CHAPTER XXVIII
On the fifth morning, or rather afternoon, a different stepapproached--lighter and shorter; and, this time, the person entered theroom. It was Zillah; donned in her scarlet shawl, with a black silkbonnet on her head, and a willow-basket swung to her arm.
'Eh, dear! Mrs. Dean!' she exclaimed. 'Well! there is a talk about youat Gimmerton. I never thought but you were sunk in the Blackhorse marsh,and missy with you, till master told me you'd been found, and he'd lodgedyou here! What! and you must have got on an island, sure? And how longwere you in the hole? Did master save you, Mrs. Dean? But you're not sothin--you've not been so poorly, have you?'
'Your master is a true scoundrel!' I replied. 'But he shall answer forit. He needn't have raised that tale: it shall all be laid bare!'
'What do you mean?' asked Zillah. 'It's not his tale: they tell that inthe village--about your being lost in the marsh; and I calls to Earnshaw,when I come in--Eh, they's queer things, Mr. Hareton, happened since Iwent off. It's a sad pity of that likely young lass, and cant NellyDean. He stared. I thought he had not heard aught, so I told him therumour. The master listened, and he just smiled to himself, and said,If they have been in the marsh, they are out now, Zillah. Nelly Dean islodged, at this minute, in your room. You can tell her to flit, when yougo up; here is the key. The bog-water got into her head, and she wouldhave run home quite flighty; but I fixed her till she came round to hersenses. You can bid her go to the Grange at once, if she be able, andcarry a message from me, that her young lady will follow in time toattend the squire's funeral.'
'Mr. Edgar is not dead?' I gasped. 'Oh! Zillah, Zillah!'
'No, no; sit you down, my good mistress,' she replied; 'you're rightsickly yet. He's not dead; Doctor Kenneth thinks he may last anotherday. I met him on the road and asked.'
Instead of sitting down, I snatched my outdoor things, and hastenedbelow, for the way was free. On entering the house, I looked about forsome one to give information of Catherine. The place was filled withsunshine, and the door stood wide open; but nobody seemed at hand. As Ihesitated whether to go off at once, or return and seek my mistress, aslight cough drew my attention to the hearth. Linton lay on the settle,sole tenant, sucking a stick of sugar-candy, and pursuing my movementswith apathetic eyes. 'Where is Miss Catherine?' I demanded sternly,supposing I could frighten him into giving intelligence, by catching himthus, alone. He sucked on like an innocent.
'Is she gone?' I said.
'No,' he replied; 'she's upstairs: she's not to go; we won't let her.'
'You won't let her, little idiot!' I exclaimed. 'Direct me to her roomimmediately, or I'll make you sing out sharply.'
'Papa would make you sing out, if you attempted to get there,' heanswered. 'He says I'm not to be soft with Catherine: she's my wife, andit's shameful that she should wish to leave me. He says she hates me andwants me to die, that she may have my money; but she shan't have it: andshe shan't go home! She never shall!--she may cry, and be sick as muchas she pleases!'
He resumed his former occupation, closing his lids, as if he meant todrop asleep.
'Master Heathcliff,' I resumed, 'have you forgotten all Catherine'skindness to you last winter, when you affirmed you loved her, and whenshe brought you books and sung you songs, and came many a time throughwind and snow to see you? She wept to miss one evening, because youwould be disappointed; and you felt then that she was a hundred times toogood to you: and now you believe the lies your father tells, though youknow he detests you both. And you join him against her. That's finegratitude, is it not?'
The corner of Linton's mouth fell, and he took the sugar-candy from hislips.
'Did she come to Wuthering Heights because she hated you?' I continued.'Think for yourself! As to your money, she does not even know that youwill have any. And you say she's sick; and yet you leave her alone, upthere in a strange house! You who have felt what it is to be soneglected! You could pity your own sufferings; and she pitied them, too;but you won't pity hers! I shed tears, Master Heathcliff, you see--anelderly woman, and a servant merely--and you, after pretending suchaffection, and having reason to worship her almost, store every tear youhave for yourself, and lie there quite at ease. Ah! you're a heartless,selfish boy!'
