Wuthering Heights Chapter 03 - Wordscape.mp3

[00:01.047]Chapter 3
[00:04.367]While leading the way upstairs,
[00:07.456]she recommended that I should hide the candle,
[00:10.247]and not make a noise; for her master had an odd notion about the chamber she would put me in,
[00:16.743]and never let anybody lodge there willingly.
[00:19.847]I asked the reason.
[00:23.208]She did not know, she answered:
[00:25.464]she had only lived there a year or two;
[00:27.796]and they had so many queer goings on, she could not begin to be curious.
[00:32.799]Too stupefied to be curious myself,
[00:37.200]I fastened my door and glanced round for the bed.
[00:40.064]The whole furniture consisted of a chair, a clothes-press, and a large oak case,
[00:46.615]with squares cut out near the top resembling coach windows.
[00:50.355]Having approached this structure I looked inside,
[00:54.819]and perceived it to be a singular sort of old-fashioned couch,
[00:59.167]very conveniently designed to obviate the necessity for every member of the family having a room to himself.
[01:06.735]In fact it formed a little closet,
[01:09.600]and the ledge of a window, which it enclosed, served as a table.
[01:14.287]I slid back the panelled sides, got in with my light, pulled them together again,
[01:21.600]and felt secure against the vigilance of Heathcliff, and everyone else.
[01:27.087]The ledge, where I placed my candle,
[01:31.041]had a few mildewed books piled up in one corner;
[01:34.479]and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint.
[01:38.448]This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters,
[01:44.706]large and small--Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and again to Catherine Linton.
[01:56.007]In vapid listlessness I leant my head against the window,
[02:01.143]and continued spelling over Catherine Earnshaw--Heathcliff--Linton, till my eyes closed;
[02:09.065]but they had not rested five minutes when a glare of white letters started from the dark as vivid as spectres--
[02:18.146]the air swarmed with Catherines;
[02:22.042]and rousing myself to dispel the obtrusive name,
[02:25.889]I discovered my candle wick reclining on one of the antique volumes,
[02:30.794]and perfuming the place with an odour of roasted calfskin.
[02:35.010]I snuffed it off, and, very ill at ease under the influence of cold and lingering nausea,
[02:42.665]sat up and spread open the injured tome on my knee.
[02:46.626]It was a Testament, in lean type, and smelling dreadfully musty:
[02:53.100]a fly-leaf bore the inscription --`Catherine Earnshaw, her book', and a date some quarter of a century back.
[03:02.517]I shut it, and took up another, and another, till I had examined all.
[03:08.746]Catherine's library was select, and its state of dilapidation proved it to have been well used;
[03:17.026]though not altogether for a legitimate purpose:
[03:20.186]scarcely one chapter had escaped a pen-and-ink commentary--at least,
[03:26.197]the appearance of one--covering every morsel of blank that the printer had left.
[03:31.330]Some were detached sentences;
[03:35.170]other parts took the form of a regular diary, scrawled in an unformed childish hand.
[03:42.001]At the top of an extra page (quite a treasure, probably, when first lighted on)
[03:48.826]I was greatly amused to behold an excellent caricature of my friend Joseph,
[03:54.221]--rudely, yet powerfully sketched.
[03:57.508]An immediate interest kindled within me for the unknown Catherine,
[04:03.058]and I began forthwith to decipher her faded hieroglyphics.
[04:07.810]`An awful Sunday!' commenced the paragraph beneath.
[04:13.689]`I wish my father were back again.
[04:16.462]Hindley is a detestable substitute his conduct to Heathcliff is atrocious--
[04:22.578]H. and I are going to rebel--we took our initiatory step this evening.
[04:28.970]`All day had been flooding with rain;
[04:32.866]we could not go to church, so Joseph must needs get up a congregation in the garret;
[04:38.402]and, while Hindley and his wife basked downstairs before a comfortable fire--doing anything but reading their Bibles,
[04:47.441]I'll answer for it--Heathcliff, myself,
[04:50.987]and the unhappy plough-boy, were commanded to take our prayer books,
[04:55.226]and mount: we were ranged in a row, on a sack of corn, groaning and shivering,
[05:02.257]and hoping that Joseph would shiver too, so that he might give us a short homily for his own sake.
[05:08.794]A vain idea!
