Chapter 36 Chapter Thirty-Two

1802. —In September of this year I was invited by a friend in the North to travel over his country, and on my journey to his lodgings I came within fifteen miles of Gimmerton.The groom at an inn by the road was bringing a pail of water to drink for my horses, when a cart of very green oats just harvested passed by, and he said: "You come from Gimmerton, why! They always reap three weeks after others have." "Gimmerton?" It's like a dream. "Ah! I see. How far is it from here?" "It's about fourteen miles past the mountain, and the road is not easy," he replied.

A sudden urge to go to Thrushcross Grange came upon me, and it was not before noon, and I thought I might as well spend the night in my own room, which was the same as in an inn.Besides, I could conveniently set aside a day to deal with my landlord, thus saving myself another trip.After resting a little, I sent my servants to inquire the way into the wood, and so, wearying our animals with the long journey, we were there in about three hours. I left the servant there, and walked up the valley alone.The gray church was still grayer, and the lonely cemetery was still more lonely.I could see a marsh sheep nibbling the short grass over the grave.It was sweet, warm weather--too warm for travelling; but the heat did not prevent me from enjoying the delightful sights up and down: if I ever saw such a sight near August, I vouched It will tempt me to spend a month in this silence.Those valleys surrounded by mountains, and the steep and bare slopes of the prairies—there is nothing more desolate in winter, and nothing more wonderful in summer.

I arrived at the Grange before sunset, and knocked and waited to be admitted; but I could tell from the coil of thin blue smoke that curled up from the kitchen chimney that the family had moved to the back room, and they didn't hear me.I rode out to the yard.Down the corridor, a girl of nine or ten sat knitting, and an old woman leaned on the steps, smoking a pipe leisurely. "Is Mrs. Ding in there?" I asked the woman. "Mrs. Ding? No!" she answered. "She doesn't live here; she's gone to the hills." "Then you are the butler?" I said again.

"Yeah, I run the house," she replied. "Okay, I'm the master, Mr. Lockwood. I don't know if there is any room for me to live in? I want to stay overnight." "Master!" she exclaimed. "Hey, who knew you were coming? You should have sent a word. There's no clean place here, not now!" She dropped her pipe and hurried in; the girl followed, and I too.It was immediately seen that her report was true, and besides, my unwelcome presence had nearly knocked her out, and I ordered her to be calm.I would like to go out for a walk; meanwhile she has to clear a corner of the sitting room for me to eat.Clear out a bedroom to sleep in.No sweeping and dusting, just a good fire and dry sheets.She seemed willing to try, though she poked the broom into the grate for pokers, and misused several of her other utensils, but I walked away, trusting her to do her best to prepare a resting place wait me back.Wuthering Heights is my planned travel destination.I just left the yard, but another thought brought me back.

"How are the people in the villa?" I asked the woman. "Whatever I know is good!" she replied, and left with a basin of hot cinders. I wanted to ask Mrs. Dean why she had abandoned the Grange, but it was impossible to delay her at such a critical moment, so I turned and went for a leisurely walk, with the setting sun behind and the rising sun ahead. By the pale radiance of the bright moon—one fading, the other growing brighter—I left the park, and climbed the stone side road to Heathcliff's dwelling.Before I could see there, there was only a dull amber glow of day to the west; but I could still see every pebble and blade of grass in the path by the bright moon.I didn't climb up from outside the gate, nor did I knock on the door, the door opened smoothly.I think it's an improvement.My nostrils helped me discover another thing, and there was in the air a scent of violets and vanilla from those kindly fruit trees.

The doors and windows were open; but, as is often the case in coal-countries, the hearth was brightly lit by a good, glowing fire: the comfort of this glance made the excess heat I can bear it.But the house at Wuthering Heights was so large that the occupants had plenty of room to escape the heat; therefore all the occupants were not far from a window.Before I came in, I could see them and hear them talk, and I watched and listened.It was driven by a mixed feeling of curiosity and jealousy that grew while I lingered there. "On the contrary!" said a voice as sweet as a silver bell. "It's the third time, you fool! I won't tell you any more. Remember, or I'll pull your hair out!"

"Well, on the contrary," replied the other, in a deep, soft tone. "Now, kiss me because I remember it so well." "No, read it correctly first, and make no mistakes." The brave man who spoke began to read.He was a young man, well dressed, sitting at a table with a book in front of him.His handsome face was radiant with pleasure, and his eyes were always restless from the page to the small white hand on his shoulder, but if the man caught him in this inattentive way, he would be very happy. Let this hand pat him sensitively on the face.The one with the small hands stood behind; her light, shining curls sometimes mingled with his brown hair as she bent over to instruct him; Never so secure.I could see it; I bit my lip resentfully, for I had lost a promising opportunity, and now I had to stare dumbfounded at the bewitching beauty.