'I can't stay with her,' he answered crossly. 'I'll not stay by myself.She cries so I can't bear it. And she won't give over, though I say I'llcall my father. I did call him once, and he threatened to strangle herif she was not quiet; but she began again the instant he left the room,moaning and grieving all night long, though I screamed for vexation thatI couldn't sleep.'
'Is Mr. Heathcliff out?' I inquired, perceiving that the wretchedcreature had no power to sympathize with his cousin's mental tortures.
'He's in the court,' he replied, 'talking to Doctor Kenneth; who saysuncle is dying, truly, at last. I'm glad, for I shall be master of theGrange after him. Catherine always spoke of it as her house. It isn'thers! It's mine: papa says everything she has is mine. All her nicebooks are mine; she offered to give me them, and her pretty birds, andher pony Minny, if I would get the key of our room, and let her out; butI told her she had nothing to give, they were all, all mine. And thenshe cried, and took a little picture from her neck, and said I shouldhave that; two pictures in a gold case, on one side her mother, and onthe other uncle, when they were young. That was yesterday--I said theywere mine, too; and tried to get them from her. The spiteful thingwouldn't let me: she pushed me off, and hurt me. I shrieked out--thatfrightens her--she heard papa coming, and she broke the hinges anddivided the case, and gave me her mother's portrait; the other sheattempted to hide: but papa asked what was the matter, and I explainedit. He took the one I had away, and ordered her to resign hers to me;she refused, and he--he struck her down, and wrenched it off the chain,and crushed it with his foot.'
'And were you pleased to see her struck?' I asked: having my designs inencouraging his talk.
'I winked,' he answered: 'I wink to see my father strike a dog or ahorse, he does it so hard. Yet I was glad at first--she deservedpunishing for pushing me: but when papa was gone, she made me come to thewindow and showed me her cheek cut on the inside, against her teeth, andher mouth filling with blood; and then she gathered up the bits of thepicture, and went and sat down with her face to the wall, and she hasnever spoken to me since: and I sometimes think she can't speak for pain.I don't like to think so; but she's a naughty thing for cryingcontinually; and she looks so pale and wild, I'm afraid of her.'
'And you can get the key if you choose?' I said.
'Yes, when I am up-stairs,' he answered; 'but I can't walk up-stairsnow.'
'In what apartment is it?' I asked.
'Oh,' he cried, 'I shan't tell _you_ where it is. It is our secret.Nobody, neither Hareton nor Zillah, is to know. There! you've tiredme--go away, go away!' And he turned his face on to his arm, and shuthis eyes again.
I considered it best to depart without seeing Mr. Heathcliff, and bring arescue for my young lady from the Grange. On reaching it, theastonishment of my fellow-servants to see me, and their joy also, wasintense; and when they heard that their little mistress was safe, two orthree were about to hurry up and shout the news at Mr. Edgar's door: butI bespoke the announcement of it myself. How changed I found him, evenin those few days! He lay an image of sadness and resignation awaitinghis death. Very young he looked: though his actual age was thirty-nine,one would have called him ten years younger, at least. He thought ofCatherine; for he murmured her name. I touched his hand, and spoke.
'Catherine is coming, dear master!' I whispered; 'she is alive and well;and will be here, I hope, to-night.'
I trembled at the first effects of this intelligence: he half rose up,looked eagerly round the apartment, and then sank back in a swoon. Assoon as he recovered, I related our compulsory visit, and detention atthe Heights. I said Heathcliff forced me to go in: which was not quitetrue. I uttered as little as possible against Linton; nor did I describeall his father's brutal conduct--my intentions being to add nobitterness, if I could help it, to his already over-flowing cup.
He divined that one of his enemy's purposes was to secure the personalproperty, as well as the estate, to his son: or rather himself; yet whyhe did not wait till his decease was a puzzle to my master, becauseignorant how nearly he and his nephew would quit the world together.However, he felt that his will had better be altered: instead of leavingCatherine's fortune at her own disposal, he determined to put it in thehands of trustees for her use during life, and for her children, if shehad any, after her. By that means, it could not fall to Mr. Heathcliffshould Linton die.