[05:10.874]The service lasted precisely three hours;
[05:14.850]and yet my brother had the face to exclaim, when he saw us descending,
[05:20.243]"What, done already?" On Sunday evenings we used to be permitted to play,
[05:26.978]if we did not make much noise; now a mere titter is sufficient to send us into comers!
[05:33.765]`"You forget you have a master here," says the tyrant.
[05:38.850]"I'll demolish the first who puts me out of temper!
[05:41.891]I insist on perfect sobriety and silence.
[05:44.794]Oh, boy! was that you?
[05:47.513]Frances, darling, pull his hair as you go by: I heard him snap his fingers."
[05:52.890]Frances pulled his hair heartily, and then went and seated herself on her husband's knee;
[06:00.010]and there they were, like two babies, kissing and talking nonsense by the hour--
[06:05.509]foolish palaver that we should be ashamed of.
[06:09.087]We made ourselves as snug as our means allowed in the arch of the dresser.
[06:14.632]I had just fastened our pinafores together, and hung them up for a curtain,
[06:19.975]when in comes Joseph on an errand from the stables. He tears down my handiwork, boxes my ears, and croaks--
[06:28.959]`"T' maister nobbut just buried, and Sabbath nut o'ered,
[06:32.199]und t' sahnd uh t' gospel still i' yer lugs, and yah darr be laiking!
[06:36.864]Shame on ye! sit ye dahn, ill childer!
[06:40.559]they's good books eneugh if ye'll read 'em!
[06:43.199]sit ye dahn, and think uh yer sowls!"
[06:45.864]`Saying this,
[06:48.030]he compelled us so to square our positions
[06:51.166]that we might receive from the far-off fire a dull ray to show us the text of the lumber thrust upon us. I could not bear the employment.
[07:01.969]I took my dingy volume by the scroop,
[07:04.870]and hurled it into the dog kennel, vowing I hated a good book.
[07:08.574]Heathcliff kicked his to the same place. Then there was a hubbub!
[07:15.383]`"Maister Hindley!" shouted our chaplain.
[07:18.928]"Maister, coom hither!
[07:20.656]Miss Cathy's riven th' back off `Th' Helmet uh Salvation,
[07:24.320]un' Heathcliff's pawsed his fit intuh t' first part uh `T' Brooad Way to Destruction!'
[07:30.913]It's fair flaysome ut yah let 'em goa on this gait.
[07:35.096]Ech! th' owd man ud uh laced 'em properly--but he's goan!"
[07:40.391]`Hindley hurried up from his paradise on the hearth,
[07:46.023]and seizing one of us by the collar, and the other by the arm, hurled both into the back kitchen;
[07:52.024]where, Joseph asseverated, "owd Nick" would fetch us as sure as we were living:
[07:58.143]and, so comforted, we each sought a separate nook to await his advent.
[08:05.392]I reached this book, and a pot of ink from a shelf,
[08:09.224]and pushed the house door ajar to give me light, and I have got the time on with writing for twenty minutes;
[08:15.711]but my companion is impatient, and proposes that we should appropriate the dairywoman's cloak,
[08:22.808]and have a scamper on the moors, under its shelter.
[08:25.864]A pleasant suggestion--and then, if the surly old man come in,
[08:31.063]he may believe his prophecy verified--we cannot be damper, or colder, in the rain than we are here.'
[08:38.424]��
[08:39.091]I suppose Catherine fulfilled her project, for the next sentence took up another subject: she waxed lachrymose.
[08:48.535]`How little did I dream that Hindley would ever make me cry so!' she wrote.
[08:54.432]`My head aches, till I cannot keep it on the pillow; and still I can't give over.
[09:00.951]Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond,
[09:05.435]and won't let him sit with us, nor eat with us any more;
[09:08.865]and, he says, he and I must not play together,
[09:12.624]and threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his orders.
[09:16.937]He has been blaming our father (how dared he?) for treating H. too liberally;
[09:25.152]and swears he will reduce him to his right place--'
[09:28.889]��
[09:29.207]I began to nod drowsily over the dim page:
[09:34.575]my eye wandered from manuscript to print,
[09:38.224]I saw a red ornamented title--`Seventy Times Seven, and the First of the Seventy-First.
[09:45.583]A Pious Discourse delivered by the Reverend Jabes Branderham, in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough.'
