Wuthering Bites (31 page)

‘Get off wi' ye!' he growled, with uncompromising gruffness.

‘Let me take that pipe,' she said, cautiously advancing her hand, and abstracting it from his mouth.

Before he could attempt to recover it, it was broken, and behind the fire. He swore at her and seized another.

‘Stop,' she cried. ‘You must listen to me, and I can't speak while those clouds are floating in my face.'

‘Will you go to the devil!' he exclaimed ferociously, ‘and let me be!'

‘No,' she persisted, ‘I won't. When I call you stupid, I don't mean anything. I don't mean that I despise you. Come, you are my cousin, and we should be friends.'

‘I shall have naught to do wi' you and your mucky pride and damned, mocking tricks!' he answered. ‘I'll go to hell, body and soul, before I look sideways at you again!'

Catherine frowned, and retreated to the window-seat, chewing her lip, and endeavoring, by humming an eccentric tune, to conceal a growing tendency to sob.

‘You should be friends with your cousin, Mr. Hareton,' I interrupted, ‘since she repents of her sauciness! It would do you a grand deal of good to have her for a companion.'

‘A companion?' he cried. ‘When she hates me, and does not think me fit to wipe her shoes! Nay, if it made me a king, I'd not be scorned for seeking her goodwill anymore.'

‘It is not I who hate you, it is you who hate me!' wept Cathy, no longer disguising her tears. ‘You hate me as much as Mr. Heathcliff does, and more.'

‘You're a damned liar,' began Hareton Earnshaw. ‘Why have I made him angry by taking your part then, a hundred times?'

‘I didn't know you took my part,' she answered, drying her eyes. ‘And I was miserable and bitter at everybody, but now I thank you, and beg you to forgive me.' She returned to the hearth, and frankly extended her hand.

He blackened, and scowled like a thunder-cloud, and kept his fists resolutely clenched, and his gaze fixed on the ground.

Catherine then impressed on his cheek a gentle kiss. The little rogue thought I had not seen her, and, drawing back, she took her former station by the window, quite demurely.

I shook my head reprovingly and then she blushed, and whispered, ‘Well! What should I have done, Nelly? He wouldn't shake hands, and he wouldn't look. I must show him some way that I like him, that I truly want to be friends.'

Whether the kiss convinced Hareton, I cannot tell. He was very careful for some minutes, that his face should not be seen, and when he did raise it, he was sadly puzzled where to turn his eyes.

Catherine employed herself in wrapping a book called
Vampire Warfare in the New Century
neatly in white paper, and having tied it with a bit of ribbon and addressed it to ‘Mr. Hareton Earnshaw,' she asked me to convey the present to its destined recipient. ‘Tell him, if he'll take it, I'll come and teach him to read it well,' she said. ‘And if he refuses it, I'll go upstairs, and never tease him again.'

I carried it, and repeated the message, and was anxiously watched by my employer. Hareton would not open his fingers, so I laid it on his knee. He did not strike it off. I returned to my work. Catherine leaned her head and arms on the table, till she heard the slight rustle of the covering being removed, then she stole away and quietly seated herself beside her cousin. He trembled, and his face glowed; all his rudeness and all his surly harshness had deserted him. He could not summon courage, at first, to utter a syllable in reply to her questioning look and her murmured petition.

‘Say you forgive me, Hareton, do! You can make me so happy, by speaking that little word. And you'll be my friend?' added Catherine, interrogatively.

‘Nay! You'll be ashamed of me every day of your life,' he answered.

‘So, you won't be my friend?' she said, smiling as sweet as honey, and creeping close up.

I overheard no further distinguishable talk, but on looking round again, I perceived two such radiant countenances bent over the page of the book, that I did not doubt the treaty had been ratified, on both sides, and the enemies were, thenceforth, sworn allies.