Having received his orders, I despatched a man to fetch the attorney, andfour more, provided with serviceable weapons, to demand my young lady ofher jailor. Both parties were delayed very late. The single servantreturned first. He said Mr. Green, the lawyer, was out when he arrivedat his house, and he had to wait two hours for his re-entrance; and thenMr. Green told him he had a little business in the village that must bedone; but he would be at Thrushcross Grange before morning. The four mencame back unaccompanied also. They brought word that Catherine was ill:too ill to quit her room; and Heathcliff would not suffer them to seeher. I scolded the stupid fellows well for listening to that tale, whichI would not carry to my master; resolving to take a whole bevy up to theHeights, at day-light, and storm it literally, unless the prisoner werequietly surrendered to us. Her father _shall_ see her, I vowed, andvowed again, if that devil be killed on his own doorstones in trying toprevent it!
Happily, I was spared the journey and the trouble. I had gonedown-stairs at three o'clock to fetch a jug of water; and was passingthrough the hall with it in my hand, when a sharp knock at the front doormade me jump. 'Oh! it is Green,' I said, recollecting myself--'onlyGreen,' and I went on, intending to send somebody else to open it; butthe knock was repeated: not loud, and still importunately. I put the jugon the banister and hastened to admit him myself. The harvest moon shoneclear outside. It was not the attorney. My own sweet little mistresssprang on my neck sobbing, 'Ellen, Ellen! Is papa alive?'
'Yes,' I cried: 'yes, my angel, he is, God be thanked, you are safe withus again!'
She wanted to run, breathless as she was, up-stairs to Mr. Linton's room;but I compelled her to sit down on a chair, and made her drink, andwashed her pale face, chafing it into a faint colour with my apron. ThenI said I must go first, and tell of her arrival; imploring her to say,she should be happy with young Heathcliff. She stared, but sooncomprehending why I counselled her to utter the falsehood, she assured meshe would not complain.
I couldn't abide to be present at their meeting. I stood outside thechamber-door a quarter of an hour, and hardly ventured near the bed,then. All was composed, however: Catherine's despair was as silent asher father's joy. She supported him calmly, in appearance; and he fixedon her features his raised eyes that seemed dilating with ecstasy.
He died blissfully, Mr. Lockwood: he died so. Kissing her cheek, hemurmured,--'I am going to her; and you, darling child, shall come to us!'and never stirred or spoke again; but continued that rapt, radiant gaze,till his pulse imperceptibly stopped and his soul departed. None couldhave noticed the exact minute of his death, it was so entirely without astruggle.
Whether Catherine had spent her tears, or whether the grief were tooweighty to let them flow, she sat there dry-eyed till the sun rose: shesat till noon, and would still have remained brooding over that deathbed,but I insisted on her coming away and taking some repose. It was well Isucceeded in removing her, for at dinner-time appeared the lawyer, havingcalled at Wuthering Heights to get his instructions how to behave. Hehad sold himself to Mr. Heathcliff: that was the cause of his delay inobeying my master's summons. Fortunately, no thought of worldly affairscrossed the latter's mind, to disturb him, after his daughter's arrival.
Mr. Green took upon himself to order everything and everybody about theplace. He gave all the servants but me, notice to quit. He would havecarried his delegated authority to the point of insisting that EdgarLinton should not be buried beside his wife, but in the chapel, with hisfamily. There was the will, however, to hinder that, and my loudprotestations against any infringement of its directions. The funeralwas hurried over; Catherine, Mrs. Linton Heathcliff now, was suffered tostay at the Grange till her father's corpse had quitted it.
She told me that her anguish had at last spurred Linton to incur the riskof liberating her. She heard the men I sent disputing at the door, andshe gathered the sense of Heathcliff's answer. It drove her desperate.Linton who had been conveyed up to the little parlour soon after I left,was terrified into fetching the key before his father re-ascended. Hehad the cunning to unlock and re-lock the door, without shutting it; andwhen he should have gone to bed, he begged to sleep with Hareton, and hispetition was granted for once. Catherine stole out before break of day.She dared not try the doors lest the dogs should raise an alarm; shevisited the empty chambers and examined their windows; and, luckily,lighting on her mother's, she got easily out of its lattice, and on tothe ground, by means of the fir-tree close by. Her accomplice sufferedfor his share in the escape, notwithstanding his timid contrivances.