[09:54.051]And while I was, half consciously, worrying my brain to guess what Jabes Branderham would make of his subject,
[10:02.927]I sank back in bed, and fell asleep.
[10:06.375]Alas, for the effects of bad tea and bad temper!
[10:10.728]what else could it be that made me pass such a terrible night?
[10:15.272]I don't remember another that I can at all compare with it since I was capable of suffering.
[10:22.119]I began to dream, almost before I ceased to be sensible of my locality.
[10:28.328]I thought it was morning; and I had set out on my way home, with Joseph for a guide.
[10:34.122]The snow lay yards deep in our road; and, as we floundered on,
[10:40.192]my companion wearied me with constant reproaches that I had not brought a pilgrim's staff:
[10:46.259]telling me that I could never get into the house without one,
[10:49.554]and boastfully flourishing a heavy-headed cudgel, which I understood to be so denominated.
[10:55.728]For a moment I considered it absurd that I should need such a weapon to gain admittance into my own residence.
[11:03.831]Then a new idea flashed across me.
[11:07.839]I was not going there: we were journeying to hear the famous Jabes Branderham preach from the text--`Seventy Times Seven';
[11:19.066]and either Joseph, the preacher, or I had committed the `First of the Seventy-First',
[11:25.873]and were to be publicly exposed and excommunicated.
[11:31.256]We came to the chapel.
[11:34.275]I have passed it really in my walks, twice or thrice;
[11:38.295]it lies in a hollow, between two hills; an elevated hollow, near a swamp,
[11:44.552]whose peaty moisture is said to answer all the purposes of embalming on the few corpses deposited there.
[11:52.167]The roof has been kept whole hitherto;
[11:56.151]but as the clergyman's stipend is only twenty pounds per annum,
[12:00.608]and a house with two rooms, threatening speedily to determine into one, no clergyman will undertake the duties of pastor:
[12:08.199]especially as it is currently reported
[12:10.727]that his flock would rather let him starve than increase the living by one penny from their own pockets.
[12:16.608]However, in my dream, Jabes had a full and attentive congregation;
[12:22.495]and he preached--good God! what a sermon'.
[12:27.488]divided into four hundred and ninety parts,
[12:32.218]each fully equal to an ordinary address from the pulpit, and each discussing a separate sin!
[12:40.576]Where he searched for them, I cannot tell. He had his private manner of interpreting the phrase,
[12:49.256]and it seemed necessary the brother should sin different sins on every occasion.
[12:54.527]They were of the most curious character: odd transgressions that I never imagined previously.
[13:01.944]Oh, how weary I grew.
[13:05.200]How I writhed, and yawned, and nodded, and revived!
[13:09.759]How I pinched and pricked myself, and rubbed my eyes, and stood up,
[13:15.456]and sat down again, and nudged Joseph to inform me if he would ever have done.
[13:22.080]I was condemned 10 hear all out: finally, he reached the `First of the Seventy-First'.
[13:32.416]At that crisis, a sudden inspiration descended on me;
[13:37.887]I was moved to rise and denounce Jabes Branderham as the sinner of the sin that no Christian need pardon.
[13:48.176]`Sir,' I exclaimed, `sitting here within these four walls, at one stretch,
[13:56.386]I have endured and forgiven the four hundred and ninety heads of your discourse.
[14:03.761]Seventy times seven times have I plucked up my hat
[14:09.556]and been about to depart--seventy times seven times have you preposterously forced me to resume my seat.
[14:18.793]The four hundred and ninety-first is too much.
[14:24.320]Fellow-martyrs, have at him! Drag him down, and crush him to atoms, that the place which knows him may know him no more!'
[14:34.113]`Thou art the Man!' cries Jabes, after a solemn pause, leaning over his cushion.
[14:44.553]`Seventy times seven times didst thou gapingly contort thy visage--
[14:52.961]seventy times seven did I take counsel with my soul--Lo, this is human weakness: this also may be absolved!
[15:04.649]The First of the Seventy-First is come. Brethren, execute upon him the judgment written. Such honour have all His saints!'
[15:16.441]With that concluding word, the whole assembly, exalting their pilgrim's staves,
[15:23.433]rushed round me in a body; and I, having no weapon to raise in self-defence,
[15:29.273]commenced grappling with Joseph, my nearest and most ferocious assailant, for his.