The lesson was over—the student didn't make another big mistake, but the student asked for a reward, got at least five kisses, and he returned it generously.Then they came to the door, and I judged from their conversation that they were going out for a walk in the moor.I suppose Hareton Earnshaw would keep his mouth shut, and curse me to the eighteenth hell, if my unfortunate man should come near him.I felt that I was very inferior and ominous, so I secretly wanted to go to the kitchen to hide.There was no hindrance, too, and my old friend Nelly Dean sat in the doorway, sewing and singing.Her singing was often disturbed by sneers and uncouth vulgarities, and it was very out of tune with the music.

"For God's sake, I'd rather hear cursing in my ears all morning and night than hear you yelling!" said the man in the kitchen, in answer to Nelly's inaudible words. "It's a public disgrace that I can't open the holy book, but you give glory to Satan, and all the evil that the world produces! Oh, now you're a loser, and she's another, poor child to give You two are confused. Poor boy!" he added, adding a groan, "he's bewitched, I'm sure he is. O Lord, judge them, for we rulers have no law , and there is no justice!" "No! I think, or we shall sit and be burned at the stake," retorted the singer, "but stop arguing, old man, and read your Bible like a Christian, and never mind me. This is, Anne. Fairy weddings, -- a merry tune --

Available while dancing. " Mrs. Dean was about to sing again when I came forward; she recognized me at once, and jumped up, crying--"Well, God bless you, Mr. Lockwood! How can you think of coming back like this?" Is it? Everything at Thrushcross Grange is packed up. You should have let us know!" "I've arranged to stay there for a while for me," I replied. "I'm leaving again tomorrow. How did you move here, Mrs. Ding? Tell me." "Soon after you went to London, Zira quit, and Mr. Heathcliff wanted me to stay here till you came back. But come in, please! Did you come from Gimmerton this evening?"