The work they studied was full of costly pictures and those, and their position, had charm enough to keep them unmoved that day. The intimacy thus commenced, grew rapidly, though it encountered temporary interruptions. Earnshaw was not to be civilized with a wish, and my young lady was no philosopher, and no paragon of patience. But both their minds tending to the same point—one loving and desiring to esteem, and the other loving and desiring to be esteemed—they contrived in the end to reach it.

You see, Mr. Lockwood, it was easy enough to win Mrs. Heathcliff's heart. But now, I'm glad you did not try. The crown of all my wishes will be the union of those two. I shall envy no one on their wedding day. There won't be a happier woman than myself in England!

T
he next day, my charge got downstairs before me, and out into the garden where she had seen her cousin performing some work. When I went to bid them come to breakfast, I saw she had persuaded him to clear a large space of ground from currant and gooseberry bushes, and they were busy planning together an importation of plants from the Grange.

I was terrified at the devastation which had been accomplished in a brief half-hour. The black currant trees were the apple of Joseph's eye, and she had just fixed her choice of a flower bed in the midst of them!

‘There! That will be all shown to the master,' I exclaimed, ‘the minute it is discovered. And what excuse have you to offer for taking such liberties with the garden? We shall have a fine explosion on the head of it. See if we don't! Mr. Hareton, I wonder you should have no more wit, than to go and make that mess at her bidding!'

‘I'd forgotten they were Joseph's,' answered Earnshaw, rather puzzled. ‘But I'll tell him I did it. He'll take no revenge. I think he likes me since I ran off the beasties, telling them they could no longer partake of him whenever they please.'

I had been well surprised when that exchange had taken place a few weeks before. Surprised the bloodsuckers feared Hareton Earnshaw enough to obey, for he was not friendly with them as Mr. Heathcliff had once been. Surprised we heard nothing of it from Mr. Heathcliff. But I, for one, was glad it did not become an event in our lives, though I suppose it was a remarkable one for Joseph.

At that time, it was still Mr. Heathcliff's routine that he would dine with us, though he never ate or drank a morsel. Catherine usually sat by me, but today she stole nearer to Hareton, and I presently saw she would have no more discretion in her friendship than she had in her hostility.

‘Now, mind you don't talk with and notice your cousin too much,' were my whispered instructions as we entered the room. ‘It will certainly annoy Mr. Heathcliff, and he'll be mad at you both.'

‘I'm not going to,' she answered.

The minute after, she had sidled to Earnshaw, and was sticking primroses in his plate of porridge.

He dared not speak to her, there. He dared hardly look, and yet she went on teasing till he was twice on the point of being provoked to laugh. I frowned as she glanced toward the master, whose mind was occupied on other subjects, and she then re-commenced her nonsense. At last, Hareton uttered a smothered laugh.

Mr. Heathcliff started; his eye rapidly surveyed our faces. Catherine met it with her accustomed look of nervousness, and yet defiance, which he abhorred.

‘It is well you are out of my reach,' he exclaimed. ‘What fiend possesses you to stare back at me continually with those infernal eyes? Down with them! And don't remind me of your existence again. I thought I had cured you of laughing!'

‘It was me,' muttered Hareton.

‘What did you say?' demanded the master.

Hareton looked at his plate, and did not repeat the confession.

Mr. Heathcliff looked at him a bit, and then his gaze strayed to the window. He immediately spotted the alterations in the garden. ‘What is this?' he demanded, rising to get a closer look.

‘I've pulled up two or three bushes,' replied the young man.

‘And why have you pulled them up?' said the master.

Catherine, of course because it is in her nature, had to put in her tongue. ‘We wanted to plant some flowers there,' she cried. ‘I'm the only person to blame, for I wished him to do it.'

‘And who the devil gave
you
leave to touch a stick about the place?' demanded her father-in-law, much surprised. ‘And who ordered you to obey her?' he added, turning to Hareton.

The latter was speechless. His cousin replied, ‘You shouldn't grudge a few yards of earth for me to ornament, when you have taken all my land!'