[15:35.425]In the confluence of the multitude, several clubs crossed; blows, aimed at me, fell on other sconces.
[15:43.842]Presently the whole chapel resounded with rappings and counter-rappings:
[15:50.057]every man's hand was against his neighbour;
[15:53.129]and Branderham, unwilling to remain idle, poured forth his zeal in a shower of loud taps on the boards of the pulpit,
[16:01.897]which responded so smartly that, at last, to my unspeakable relief, they woke me.
[16:09.961]And what was it that had suggested the tremendous tumult?
[16:15.371]What had played Jabes's part in the row? Merely, the branch of a fir tree that touched my lattice, as the blast wailed by,
[16:25.664]and rattled its dry cones against the panes!
[16:29.936]I listened doubtingly an instant; detected the disturber, then turned and dozed,
[16:37.856]and dreamt again: if possible, still more disagreeably than before.
[16:44.184]This time, I remembered I was lying in the oak closet, and I heard distinctly the gusty wind, and the driving of the snow;
[16:54.256]I heard, also, the fir bough repeat its teasing sound, and ascribed it to the right cause:
[17:01.426]but it annoyed me so much, that I resolved to--silence it, if possible;
[17:07.016]and, I thought, I rose and endeavoured to unhasp the casement.
[17:12.169]The hook was soldered into the staple: a circumstance observed by me when awake, but forgotten.
[17:19.849]`I must stop it, nevertheless!'
[17:23.024]I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch;
[17:30.840]instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand!
[17:38.952]The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm,
[17:46.505]but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed,
[17:51.080]`Let me in--let me in!' `Who are you?' I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself.
[18:01.624]`Catherine Linton,' it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of Linton?
[18:09.240]I had read Earnshaw twenty times for Linton); `I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor!'
[18:18.955]As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking through the window.
[18:27.146]Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off,
[18:33.216]I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes:
[18:41.712]still it wailed, `Let me in!' and maintained its tenacious grip, almost maddening me with fear.
[18:52.880]`How can I?' I said at length. `Let me go, if you want me to let you in!'
[18:59.256]The fingers relaxed, I snatched mine through the hole, hurriedly piled the books up in a pyramid against it,
[19:07.424]and stopped my ears to exclude the lamentable prayer.
[19:12.064]I seemed to keep them closed above a quarter of an hour;
[19:17.057]yet, the instant I listened again, there was the doleful cry moaning on!
[19:23.336]`Begone!' I shouted, `I'll never let you in, not if you beg for twenty years.'
[19:30.608]`It is twenty years,' mourned the voice: `twenty years. I've been a waif for twenty years!'
[19:46.928]Thereat began a feeble scratching outside, and the pile of books moved as if thrust forward.
[19:56.533]I tried to jump up; but could not stir a limb; and so yelled aloud, in a frenzy of fright.
[20:03.978]To my confusion, I discovered the yell was not ideal: hasty footsteps approached my chamber door;
[20:11.376]somebody pushed it open, with a vigorous hand, and a light glimmered through the squares at the top of the bed.
[20:18.048]I sat shuddering yet, and wiping the perspiration from my forehead:
[20:24.256]the intruder appeared to hesitate, and muttered to himself.
[20:29.768]At last, he said in a half-whisper, plainly not expecting an answer,
[20:36.177]`Is any one here?' I considered it best to confess my presence, for I knew Heathcliff's accents,
[20:45.168]and feared he might search further, if I kept quiet.
[20:49.168]With this intention, I turned and opened the panels. I shall not soon forget the effect my action produced.
[20:59.215]Heathcliff stood near the entrance, in his shirt and trousers:
[21:04.319]with a candle dripping over his fingers, and his face as white as the wall behind him.
[21:10.183]The first creak of the oak startled him like an electric shock!
[21:16.567]the light leaped from his hold to a distance of some feet, and his agitation was so extreme, that he could hardly pick it up.
[21:25.047]`It is only your guest, sir,' I called out, desirous to spare him the humiliation of exposing his cowardice further.
[21:34.359]`I had the misfortune to scream in my sleep, owing to a frightful nightmare.
[21:39.935]I'm sorry I disturbed you.
[21:41.673]`Oh God confound you, Mr Lockwood!
