Wuthering Heights, Page 7

  CHAPTER VII

  Cathy stayed at Thrushcross Grange five weeks: till Christmas. By thattime her ankle was thoroughly cured, and her manners much improved. Themistress visited her often in the interval, and commenced her plan ofreform by trying to raise her self-respect with fine clothes andflattery, which she took readily; so that, instead of a wild, hatlesslittle savage jumping into the house, and rushing to squeeze us allbreathless, there 'lighted from a handsome black pony a very dignifiedperson, with brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered beaver,and a long cloth habit, which she was obliged to hold up with both handsthat she might sail in. Hindley lifted her from her horse, exclaimingdelightedly, 'Why, Cathy, you are quite a beauty! I should scarcely haveknown you: you look like a lady now. Isabella Linton is not to becompared with her, is she, Frances?' 'Isabella has not her naturaladvantages,' replied his wife: 'but she must mind and not grow wild againhere. Ellen, help Miss Catherine off with her things--Stay, dear, youwill disarrange your curls--let me untie your hat.'

  I removed the habit, and there shone forth beneath a grand plaid silkfrock, white trousers, and burnished shoes; and, while her eyes sparkledjoyfully when the dogs came bounding up to welcome her, she dared hardlytouch them lest they should fawn upon her splendid garments. She kissedme gently: I was all flour making the Christmas cake, and it would nothave done to give me a hug; and then she looked round for Heathcliff. Mr.and Mrs. Earnshaw watched anxiously their meeting; thinking it wouldenable them to judge, in some measure, what grounds they had for hopingto succeed in separating the two friends.

  Heathcliff was hard to discover, at first. If he were careless, anduncared for, before Catherine's absence, he had been ten times more sosince. Nobody but I even did him the kindness to call him a dirty boy,and bid him wash himself, once a week; and children of his age seldomhave a natural pleasure in soap and water. Therefore, not to mention hisclothes, which had seen three months' service in mire and dust, and histhick uncombed hair, the surface of his face and hands was dismallybeclouded. He might well skulk behind the settle, on beholding such abright, graceful damsel enter the house, instead of a rough-headedcounterpart of himself, as he expected. 'Is Heathcliff not here?' shedemanded, pulling off her gloves, and displaying fingers wonderfullywhitened with doing nothing and staying indoors.

  'Heathcliff, you may come forward,' cried Mr. Hindley, enjoying hisdiscomfiture, and gratified to see what a forbidding young blackguard hewould be compelled to present himself. 'You may come and wish MissCatherine welcome, like the other servants.'

  Cathy, catching a glimpse of her friend in his concealment, flew toembrace him; she bestowed seven or eight kisses on his cheek within thesecond, and then stopped, and drawing back, burst into a laugh,exclaiming, 'Why, how very black and cross you look! and how--how funnyand grim! But that's because I'm used to Edgar and Isabella Linton.Well, Heathcliff, have you forgotten me?'

  She had some reason to put the question, for shame and pride threw doublegloom over his countenance, and kept him immovable.

  'Shake hands, Heathcliff,' said Mr. Earnshaw, condescendingly; 'once in away that is permitted.'

  'I shall not,' replied the boy, finding his tongue at last; 'I shall notstand to be laughed at. I shall not bear it!' And he would have brokenfrom the circle, but Miss Cathy seized him again.

  'I did not mean to laugh at you,' she said; 'I could not hinder myself:Heathcliff, shake hands at least! What are you sulky for? It was onlythat you looked odd. If you wash your face and brush your hair, it willbe all right: but you are so dirty!'

  She gazed concernedly at the dusky fingers she held in her own, and alsoat her dress; which she feared had gained no embellishment from itscontact with his.

  'You needn't have touched me!' he answered, following her eye andsnatching away his hand. 'I shall be as dirty as I please: and I like tobe dirty, and I will be dirty.'