‘Your land, insolent slut? You never had any!' said Heathcliff.

‘And my money,' she continued, returning his angry glare and, meantime, biting a piece of crust, the remnant of her breakfast. ‘You robbed me of all.'

‘Silence!' he exclaimed. ‘Get done, and begone!'

‘And Hareton's land, and his money,' pursued the reckless thing. ‘Hareton and I are friends now, and I shall tell him all about you!'

The master seemed confounded a moment. He grew pale, eyeing her all the while, with an expression of mortal hate.

‘If you strike me, Hareton will strike you!' she said. ‘So you may as well sit down.'

‘If Hareton does not turn you out of the room, I'll strike him to hell,' thundered Heathcliff. ‘Damnable witch! Dare you pretend to rouse him against me? Off with her! Do you hear? Fling her into the kitchen! I'll kill her, Nelly Dean, if you let her come into my sight again!'

Hareton tried under his breath to persuade her to go.

‘Drag her away!' he cried savagely. ‘Are you staying to talk?' And he approached to execute his own command.

‘He'll not obey you, wicked man, anymore!' said Catherine. ‘And he'll soon detest you, as much as I do!'

‘Wisht! Wisht!' muttered the young man reproachfully. ‘I will not hear you speak so to him.'

‘But you won't let him strike me?' she cried.

‘Come then!' he whispered earnestly.

It was too late. Heathcliff had caught hold of her.

‘Now
you
go!' he said to Earnshaw. ‘Accursed witch! This time she has provoked me when I could not bear it, and I'll make her repent it forever!'

He had his hand in her hair. Hareton attempted to release the locks, entreating him not to hurt her. His black eyes flashed; he seemed ready to tear Catherine in pieces, and I was just worked up to risk coming to the rescue, when of a sudden, his fingers relaxed, he shifted his grasp from her head to her arm, and gazed intently in her face. Then he drew his hand over his eyes, stood a moment to collect himself, apparently, and turning anew to Catherine, said with assumed calmness, ‘You must learn to avoid putting me in a passion, or I shall really murder you sometime! You don't know what I'm capable of—what I might do to you. Go with Mrs. Dean, and keep with her, and confine your insolence to her ears. Nelly, take her, and leave me, all of you! Leave me!'

I led my young lady out, and she was too glad of her escape. The other followed, and Mr. Heathcliff had the room to himself, till dinner.

I had counseled Catherine to get herself upstairs, but as soon as Heathcliff saw her vacant seat, he sent me to call her. He spoke to none of us and went out before we had finished our meal, saying that he should not return before evening.

The two new friends established themselves in the house, busy in their several occupations, of pupil and teacher. I came in to sit with them, after I had done my work, and felt soothed and comforted to watch them. You know, they both appeared in a measure my children. I had long been proud of one, and now, I was sure, the other would be a source of equal satisfaction. His honest, warm, and intelligent nature shook off rapidly the clouds of ignorance and degradation in which it had been bred, and Catherine's sincere commendations acted as a spur to his industry. His brightening mind brightened his features, and added spirit and nobility to their aspect. I could hardly fancy it the same individual I had beheld on the day I discovered my little lady at Wuthering Heights, after her expedition to the Crags.

While I admired, and they labored, dusk drew on, and with it returned the master. He came upon us quite unexpectedly, entering by the front way, and had a full view of the whole three, ere we could raise our heads to glance at him.
Well,
I reflected,
there was never a pleasanter or more harmless sight, and it will be a burning shame to scold them.
The red firelight glowed on their two bonny heads, and revealed their faces, animated with the eager interest of children. Though he was twenty-three, and she eighteen, each had so much of novelty to feel and learn that neither experienced nor evinced the sentiments of sober disenchanted maturity.