[21:45.839]I wish you were at the--` commenced my host, setting the candle on a chair,
[21:50.535]because he found it impossible to hold it steady. `And who showed you up into this room?'
[21:57.688]he continued, crushing his nails into his palms, and grinding his teeth to subdue the maxillary convulsions.
[22:06.471]`Who was it? I've a good mind to turn them out of the house this moment!'
[22:12.223]`It was your servant, Zillah,' I replied, flinging myself on to the floor,
[22:18.311]and rapidly resuming my garments.
[22:20.559]`I should not care if you did, Mr Heathcliff; she richly deserves it.
[22:24.591]I suppose that she wanted to get another proof that the place was haunted, at my expense.
[22:30.647]Well, it is--swarming with ghosts and goblins! You have reason in shutting it up, I assure you.
[22:37.459]No one will thank you for a doze in such a den!'
[22:40.942]`What do you mean?' asked Heathcliff, `and what are you doing?
[22:47.052]Lie down and finish out the night, since you are here;
[22:50.953]but, for heaven's sake! don't repeat that horrid noise; nothing could excuse it,
[22:56.799]unless you were having your throat cut!'
[22:59.111]`If the little fiend had got in at the window, she probably would have strangled me!' I returned.
[23:05.327]`I'm not going to endure the persecutions of your hospitable ancestors again.
[23:11.015]Was not the Reverend Jabes Branderham akin to you on the mother's side?
[23:16.415]And that minx, Catherine Linton, or Earnshaw,
[23:20.574]or however she was called--she must have been a changeling--wicked little soul!
[23:25.366]She told me she had been walking the earth these twenty years:
[23:29.031]a just punishment for her mortal transgressions, I've no doubt!'
[23:33.279]Scarcely were these words uttered,
[23:37.234]when I recollected the association of Heathcliff's with Catherine's name in the book,
[23:42.738]--which had completely slipped from my memory, till thus awakened.
[23:48.015]I blushed at my inconsideration; but, without showing further consciousness of the offence,
[23:54.846]I hastened to add--`The truth is, sir,
[23:58.073]I passed the first part of the night in'--Here I stopped afresh--I was about to say perusing those old volumes',
[24:07.151]then it would have revealed my knowledge of their written, as well as their printed, contents:
[24:13.018]so, correcting myself, I went on, `in spelling over the name scratched on that window-ledge.
[24:20.700]A monotonous occupation, calculated to set me asleep, like counting, or--'
[24:26.868]`What can you mean by talking in this way to me?' thundered Heathcliff with savage vehemence.
[24:36.767]`How--how dare you, under my roof?--God! he's mad to speak so!' And he struck his forehead with rage.
[24:49.919]I did not know whether to resent this language or pursue my explanation;
[24:55.873]but he seemed so powerfully affected that I took pity and proceeded with my dreams;
[25:02.593]affirming I had never heard the appellation of `Catherine Linton' before,
[25:07.947]but reading it often over produced an impression which personified itself when I had no longer my imagination under control.
[25:16.769]Heathcliff gradually fell back into the shelter of the bed, as I spoke;
[25:22.257]finally sitting down almost concealed behind it.
[25:25.833]I guessed, however, by his irregular and intercepted breathing,
[25:31.036]that he struggled to vanquish an excess of violent emotion.
[25:36.012]Not liking to show him that I had heard the conflict,
[25:40.456]I continued my toilette rather noisily, looking at my watch, and soliloquized on the length of the night:
[25:47.793]`Not three o'clock yet! I could have taken oath it had been six.
[25:52.297]Time stagnates here: we must surely have retired to rest at eight!'
[25:56.888]`Always at nine in winter, and always rise at four,' said my host,
[26:02.961]suppressing a groan: and, as I fancied, by the motion of his shadow's arm, dashing a tear from his eyes.
[26:10.868]`Mr Lockwood,' he added, `you may go into my room: you'll only be in the way, coming downstairs so early;
[26:19.129]and your childish outcry has sent sleep to the devil for me.'
[26:22.737]`And for me, too,' I replied.
[26:26.393]`I'll walk in the yard till daylight, and then I'll be off; and you need not dread a repetition of my intrusion.
[26:32.497]I'm now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town.
[26:37.961]A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.'
[26:41.809]`Delightful company!' muttered Heathcliff.
