten me out, you toothless hound? Don’t stand muttering and mumbling there. Come, I’m not going to nurse him. Wash that stuff away; and mind the sparks of your candle—it is more than half brandy!”
‘ “Und soa, yah been murthering on him?” exclaimed Joseph, lifting his hands and eyes in horror. “If iver Aw seed a seeght loike this! May the Lord–”
‘Heathcliff gave him a push onto his knees, in the middle of the blood, and flung a towel to him; but instead of proceeding to dry itup, he joined his hands, and began a prayer which excited my laughter from its odd phraseology. I was in the condition of mind to be shocked at nothing; in fact, I was as reckless as some malefactors show themselves at the foot of the gallows.
‘ “Oh, I forgot you,” said the tyrant, “you shall do that. Down with you. And you conspire with him against me, do you, viper? There, that is work fit for you!”
‘He shook me till my teeth rattled, and pitched me beside Joseph, who steadily concluded his supplications, and then rose, vowing he would set off for the Grange directly. Mr Linton was a magistrate, and though he had fifty wives dead, he should inquire into this.
‘He was so obstinate in his resolution that Heathcliff deemed it expedient to compel, from my lips, a recapitulation of what had taken place; standing over me, heaving with malevolence, as I reluctantly delivered the account in answer to his questions.
‘It required a great deal of labour to satisfy the old man that he was not the aggressor; especially with my hardly wrung replies. However, Mr Earnshaw soon convinced him that he was alive still; he hastened to administer a dose of spirits, and by their succour his master presently regained motion and consciousness.
‘Heathcliff, aware that he was ignorant of the treatment received while insensible, called him deliriously intoxicated; and said he should not notice his atrocious conduct further, but advised him to get to bed. To my joy, he left us after giving this judicious counsel, and Hindley stretched himself on the hearth-stone. I departed to my own room, marvelling that I had escaped so easily.
‘This morning, when I came down, about half-an-hour before noon, Mr Earnshaw was sitting by the fire, deadly sick; his evil genius, almost as gaunt and ghastly, leant against the chimney. Neither appeared inclined to dine; and having waited till all was cold on the table, I commenced alone.
‘Nothing hindered me from eating heartily; and I experienced a certain sense of satisfaction and superiority, as, at intervals, I cast alook towards my silent companions, and felt the comfort of a quiet conscience within me.
