Chapter 5

Strange behaviour of my host

01 Hasty footsteps approached my door. Somebody pushed it open with a violent hand, and a light appeared. I sat up shivering.

02 In a half-whisper, plainly not expecting an answer, a voice said:

03 'Is anyone here?'

04 I moved back the doors of my resting place. I shall not soon forget the effect that my action produced.

05 Heathcliff stood near the entrance, in his shirt and trousers, with a candle in his hand, and his face as white as the wall behind him. My first movement affected him like an electric shock. The light fell from his hand.

06 'It's only your guest, sir,' I called out. 'I had the misfortune to scream in my sleep, owing to a frightful dream.'

07 Heathcliff murmured a curse. He set the candle on a chair, finding it impossible to hold it steady.

08 'And who showed you up to this room?' he asked.

09 'It was your servant Zillah,' I replied. 'I suppose she wanted to get proof that the place was haunted. Well, it is! You have reason to shut it up.'

10 'What do you mean?' asked Heathcliff. 'Nothing could excuse the horrible noise you made, unless you were having your throat cut!'

11 'If that little ghost had got in at the window, she would probably have finished me!' I replied. 'As for Catherine Linton, or Earnshaw, or whatever she was called, she told me she had been walking the earth for these twenty years.'

12 I had scarcely spoken these words, when I remembered the joining of Heathcliff's name with Catherine in the writing in the book.

13 'What do you mean by talking in this way to me?' thundered Heathcliff. 'How dare you, under my roof?' And he struck his forehead with fury.

14 I began to dress. Heathcliff sat down on the bed. I guessed by his unsteady breathing that he was struggling against some powerful feeling.

15 'Mr Lockwood,' he said at last, 'you may go to my room. Your childish shouting has finished my chances of sleep for the night.'

16 'And mine too,' I replied. 'I'll walk in the yard till daylight, and then I'll be off.'

17 I left the room, and then, not knowing the way downstairs, turned back to ask, and saw, without intention, the strange behaviour of my host.

18 He had got on to the bed, and pulled open the window, bursting, as he did so, into a fit of uncontrollable weeping.

19 'Come in! Come in!' he cried. 'Cathy, do come! Oh, do, once more! Oh, my heart's dearest! Hear me this time, Catherine, at last!'

20 The spirit gave no sign of being, but the snow and wind blew wildly in.

21 There was such suffering in this wild speech that I began to pity him. I went quietly down to the back kitchen, where I found the remains of a fire. Only half warm, I stretched myself on a bench till morning, when I left as early as possible.

22 The air was clear, and cold as ice. Before I reached the bottom of the garden, my host came after me, and offered to go with me across the moor. It was well that he did, as the whole hillside was one white ocean of snow, and the path could nowhere be seen.

23 We exchanged little conversation, and parted company at the entrance to Thrushcross Park. After losing myself among the trees, and sinking up to my neck in snow, I reached the Grange some time later, to the relief of Mrs Dean, my housekeeper, who had believed me to have died on the moor.