[26:46.748]`Take the candle, and go where you please.
[26:49.217]I shall join you directly.
[26:51.425]Keep out of the yard, though, the dogs are unchained;
[26:55.075]and the house--Juno mounts sentinel there, and--nay, you can only ramble about the steps and passages.
[27:02.953]But, away with you! I'll come in two minutes!'
[27:05.865]I obeyed, so far as to quit the chamber;
[27:09.746]when, ignorant where the narrow lobbies led, I stood still,
[27:14.123]and was witness, involuntarily, to a piece of superstition on the part of my landlord, which belied, oddly, his apparent sense.
[27:23.714]He got on to the bed, and wrenched open the lattice, bursting, as he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears.
[27:34.833]`Come in! come in!' he sobbed. `
[27:40.218]Cathy, do come. Oh do--once more! Oh! my heart's darling! hear me this time, Catherine, at last!'
[27:55.829]The spectre showed a spectre's ordinary caprice: it gave no sign of being;
[28:05.154]but the snow and wind whirled wildly through, even reaching my station, and blowing out the light.
[28:13.402]There was such anguish in the gust of grief that accompanied this raving,
[28:21.931]that my compassion made me overlook its folly, and I drew off, half angry to have listened at all,
[28:28.725]and vexed at having related my ridiculous nightmare, since it produced that agony;
[28:35.313]though why, was beyond my comprehension.
[28:38.773]I descended cautiously to the lower regions, and landed in the back kitchen,
[28:44.986]where a gleam of fire, raked compactly together, enabled me to rekindle my candle.
[28:51.222]Nothing was stirring except a bridled, grey cat, which crept from the ashes, and saluted me with a querulous mew.
[29:01.413]Two benches, shaped in sections of a circle, nearly enclosed the hearth; on one of these I stretched myself,
[29:09.722]and Grimalkin mounted the other.
[29:12.339]We were both of us nodding, ere anyone invaded our retreat,
[29:16.787]and then it was Joseph, shuffling down a wooden ladder that vanished in the roof,
[29:22.090]through a trap: the ascent to his garret, I suppose.
[29:25.802]He cast a sinister look at the little flame which I had enticed to play between the ribs,
[29:31.807]swept the cat from its elevation, and bestowing himself in the vacancy,
[29:36.475]commenced the operation of stuffing a three-inch pipe with tobacco.
[29:41.010]My presence in his sanctum was evidently esteemed a piece of impudence too shameful for remark:
[29:49.075]he silently applied the tube to his lips, folded his arms, and puffed away.
[29:55.090]I let him enjoy the luxury unannoyed; and after sucking out his last wreath,
[30:02.118]and heaving a profound sigh, he got up, and departed as solemnly as he came.
[30:08.099]A more elastic footstep entered next; and now I opened my mouth for a `good morning',
[30:15.912]but closed it again, the salutation unachieved;
[30:19.432]for Hareton Earnshaw was performing his orisons sotto voce,
[30:23.988]in a series of curses directed against every object he touched,
[30:28.420]while he rummaged a corner for a spade or shovel to dig through the drifts.
[30:32.461]He glanced over the back of the bench, dilating his nostrils,
[30:37.413]and thought as little of exchanging civilities with me as with my companion the cat.
[30:43.793]I guessed, by his preparations, that egress was allowed,
[30:48.869]and, leaving my hard couch, made a movement to follow him.
[30:52.741]He noticed this, and thrust at an inner door with the end of his spade,
[30:58.396]intimating by an inarticulate sound that there was the place where I must go, if I changed my locality;
[31:06.214]It opened into the house, where the females were already astir,
[31:11.668]Zillah urging flakes of flame up the chimney with a colossal bellows;
[31:16.031]and Mrs Heathcliff, kneeling on the hearth, reading a book by the aid of the blaze.
[31:21.496]She held her hand interposed between the furnace heat and her eyes,
[31:26.519]and seemed absorbed in her occupation;
[31:29.593]desisting from it only to chide the servant for covering her with sparks, or to push away a dog, now and then,
[31:36.957]that snoozled its nose over-forwardly into her face.
[31:40.624]I was surprised to see Heathcliff there also.
[31:45.229]He stood by the fire, his back towards me, just finishing a stormy scene to poor Zillah;
[31:52.421]who ever and anon interrupted her labour to pluck up the corner of her apron, and heave an indignant groan.