  With that he dashed headforemost out of the room, amid the merriment ofthe master and mistress, and to the serious disturbance of Catherine; whocould not comprehend how her remarks should have produced such anexhibition of bad temper.

  After playing lady's-maid to the new-comer, and putting my cakes in theoven, and making the house and kitchen cheerful with great fires,befitting Christmas-eve, I prepared to sit down and amuse myself bysinging carols, all alone; regardless of Joseph's affirmations that heconsidered the merry tunes I chose as next door to songs. He had retiredto private prayer in his chamber, and Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw were engagingMissy's attention by sundry gay trifles bought for her to present to thelittle Lintons, as an acknowledgment of their kindness. They had invitedthem to spend the morrow at Wuthering Heights, and the invitation hadbeen accepted, on one condition: Mrs. Linton begged that her darlingsmight be kept carefully apart from that 'naughty swearing boy.'

  Under these circumstances I remained solitary. I smelt the rich scent ofthe heating spices; and admired the shining kitchen utensils, thepolished clock, decked in holly, the silver mugs ranged on a tray readyto be filled with mulled ale for supper; and above all, the specklesspurity of my particular care--the scoured and well-swept floor. I gavedue inward applause to every object, and then I remembered how oldEarnshaw used to come in when all was tidied, and call me a cant lass,and slip a shilling into my hand as a Christmas-box; and from that I wenton to think of his fondness for Heathcliff, and his dread lest he shouldsuffer neglect after death had removed him: and that naturally led me toconsider the poor lad's situation now, and from singing I changed my mindto crying. It struck me soon, however, there would be more sense inendeavouring to repair some of his wrongs than shedding tears over them:I got up and walked into the court to seek him. He was not far; I foundhim smoothing the glossy coat of the new pony in the stable, and feedingthe other beasts, according to custom.

  'Make haste, Heathcliff!' I said, 'the kitchen is so comfortable; andJoseph is up-stairs: make haste, and let me dress you smart before MissCathy comes out, and then you can sit together, with the whole hearth toyourselves, and have a long chatter till bedtime.'

  He proceeded with his task, and never turned his head towards me.

  'Come--are you coming?' I continued. 'There's a little cake for each ofyou, nearly enough; and you'll need half-an-hour's donning.'

  I waited five minutes, but getting no answer left him. Catherine suppedwith her brother and sister-in-law: Joseph and I joined at an unsociablemeal, seasoned with reproofs on one side and sauciness on the other. Hiscake and cheese remained on the table all night for the fairies. Hemanaged to continue work till nine o'clock, and then marched dumb anddour to his chamber. Cathy sat up late, having a world of things toorder for the reception of her new friends: she came into the kitchenonce to speak to her old one; but he was gone, and she only stayed to askwhat was the matter with him, and then went back. In the morning he roseearly; and, as it was a holiday, carried his ill-humour on to the moors;not re-appearing till the family were departed for church. Fasting andreflection seemed to have brought him to a better spirit. He hung aboutme for a while, and having screwed up his courage, exclaimedabruptly--'Nelly, make me decent, I'm going to be good.'

  'High time, Heathcliff,' I said; 'you _have_ grieved Catherine: she'ssorry she ever came home, I daresay! It looks as if you envied her,because she is more thought of than you.'

  The notion of _envying_ Catherine was incomprehensible to him, but thenotion of grieving her he understood clearly enough.

  'Did she say she was grieved?' he inquired, looking very serious.

  'She cried when I told her you were off again this morning.'

  'Well, _I_ cried last night,' he returned, 'and I had more reason to crythan she.'

  'Yes: you had the reason of going to bed with a proud heart and an emptystomach,' said I. 'Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. But,if you be ashamed of your touchiness, you must ask pardon, mind, when shecomes in. You must go up and offer to kiss her, and say--you know bestwhat to say; only do it heartily, a
nd not as if you thought her convertedinto a stranger by her grand dress. And now, though I have dinner to getready, I'll steal time to arrange you so that Edgar Linton shall lookquite a doll beside you: and that he does. You are younger, and yet,I'll be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders;you could knock him down in a twinkling; don't you feel that you could?'