"From the Grange," I answered, "while they're clearing up my lodgings, I'll finish my business with your master, for I don't think there'll be another chance of sneaking in." "What is it, sir?" said Nelly, leading me into the hall. "He's out now. Won't be back anytime soon." "About the rent." I replied. "Oh, then you must go to Mrs. Heathcliff," said she, "or you might as well tell me. She hasn't learned to manage her affairs, and I'll do it for her, and no one else." I showed a look of surprise. "Oh, I suppose you haven't heard of Heathcliff's death," she went on. "Heathcliff is dead!" I cried, startled. "How long?" "Three months, but sit down and give me my hat, and I'll tell you all this. Wait a minute, you haven't eaten anything yet, have you? " "I don't want anything; I've told the house to prepare supper. Sit down too. I never thought of his death! Let me hear what's going on. You say they won't be back—meaning the two a young man?" "Won't come back--I've got to scold them every night for walking in the middle of the night. But they don't care. At least you'll have a drink of our old old pub; It will do you good; you look tired. " Before I had time to refuse, she hurried to get it.I heard Joseph asking: "Isn't it a scandal at her age to be pursued? And, besides, take wine out of the master's cellar! He's still watching and standing still, and he should be ashamed." Without pausing to reply, she came in again at once, carrying a large silver cup, which I praised with considerable zeal.She has since furnished me with a continuation of the history of Heathcliff.As she explained, he had a "weird" ending. I was summoned to Wuthering Heights within a fortnight after you left us, she said, and for Catherine's sake I gladly obeyed.Seeing her for the first time made me sad and shocked.She's become so much since we parted. Mr. Heathcliff did not explain why he had changed his mind and wanted me to come here; he only told me that he wanted me to come, and that he would not see Catherine again: I must make the little parlour my sitting-room, and Let her stay with me.If he had to see her once or twice a day, that would be enough.She seemed pleased with the arrangement; step by step I smuggled in a great pile of books, and other things she liked to play with at the Grange;This delusion did not last long.Catherine, contented at first, soon becomes irritable and restless.One thing was that she was forbidden to go out of the garden, and that when spring came she was shut up in confines, which irritated her very much; And she complained of loneliness, that she would rather quarrel with Joseph in the kitchen than sit quietly by herself.I did not mind their quarrels: but Hareton was often obliged to go to the kitchen when the master wanted to be alone in the hall!Although at first either she left when he came, or she quietly helped me and never spoke or greeted him—although he was always as silent as possible—she changed her attitude after a while. Behaving, becoming incapable of keeping him quiet; talking about him; criticizing his stupidity and indolence: expressing her wonder at how he could bear the life he led—how he could sit and stare at the fire all night , dozing off. "He's like a dog, isn't he, Ellen?" she said once, "or a harness horse! He does his work, eats his food, and sleeps, always! His How empty the mind must be! Have you never dreamed, Hareton? If you have, what? But you won't talk to me." Then she looked at him, but he neither spoke nor looked at her again. "Maybe he's dreaming now," she continued. "He twists his shoulders like the goddess Yono twists hers. Ask him, Ellen." ①Juno——Juno, the queen of heaven in Roman mythology, the goddess of marriage and childbirth. "Mr. Hareton's going to ask the master to call you upstairs if you don't behave yourself!" said I.He not only twisted his shoulders, but also clenched his fists, with the potential to use force. "I know why Hareton never talks when I'm in the kitchen," she cried again. "He's afraid I'll laugh at him. Ellen, don't you think so? He taught himself to read once, and I laughed, and he burned the book and went away. Isn't he a fool?" "Are you naughty then?" I said, "answer me that." "Perhaps I am," she went on, "but I didn't expect him to be so dull. If I offered you a book, Hareton, would you take it now? I'll try!" She put a book she was reading in his hand.He shook off, grunting that if she persisted he would break her neck. "Well, I'll put it here," she said, "in a drawer, and I'm going to bed." Then she whispered to me to watch him move it and walked away.But he wouldn't come near; so I told her next day, to her great disappointment.I could see that she was suffering from his obstinate depression and lethargy; her conscience rebuked her for scaring him into giving up changing himself: it worked for her. But her ingenuity was already trying to heal the wound, and she brought some pretty interesting books and read aloud to me while I was consolidating my clothes, or doing some other regular work that couldn't be done in the little parlour.When Hareton was there, she used to stop at an interesting point, and leave the book open: she did this repeatedly; but he was as stubborn as a mule; He smoked with Joseph when it was rainy; they sat like automatons, each sitting by the fire, luckily the older one was deaf and couldn't understand what he called her nonsense, and the younger said he wouldn't. .When the latter went hunting in evenings when the weather was fine, Catherine yawned and sighed to make me talk to her, and as soon as I began, she ran out into the yard or garden again; and, as a last diversion, Weeping, saying she was tired of life—her life was wasted. Mr. Heathcliff, growing less and less company-friendly, had nearly driven Earnshaw out of his room.Owing to an accident in early March, Earnshaw was obliged to remain in the kitchen for some days.While he was alone on the hill, his gun went off; the splinter wounded his arm, and he bled a lot before he could get home.As a result, he was forced to convalesce by the fire until he recovered.Catherine found him quite fitting in his presence: at any rate, it made her hate her upstairs room even more, and she forced me to find employment downstairs to keep me company. On Easter Monday Joseph went to Gimmerton Market with some cattle and sheep.In the afternoon I was busy making the sheets in the kitchen.Earnshaw sat in the corner by the fire, gloomy as ever, while my little mistress amused the hours by drawing pictures on the panes, sometimes humming a few songs, sometimes calling out under her breath, or smoking and staring at her. Cousin cast annoyed and impatient glances at the grate.When I told her to keep my lights off, she moved away to the fire.I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing, but after