They lifted their eyes together, to encounter Mr. Heathcliff. Perhaps you have never noticed that their eyes are precisely similar, and they are those of Catherine Earnshaw. The present Catherine has no other likeness to her, except a breadth of forehead, and a certain arch of the nostril that makes her appear rather haughty, whether she is or not. With Hareton the resemblance is carried further.

I suppose this resemblance disarmed Mr. Heathcliff. He walked to the hearth in evident agitation, but it quickly subsided as he looked at the young man. He took the book from his hand, and glanced at the open page, then returned it without any observation. Shortly, Catherine and Earnshaw slipped out and I was about to depart also, but he bid me sit still.

‘It is a poor conclusion, is it not,' Heathcliff observed, having brooded awhile on the scene he had just witnessed. ‘An absurd termination to my violent exertions? I get levers and mattocks to demolish the two houses, and train myself to be capable of working like Hercules, and when everything is ready, and in my power, I find the will to lift a slate off either roof has vanished! My old enemies have not beaten me. Now would be the precise time to revenge myself on their representatives. I could do it, and none could hinder me. But where is the use? I don't care for striking. I can't take the trouble to raise my hand! That sounds as if I had been laboring the whole time only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity. It is far from being the case—I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing.

‘Nelly, there is a strange change approaching, and I'm in its shadow. I take so little interest in my daily life that I barely feel present any longer. Those two, who have left the room, are the only objects that retain a distinct material appearance to me, and that appearance causes me pain, amounting to agony. About
her
I won't speak and I don't desire to think, but I earnestly wish she were invisible. Her presence invokes only maddening sensations.
He
moves me differently, and yet if I could do it without seeming insane, I'd never see him again!

‘Five minutes ago, Hareton seemed a personification of my youth, not a human being. I felt to him in such a variety of ways, that it would have been impossible to have accosted him rationally.

‘In the first place, his startling likeness to Catherine connected him fearfully with her. And what does not recall her? I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped on the flags! In every cloud, in every tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object, by day I am surrounded with her image! The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!

‘I cannot live as I am, Nelly. Born half one and half another.'

‘You mean part slayer, part vampire,' I dared to say, for though I wished to keep my full allowance of blood, I could not help but be curious. After all, I had practically raised him.

He eyed me and for a moment I feared I had pushed too far and
was
about to meet my Maker, but he looked away.

‘You cannot imagine, Nelly, the torment I suffered when the dark side of me began to emerge. For years, I wanted nothing but to see their black blood spilled, but as I grew older, as I transformed, I found myself caught between hatred and pity for the beasties. With her at my side, perhaps I could have come to find balance in my existence, but it is not possible. Not without her, and so the time has come for a change.'

‘But what do you mean by a
change,
Mr. Heathcliff?' I said, alarmed at his manner, though he was neither in danger of losing his sense, nor dying. According to my judgment he was quite strong and healthy; and, as to his reason, from childhood he had a delight in dwelling on dark things and entertaining odd fancies. ‘You have no feeling of illness, have you?' I asked.

‘No, Nelly, I have not,' he answered. ‘And I greatly doubt that I ever shall suffer such weakness of body.'

‘Then you are not afraid of death?' I pursued.

‘I wish for death, if it is even possible. I cannot continue in this condition, torn between mortal flesh and something more terrible! You cannot know—cannot imagine the torture I suffer with each passing hour…each day…cannot imagine the torments that devour my soul. I have a single wish, and my whole being and faculties are yearning to attain it. They have yearned toward it so long, and so unwaveringly, that I'm convinced it
will
be reached—and
soon
—because it has devoured my existence. I am swallowed in the anticipation of its fulfillment.'

‘What are you going to do?' I asked.

‘I will not say, except to tell you that my time has nearly come. I'm weary and I can bear the agony no longer. Her time has nearly come. I only pray I will succeed.'

He began to pace the room, muttering terrible things to himself, till I was inclined to believe that conscience had turned his heart to an earthly hell, and I wondered greatly how it would all end.