  Heathcliff's face brightened a moment; then it was overcast afresh, andhe sighed.

  'But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn't make himless handsome or me more so. I wish I had light hair and a fair skin,and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich ashe will be!'

  'And cried for mamma at every turn,' I added, 'and trembled if a countrylad heaved his fist against you, and sat at home all day for a shower ofrain. Oh, Heathcliff, you are showing a poor spirit! Come to the glass,and I'll let you see what you should wish. Do you mark those two linesbetween your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched,sink in the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried,who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, likedevil's spies? Wish and learn to smooth away the surly wrinkles, toraise your lids frankly, and change the fiends to confident, innocentangels, suspecting and doubting nothing, and always seeing friends wherethey are not sure of foes. Don't get the expression of a vicious curthat appears to know the kicks it gets are its dessert, and yet hates allthe world, as well as the kicker, for what it suffers.'

  'In other words, I must wish for Edgar Linton's great blue eyes and evenforehead,' he replied. 'I do--and that won't help me to them.'

  'A good heart will help you to a bonny face, my lad,' I continued, 'ifyou were a regular black; and a bad one will turn the bonniest intosomething worse than ugly. And now that we've done washing, and combing,and sulking--tell me whether you don't think yourself rather handsome?I'll tell you, I do. You're fit for a prince in disguise. Who knows butyour father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, eachof them able to buy up, with one week's income, Wuthering Heights andThrushcross Grange together? And you were kidnapped by wicked sailorsand brought to England. Were I in your place, I would frame high notionsof my birth; and the thoughts of what I was should give me courage anddignity to support the oppressions of a little farmer!'

  So I chattered on; and Heathcliff gradually lost his frown and began tolook quite pleasant, when all at once our conversation was interrupted bya rumbling sound moving up the road and entering the court. He ran tothe window and I to the door, just in time to behold the two Lintonsdescend from the family carriage, smothered in cloaks and furs, and theEarnshaws dismount from their horses: they often rode to church inwinter. Catherine took a hand of each of the children, and brought theminto the house and set them before the fire, which quickly put colourinto their white faces.

  I urged my companion to hasten now and show his amiable humour, and hewillingly obeyed; but ill luck would have it that, as he opened the doorleading from the kitchen on one side, Hindley opened it on the other.They met, and the master, irritated at seeing him clean and cheerful, or,perhaps, eager to keep his promise to Mrs. Linton, shoved him back with asudden thrust, and angrily bade Joseph 'keep the fellow out of theroom--send him into the garret till dinner is over. He'll be cramminghis fingers in the tarts and stealing the fruit, if left alone with thema minute.'

  'Nay, sir,' I could not avoid answering, 'he'll touch nothing, not he:and I suppose he must have his share of the dainties as well as we.'

  'He shall have his share of my hand, if I catch him downstairs tilldark,' cried Hindley. 'Begone, you vagabond! What! you are attemptingthe coxcomb, are you? Wait till I get hold of those elegant locks--seeif I won't pull them a bit longer!'

  'They are long enough already,' observed Master Linton, peeping from thedoorway; 'I wonder they don't make his head ache. It's like a colt'smane over his eyes!'

  He ventured this remark without any intention to insult; but Heathcliff'sviolent nature was not prepared to endure the appearance of impertinencefrom one whom he seemed to hate, even then, as a rival. He seized atureen of hot apple sauce (the first thing that came under his grip) anddashed it full against the speaker's face and neck; who instantlycommenced a lament that brought Isabella and Catherine hurrying to theplace. Mr. Earnshaw snatched up the culprit directly and conveyed him tohis chamber; where, doubtless, he administered a rough remedy to cool thefit of passion, for he appeared red and breathless. I got the dishcloth,and rather spitefully scrubbed Edgar's nose and mouth, affirming itserved him right for meddling. His sister began weeping to go home, andCathy stood by confounded, blushing for all.

