the misguided man, recovering his hardness. ‘At present, convey yourself and him away – And, hark you, Heathcliff! clear you too, quite from my reach and hearing…I wouldn’t murder you tonight, unless, perhaps I set the house on fire; but that’s as my fancy goes –’
While saying this he took a pint bottle of brandy from the dresser, and poured some into a tumbler.
‘Nay don’t!’ I entreated, ‘Mr Hindley, do take warning. Have mercy on this unfortunate boy, if you care nothing for yourself!’
‘Any one will do better for him than I shall,’ he answered.
‘Have mercy on your own soul!’ I said, endeavouring to snatch the glass from his hand.
‘Not I! on the contrary, I shall have great pleasure in sending it to perdition, to punish its maker,’ exclaimed the blasphemer. ‘Here’s to its hearty damnation!’
He drank the spirits, and impatiently bade us go; terminating his command with a sequel of horrid imprecations, too bad to repeat, or remember.
‘It’s a pity he cannot kill himself with drink,’ observed Heathcliff, muttering an echo of curses back when the door was shut. ‘He’s doing his very utmost; but his constitution defies him – Mr Kenneth says he would wager his mare, that he’ll outlive any man on this side Gimmerton, and go to the grave a hoary sinner; unless some happy chance out of the common course befall him.’
I went into the kitchen and sat down to lull my little lamb to sleep. Heathcliff, as I thought, walked through to the barn. It turned out, afterwards, that he only got as far as the other side the settle, when he flung himself on a bench by the wall, removed from the fire, and remained silent.
I was rocking Hareton on my knee, and humming a song that began;
‘It was far in the night, and the bairnies grat,
The mither beneath the mools heard that,’
when Miss Cathy, who had listened to the hubbub from her room, put her head in, and whispered,
‘Are you alone, Nelly?’
‘Yes, Miss,’ I replied.
She entered and approached the hearth. I, supposing she was going to say something, looked up. The expression of her face seemed disturbed and anxious. Her lips were half asunder as if she meant to speak; and she drew a breath, but it escaped in a sigh, instead of a sentence.
I resumed my song, not having forgotten her recent behaviour.
‘Where’s Heathcliff?’ she said, interrupting me.
‘About his work in the stable,’ was my answer.
He did not contradict me; perhaps, he had fallen into a doze.
There followed another long pause, during which I perceived a drop or two trickle from Catherine’s cheek to the flags.
Is she sorry for her shameful conduct? I asked myself. That will be a novelty, but she may come to the point as she will – I shan’t help her!
No, she felt small trouble regarding any subject, save her own concerns.
‘Oh, dear!’ she cried at last. ‘I’m very unhappy!’
‘A pity,’ observed I, ‘you’re hard to please – so many friends and so few cares, and can’t make yourself content!’
‘Nelly, will you keep a secret for me?’ she pursued, kneeling down by me, and lifting her winsome eyes to my face with that sort of look which turns off bad temper, even when one has all the right in the world to indulge it.
‘Is it worth keeping?’ I inquired less sulkily.
‘Yes, and it worries me, and I must let it out! I want to know what I should do – Today, Edgar Linton has asked me to marry him, and I’ve given him an answer – Now, before I tell you whether it was a consent, or denial – you tell me which it ought to have been.’
‘Really, Miss Catherine, how can I know?’ I replied. ‘To be sure, considering the exhibition you performed in his presence this afternoon, I might say it would be wise to refuse him – since he asked you after that, he must either be hopelessly stupid, or a venturesome fool.’
‘If you talk so, I won’t tell you any more,’ she returned, peevishly, rising to her feet. ‘I accepted him, Nelly; be quick, and say whether I was wrong!’
‘You accepted him? then, what good is it discussing the matter? You have pledged your word, and cannot retract.’
‘But, say whether I should have done so – do!’ she exclaimed in an irritated tone; chafing her hands together, and frowning.
‘There are many things to be considered, before that question can be answered properly,’ I said sententiously. ‘First and foremost, do you love Mr Edgar?’
‘Who can help it? Of course I do,’ she answered.
Then I put her through the following catechism – for a girl of twenty-two it was not injudicious.
‘Why do you love him, Miss Cathy?’
‘Nonsense, I do – that’s sufficient.’
‘By no means; you must say why?’
‘Well, because he is handsome, and pleasant to be with.’
‘Bad,’ was my commentary.
‘And because he is young and cheerful.’
‘Bad, still.’
‘And, because he loves me.’
‘Indifferent, coming there.’
‘And he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of having such a husband.’
‘Worst of all! And, now, say how you love him?’
‘As everybody loves – You’re silly, Nelly.’
‘Not at all – Answer.’
‘I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and everything he touches, and every word he says – I love all his looks, and all his actions, and him entirely, and altogether. There now!’
‘And why?’
‘Nay – you are making a jest of it; it is exceedingly ill-natured! It’s no jest to me!’ said the young lady, scowling and turning her face to the fire.
‘I’m very far from jesting, Miss Catherine,’ I replied, ‘you love Mr Edgar, because he is handsome, and young, and cheerful, and rich, and loves you. The last, however, goes for nothing – You would love him without that, probably, and with it, you wouldn’t, unless he possessed the four former attractions.’
‘No, to be sure not – I should only pity him – hate him, perhaps, if he were ugly, and a clown.’
