Chapter 6

Who are these people?

01 By this time I was half frozen. I dragged myself upstairs, put on dry clothes, and sat in my sitting room, almost too weak to enjoy the cheerful fire and the hot coffee that the servant had prepared for my refreshment.

02 I had chosen this place, I remembered, for its loneliness. Yet how little we human beings know our own minds! Did I really want to live here?

03 By evening, I was already tired of my own company. I requested Mrs Dean, when she brought the supper, to sit down while I ate.

04 'You have lived here for some time,' I began.

05 'Eighteen years, sir. I came when the mistress was married, to wait on her. After she died, the master kept me as his housekeeper.'

06 'I'll turn the talk on my landlord's family,' I thought, 'and that pretty girl-widow—I should like to know her history.'

07 With this intention, I asked why Heathcliff let Thrushcross Grange, and preferred to live in a place so much less grand.

08 'Isn't he rich enough to keep the property in good order?' I inquired.

09 'Rich, sir!' she replied. 'Yes, he's rich enough to live in a finer house than this. But he's very careful with his money.'

10 'He had a son, it seems?'

11 'Yes, he had one. He is dead.'

12 'And the young lady, Mrs Heathcliff, his son's widow—where did she come from, in the first place?'

13 'Why, sir, she is my late master's daughter. Catherine Linton was her name before she married. I was her nurse, poor thing!'

14 'What! Catherine Linton!' I exclaimed. But a moment's thought told me that it was not my ghostly Catherine. 'And who is that Earnshaw, Hareton Earnshaw, who lives with Mr Heathcliff? Are they relations?'

15 'No. He is the late Mrs Linton's nephew, and the young lady's cousin. Hareton is the last of the Earnshaws, a very old family who owned Wuthering Heights, and Catherine is the only one left of the Lintons, whose family house was Thrushcross Grange. Have you been to the Heights, sir? I should like to hear how she is.'

16 'Mrs Heathcliff? She looked very well, and very pretty, but not, I think, very happy.'

17 'Oh, well, I'm not surprised. And how did you like the master?'

18 'A rough fellow, Mrs Dean. Do you know anything of his history?'

19 'Everything, sir, except where he was born, and who his parents were, and how he got his money at first. And Hareton has lost his rights! The unfortunate boy does not guess how he has been cheated of his property!'

20 'Well, Mrs Dean, I shall not rest if I go to bed. Be so good as to stay and tell me something about my neighbours.'

21 'Oh, certainly, sir! I'll just fetch a little sewing, and then I'll sit as long as you please.'

22 She hurried off, and I drew nearer the fire. My head felt hot, and the rest of me felt cold. I was excited by the events of the last two days, and I began to fear that the effect on my health might be serious.

23 My fears proved to be true. The next weeks were spent in bed, and during my illness Mrs Dean often came to sit and keep me company.

24 While she was doing so, she told me, little by little, the story that follows.