[31:59.926]`And you, you worthless'--he broke out as I entered,
[32:05.077]turning to his daughter-in-law, and employing an epithet as harmless as duck, or sheep,
[32:10.757]but generally represented by a dash--.
[32:13.516]`There you are, at your idle tricks again!
[32:17.727]The rest of them do earn their bread--you live on my charity!
[32:22.120]Put your trash away, and find something to do.
[32:25.501]You shall pay me for the plague of having you eternally in my sight--do you hear, damnable jade?'
[32:31.980]`I'll put my trash away,
[32:34.869]because you can make me, if I refuse,' answered the young lady, closing her book,
[32:40.189]and throwing it on a chair.
[32:41.949]`But I'll not do anything, though you should swear your tongue out, except what I please!'
[32:48.621]Heathcliff lifted his hand, and the speaker sprang to a safer distance, obviously acquainted with its weight.
[32:56.725]Having no desire to be entertained by a cat-and-dog combat;
[33:01.982]I stepped forward briskly, as if eager to partake the warmth of the hearth,
[33:07.341]and innocent of any knowledge of the interrupted dispute.
[33:10.933]Each had enough decorum to suspend further hostilities:
[33:15.516]Heathcliff placed his fist, out of temptation, in his pockets;
[33:21.149]Mrs Heathcliff curled her lip,
[33:24.005]and walked to a seat far off, where she kept her word by playing the part of a statue during the remainder of my stay.
[33:32.580]That was not long. I declined joining their breakfast,
[33:37.535]and, at the first gleam of dawn, took an opportunity of escaping into the free air, now clear,
[33:44.614]and still, and cold as impalpable ice.
[33:48.708]My landlord hallooed for me to stop, ere I reached the bottom of the garden,
[33:55.144]and offered to accompany me across the moor.
[33:57.359]It was well he did, for the whole hill-back was one billowy, white ocean;
[34:03.908]the swells and falls not indicating corresponding rises and depressions in the ground:
[34:09.669]many pits, at least, were filled to a level;
[34:13.373]and entire ranges of mounds, the refuse of the quarries,
[34:17.884]blotted from the chart which my yesterday's walk left pictured in my mind.
[34:22.732]I had remarked on one side of the road, at intervals of six or seven yards,
[34:28.532]a line of upright stones, continued through the whole length of the barren:
[34:33.884]these were erected, and daubed with lime on purpose to serve as guides in the dark;
[34:39.996]and also when a fall, like the present, confounded the deep swamps on either hand with the firmer path:
[34:47.564]but, excepting a dirty dot pointing up here and there, all traces of their existence had vanished:
[34:54.300]and my companion found it necessary to warn me frequently to steer to the right or left,
[35:00.340]when I imagined I was following, correctly, the windings of the road.
[35:04.996]We exchanged little conversation, and he halted at the entrance of Thrushcross Park,
[35:12.596]saying, I could make no error there. Our adieux were limited to a hasty bow,
[35:18.656]and then I pushed forward, trusting to my own resources;
[35:22.404]for the porter's lodge is untenanted as yet.
[35:25.878]The distance from the gate to the Grange is two miles:
[35:30.454]I believe I managed to make it four;
[35:32.996]what with losing myself among the trees, and sinking up to the neck in snow:
[35:38.700]a predicament which only those who have experienced it can appreciate.
[35:43.549]At any rate, whatever were my wanderings, the clock chimed twelve as I entered the house;
[35:50.396]and that gave exactly an hour for every mile of the usual way from Wuthering Heights.
[35:56.958]My human fixture and her satellites rushed to welcome me;
[36:02.548]exclaiming, tumultuously, they had completely given me up;
[36:07.068]everybody conjectured that I perished last night;
[36:10.748]and they were wondering how they must set about the search for my remains.
[36:15.189]I bid them be quiet, now that they saw me returned,
[36:18.996]and, benumbed to my very heart, I dragged upstairs; whence, after putting on dry clothes,
[36:26.750]and pacing to and fro thirty or forty minutes, to restore the animal heat,
[36:31.676]I am adjourned to my study, feeble as a kitten:
[36:35.589]almost too much so to enjoy the cheerful fire and smoking coffee which the servant has prepared for my refreshment.