`"Yes, no wonder,'' was my next remark.``Catherine used to boast that she stood between you and bodily harm: she meant that certain persons would not hurt you for fear of offending her.It's well people don't really rise from their grave, or, last night, she might have witnessed a repulsive scene! Are not you bruised and cut over your chest and shoulders?''
``I can't say,'' he answered: ``but what do you mean? Did he dare to strike me when I was down?""He trampled on you and kicked you, and dashed you on the ground,''
I whispered.``And his mouth watered to tear you with his teeth; because he's only half a man--not so much.''
`Mr Earnshaw looked up, like me, to the countenance of our mutual foe; who, absorbed in his anguish, seemed insensible to anything around him: the longer he stood, the plainer his reflections revealed their blackness through his features.
`"Oh, if God would but give me strength to strangle him in my last agony, I'd go to hell with joy,'' groaned the impatient man, writhing to rise, and sinking back in despair, convinced of his inadequacy for the struggle.
`"Nay, it's enough that he has murdered one of you,'' I observed aloud.``At the Grange, everyone knows your sister would have been living now, had it not been for Mr Heathcliff.After all, it is preferable to be hated than loved by him.When I recollect how happy we were--how happy Catherine was before he came--I'm fit to curse the day.''
`Most likely, Heathcliff noticed more the truth of what was said, than the spirit of the person who said it.His attention was roused, Isaw, for his eyes rained down tears among the ashes, and he drew his breath in suffocating sighs.I stared full at him, and laughed scornfully.The clouded windows of hell flashed a moment towards me; the fiend which usually looked out, however, was so dimmed and drowned that I did not fear to hazard another sound of derision.
``Get up, and begone out of my sight,'' said the mourner.
`I guessed he uttered those words, at least, though his voice was hardly intelligible.
`"I beg your pardon,'' I replied.``But I loved Catherine too;and her brother requires attendance, which, for her sake, I shall supply.
Now that she's dead, I see her in Hindley: Hindley has exactly her eyes, if you had not tried to gouge them out, and made them black and red; and her--''
``Get up, wretched idiot, before I stamp you to death!'' he cried, making a movement that caused me to make one also.
``But then,'' I continued, holding myself ready to flee; ``if poor Catherine had trusted you, and assumed the ridiculous, contemptible, degrading title of Mrs Heathcliff, she would soon have presented a similar picture! She wouldn't have borne your abominable behaviour quietly:
her detestation and disgust must have found voice.''
`The back of the settle and Earnshaw's person interposed between me and him: so instead of endeavouring to reach me, he snatched a dinner knife from the table and flung it at my head.It struck beneath my ear, and stopped the sentence I was uttering; but, pulling it out, I sprang to the door and delivered another; which I hope went a little deeper than his missile.The last glimpse I caught of him was a furious rush on his part, checked by the embrace of his host; and both fell locked together on the hearth.In my flight through the kitchen I bid Joseph speed to his master; I knocked over Hareton, who was hanging a litter of puppies from a chair back in the doorway; and, blest as a soul escaped from purgatory, I bounded, leaped, and flew down the steep road; then, quitting its windings, shot direct across the moor, rolling over banks, and wading through marshes:
precipitating myself, in fact, towards the beacon light of the Grange.
And far rather would I be condemned to a perpetual dwelling in the infernal regions, than, even for one night, abide beneath the roof of Wuthering Heights again.'
Isabella ceased speaking, and took a drink of tea; then she rose, and bidding me put on her bonnet, and a great shawl I had brought, and turning a deaf ear to my entreaties for her to remain another hour, she stepped on to a chair, kissed Edgar's and Catherine's portraits, bestowed a similar salute on me, and descended to the carriage, accompanied by Fanny, who yelped wild with joy at recovering her mistress.She was driven away, never to revisit the neighbourhood: but a regular correspondence was established between her and my master when things were more settled.I believe her new abode was in the south, near London; there she had a son born, a few months subsequent to her escape.He was christened Linton, and, from the first, she reported him to be an ailing, peevish creature.
Mr Heathcliff, meeting me one day in the village, inquired where she lived.I refused to tell.He remarked that it was not of any moment, only she must beware of coming to her brother: she should not be with him, if he had to keep her himself.Though I would give no information, he discovered, through some of the other servants, both her place of residence and the existence of the child.Still he didn't molest her: for which forbearance she might thank his aversion, I suppose.He often asked about the infant, when he saw me; and on hearing its name, smiled grimly, and observed:
`They wish me to hate it too, do they?'
`I don't think they wish you to know anything about it,' I answered.
`But I'll have it,' he said, `when I want it.They may reckon on that!'
Fortunately, its mother died before the time arrived; some thirteen years after the decease of Catherine, when Linton was twelve, or a little more.