  'You should not have spoken to him!' she expostulated with Master Linton.'He was in a bad temper, and now you've spoilt your visit; and he'll beflogged: I hate him to be flogged! I can't eat my dinner. Why did youspeak to him, Edgar?'

  'I didn't,' sobbed the youth, escaping from my hands, and finishing theremainder of the purification with his cambric pocket-handkerchief. 'Ipromised mamma that I wouldn't say one word to him, and I didn't.'

  'Well, don't cry,' replied Catherine, contemptuously; 'you're not killed.Don't make more mischief; my brother is coming: be quiet! Hush,Isabella! Has anybody hurt you?'

  'There, there, children--to your seats!' cried Hindley, bustling in.'That brute of a lad has warmed me nicely. Next time, Master Edgar, takethe law into your own fists--it will give you an appetite!'

  The little party recovered its equanimity at sight of the fragrant feast.They were hungry after their ride, and easily consoled, since no realharm had befallen them. Mr. Earnshaw carved bountiful platefuls, and themistress made them merry with lively talk. I waited behind her chair,and was pained to behold Catherine, with dry eyes and an indifferent air,commence cutting up the wing of a goose before her. 'An unfeelingchild,' I thought to myself; 'how lightly she dismisses her oldplaymate's troubles. I could not have imagined her to be so selfish.'She lifted a mouthful to her lips: then she set it down again: her cheeksflushed, and the tears gushed over them. She slipped her fork to thefloor, and hastily dived under the cloth to conceal her emotion. I didnot call her unfeeling long; for I perceived she was in purgatorythroughout the day, and wearying to find an opportunity of getting byherself, or paying a visit to Heathcliff, who had been locked up by themaster: as I discovered, on endeavouring to introduce to him a privatemess of victuals.

  In the evening we had a dance. Cathy begged that he might be liberatedthen, as Isabella Linton had no partner: her entreaties were vain, and Iwas appointed to supply the deficiency. We got rid of all gloom in theexcitement of the exercise, and our pleasure was increased by the arrivalof the Gimmerton band, mustering fifteen strong: a trumpet, a trombone,clarionets, bassoons, French horns, and a bass viol, besides singers.They go the rounds of all the respectable houses, and receivecontributions every Christmas, and we esteemed it a first-rate treat tohear them. After the usual carols had been sung, we set them to songsand glees. Mrs. Earnshaw loved the music, and so they gave us plenty.

  Catherine loved it too: but she said it sounded sweetest at the top ofthe steps, and she went up in the dark: I followed. They shut the housedoor below, never noting our absence, it was so full of people. She madeno stay at the stairs'-head, but mounted farther, to the garret whereHeathcliff was confined, and called him. He stubbornly declinedanswering for a while: she persevered, and finally persuaded him to holdcommunion with her through the boards. I let the poor things converseunmolested, till I supposed the songs were going to cease, and thesingers to get some refreshment: then I clambered up the ladder to warnher. Instead of finding her outside, I heard her voice within. Thelittle monkey had crept by the skylight of one garret, along the roof,into the skylight of the other, and it was with the utmost difficulty Icould coax her out again. When she did come, Heathcliff came with her,and she insisted that I should take him into the kitchen, as myfellow-servant had gone to a neighbour's, to be removed from the soundof our
'devil's psalmody,' as it pleased him to call it. I told them Iintended by no means to encourage their tricks: but as the prisoner hadnever broken his fast since yesterday's dinner, I would wink at hischeating Mr. Hindley that once. He went down: I set him a stool by thefire, and offered him a quantity of good things: but he was sick andcould eat little, and my attempts to entertain him were thrown away. Heleant his two elbows on his knees, and his chin on his hands andremained rapt in dumb meditation. On my inquiring the subject of histhoughts, he answered gravely--'I'm trying to settle how I shall payHindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last.I hope he will not die before I do!'