a while, I heard her start talking: "I find that, if you were not so fretful and rough with me, Hareton, I would--I like it--I would now like you to be my cousin." Hareton ignored her. "Hareton, Hareton, Hareton! Do you hear that?" she went on. "Fuck you!" he growled with uncompromising brusqueness. "Let me take that pipe away," she said, reaching out her hand carefully, and drawing it from his mouth. Before he could get it back, the pipe was broken and thrown into the fire.Cursing at her, he grabbed another. "Stop," she cried, "you must listen to me first; I can't speak while the smoke is blowing in my face." "Damn you!" he yelled fiercely. "Don't mess with me!" "No," she persisted, "I don't: I don't know how to get you to talk to me, and you're determined not to understand me. I didn't mean anything when I said you were stupid, I mean no disrespect to you. Come on, you must treat me, Hareton, you are my cousin, and you must admit me." "I have nothing to do with you and your airs and your tricks!" he answered. "I would rather go to hell with my body and soul than look at you again. Get out of the door, now, right now!" Catherine frowned, retreated to the window seat, bit her lip, and tried to hum a strange tune to conceal her growing tendency to cry. "You should make up with your cousin, Mr. Hareton," I interposed, "since she has repented her insolence. It will do you much good, and her company will make you another Human." "Companion?" he cried, "to be with her when she hates me and thinks I'm not worthy to shine her shoes! No, even if I become emperor, I won't be laughed at for seeking her favour. .” "It's not that I hate you, it's that you hate me!" Katie cried, unable to hide her distress any longer. "You hate me as much as Mr. Heathcliff, and worse." "You're a damned liar," began Earnshaw, "and why, then, a hundred times did he get angry because I turned to you? And, while you laughed at me and looked down on me,— — keep bullying me, I'm going over there and say you kicked me out of the kitchen" "I didn't know you were on me," she answered, drying her eyes, "I was sad then, and angry with everybody; but now I thank you, and please forgive me: what else could I do Woolen cloth?" She went back to the fire and frankly held out her hand.His face was gloomy and angry like a cloud of thunder and lightning. He clenched his fists resolutely and stared at the ground. Instinctively, Catherine must have expected obstinate obstinacy, not distaste, to prompt it; and after a moment's hesitation, she bent down and kissed him lightly on the cheek.The little rascal thought I hadn't seen her, so he stepped back and sat in his old seat by the window, pretending to be extremely dignified.I shook my head disapprovingly, so she blushed and whispered—— "Well! what shall I do, Ellen? He won't shake hands, and he won't look at me: I must somehow show him that I like him—I want to be his friend." I wonder if it was this kiss that moved Hareton, for for some minutes he was careful not to have his face seen, and when he raised it he was looking in a dazed direction. Catherine was busily wrapping a handsome book neatly in white paper, and tying it with a ribbon, addressed to "Mr. Hareton Earnshaw," and she asked me to be her emissary to deliver the present to to designated recipients. "Tell him that if he accepts it, I'll teach him to read it right," she said, "and if he refuses it, I'll go upstairs and never mess with him again." I took it, and my master watched me eagerly.I repeated my words, and Hareton would not let go of my fingers, so I laid the book on his lap.He doesn't knock it off either.I went back to my business.Catherine, leaning over the table with her head in her arms, waited till she heard the rustle of the papers being torn; then she stole over and sat down quietly beside her cousin.He trembled and blushed; all his insolence and all his obstinate brutality forsook him.At first he couldn't muster up the courage to utter a single word to answer her questioning expression and her murmured plea. "Say you forgive me, Hareton, go ahead. You only have to say that one word to make me happy." He murmured, unable to hear what he said. "Would you like to be my friend?" Catherine asked again. "No, you'll be ashamed of me every day from now on," he answered, "the better you know me the more you'll be ashamed; I can't stand it." "Won't you be my friend, then?" she said, smiling as sweet as honey, and coming closer. What was said further on, I could not hear, but, looking up again, I saw two faces so radiant over the accepted book, that I was convinced that the treaty was agreed; the enemy never We have become allies from now on. The book they were studying was full of precious illustrations, and the pictures and their positions were so magical that they sat still until Joseph came home.He, the poor fellow, was utterly aghast at the sight of Catherine and Hareton sitting on the same bench, with her hand on his shoulder.He could scarcely understand how his beloved Hareton could bear her approach: it was so irritating to him that he could not say a word about it that night.It wasn't until he solemnly opened the Bible on the table, took out the dirty banknotes from a day's business from his pocket and spread them on the Bible, and he sighed deeply, that he gave away his emotion.At last he called Hareton from his chair. "Take this to the master, boy," said he, "and stay there. I'm going to my own room. This room doesn't quite suit us; we can slip out and find another place." "Come on, Catherine," I said, "we've got to 'sneak out' too. I'm done ironing, are you going?" "It's not even eight o'clock!" she answered, rising reluctantly. "Hareton, I've put this book on the hob, and I'll get some more to-morrow." "Whatever book you leave behind, I'll take it to the Great Hall," said Joseph, "and it'll be a wonder if you find it again; so do as you please!" Kitty threatened him to pay hers for his library; and she went upstairs, smiling and singing, as she passed Hareton.Never, I dare say, had she been at such ease since she came to the house; or except during her first visits to Linton. This is how the intimate relationship began to develop rapidly; although it also encountered temporary interruptions.Earnshaw was not made gentle by a wish, and my lady was not a philosopher, nor a model of patience; but their hearts were all directed toward the same end—the one loved, and wanted to respect the other, the other It's about loving and wanting to be respected—they all try their best to achieve this in the end. You see, Mr. Lockwood, it is very easy to win Mrs. Heathcliff's heart.But now, I'm glad you haven't tried.The highest of all my wishes is the union of these two.On their wedding day I shall envy no one; there shall not be a happier woman in England than I am.