  'For shame, Heathcliff!' said I. 'It is for God to punish wicked people;we should learn to forgive.'

  'No, God won't have the satisfaction that I shall,' he returned. 'I onlywish I knew the best way! Let me alone, and I'll plan it out: while I'mthinking of that I don't feel pain.'

  'But, Mr. Lockwood, I forget these tales cannot divert you. I'm annoyedhow I should dream of chattering on at such a rate; and your gruel cold,and you nodding for bed! I could have told Heathcliff's history, allthat you need hear, in half a dozen words.'

  * * * * *

  Thus interrupting herself, the housekeeper rose, and proceeded to layaside her sewing; but I felt incapable of moving from the hearth, and Iwas very far from nodding. 'Sit still, Mrs. Dean,' I cried; 'do sitstill another half-hour. You've done just right to tell the storyleisurely. That is the method I like; and you must finish it in the samestyle. I am interested in every character you have mentioned, more orless.'

  'The clock is on the stroke of eleven, sir.'

  'No matter--I'm not accustomed to go to bed in the long hours. One ortwo is early enough for a person who lies till ten.'

  'You shouldn't lie till ten. There's the very prime of the morning gonelong before that time. A person who has not done one-half his day's workby ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.'

  'Nevertheless, Mrs. Dean, resume your chair; because to-morrow I intendlengthening the night till afternoon. I prognosticate for myself anobstinate cold, at least.'

  'I hope not, sir. Well, you must allow me to leap over some three years;during that space Mrs. Earnshaw--'

  'No, no, I'll allow nothing of the sort! Are you acquainted with themood of mind in which, if you were seated alone, and the cat licking itskitten on the rug before you, you would watch the operation so intentlythat puss's neglect of one ear would put you seriously out of temper?'

  'A terribly lazy mood, I should say.'

  'On the contrary, a tiresomely active one. It is mine, at present; and,therefore, continue minutely. I perceive that people in these regionsacquire over people in towns the value that a spider in a dungeon doesover a spider in a cottage, to their various occupants; and yet thedeepened attraction is not entirely owing to the situation of thelooker-on. They _do_ live more in earnest, more in themselves, and lessin surface, change, and frivolous external things. I could fancy a lovefor life here almost possible; and I was a fixed unbeliever in any loveof a year's standing. One state resembles setting a hungry man down to asingle dish, on which he may concentrate his entire appetite and do itjustice; the other, introducing him to a table laid out by French cooks:he can perhaps extract as much enjoyment from the whole; but each partis a mere atom in his regard and remembrance.'

  'Oh! here we are the same as anywhere else, when you get to know us,'observed Mrs. Dean, somewhat puzzled at my speech.

  'Excuse me,' I responded; 'you, my good friend, are a striking evidenceagainst that assertion. Excepting a few provincialisms of slightconsequence, you have no marks of the manners which I am habituated toconsider as peculiar to your class. I am sure you have thought a greatdeal more than the generality of servants think. You have been compelledto cultivate your reflective faculties for want of occasions forfrittering your life away in silly trifles.'

  Mrs. Dean laughed.

  'I certainly esteem myself a steady, reasonable kind of body,' she said;'not exactly from living among the hills and seeing one set of faces, andone series of actions, from year's end to year's end; but I haveundergone sharp discipline, which has taught me wisdom; and then, I haveread more than you would fancy, Mr. Lockwood. You could not open a bookin this library that I have not looked into, and got something out ofalso: unless it be that range of Greek and Latin, and that of French; andthose I know one from another: it is as much as you can expect of a poorman's daughter. However, if I am to follow my story in true gossip'sfashion, I had better go on; and instead of leaping three years, I willbe content to pass to the next summer--the summer of 1778, that is nearlytwenty-three years ago.'