Part One

The First Catherine,
or the Seeds of Hate are Planted
(1771-1784)

Told by Mrs Ellen (Nelly) Dean, housekeeper at Thrushcross Grange, and formerly servant at Wuthering Heights

Chapter 7

Unwanted stranger

01 Wuthering Heights was built by the Earnshaws, about three hundred years ago, and till recently it remained the family home. Before I came to live here at the Grange, I was almost always at the Heights, because when I was a baby, my mother was nurse to Hindley Earnshaw, who was Hareton's father. As a little one I got used to playing with the children, Hindley and Catherine. I did little jobs, too, and helped make hay, and was ready at the farm for anything that anyone would set me to do.

02 One fine summer morning, Mr Earnshaw, the old master, came downstairs dressed for a journey. After he had told Joseph what was to be done during the day, he turned to his children and asked what he should bring them from the port of Liverpool. Only, he said, it must be something little, as he would walk there and back, which was sixty miles each way. Hindley asked for a fiddle, and Cathy chose a whip, as although she was hardly six years old, she could ride any horse in the stable. He then kissed his children goodbye and set out.

03 It seemed a long time to us all, the three days of his absence. Mrs Earnshaw expected him by supper time, on the third evening, and she postponed the meal, hour after hour, but there was no sign of his coming. It became dark, and she would have sent the children to bed, but they begged sadly to stay up.

04 Just about eleven o'clock, the door opened quietly and the master stepped in. He threw himself into a chair, laughing and groaning, and then he opened his big coat, which he held wrapped up in his arms.

05 'See here, wife! You must take this as a gift of God, though it's as dark as if it came from the devil.'

06 We crowded round, and over Catherine's head I had a view of a dirty, black-haired child in torn clothes, big enough both to walk and talk. Indeed, its face looked older than Catherine's. Yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared around and repeated some sounds that nobody could understand. I was frightened, and Mrs Earnshaw was ready to throw it out of doors.

07 The master had seen it dying of hunger, and homeless, and unable to speak any English, in the streets of Liverpool. No one knew to whom it belonged. He was determined not to leave it as he found it, so, his time and money being limited, he thought it better to take it home with him at once. I was told to wash it, and give it clean clothes, and let it sleep with the children.

08 Hindley and Cathy were content to look and listen, till they both began searching their father's pockets for the presents he had promised them. The former was a boy of fourteen, but when he drew out what had been a fiddle, broken to bits in the coat, he wept aloud; and Cathy, when she learnt that the master had lost her whip in looking after the stranger, showed her temper by spitting and making ugly faces at the little thing, and received a blow from her father to teach her cleaner manners. They entirely refused to have the child in bed with them, or even in their room, and so I put it outside on the stairs, hoping it might be gone in the morning. It crept to Mr Earnshaw's door, and there he found it. As a punishment for my unkindness, I was sent out of the house.

09 On coming back a few days later, I found they had called the child Heathcliff. It was the name of a son of the Earnshaws who had died in childhood, and has served him ever since, as both first and last name.

10 Miss Cathy and he were now very friendly, but Hindley hated him, and the mistress never said a word when she saw him badly treated. He seemed a patient, unsmiling child, accustomed, perhaps, to unkindness. He would suffer Hindley's blows without complaint. When Mr Earnshaw discovered his son hitting the poor, fatherless child, as he called him, he was furious. He became strangely fond of Heathcliff, making a pet of him far more than of Catherine, who was too self-willed and naughty to be a favourite.

11 So, from the beginning, Heathcliff caused bad feeling in the house, and by the time of Mrs Earnshaw's death two years later, the young master had learnt to think of his father as hard and unkind, and of Heathcliff as the thief of his father's affection.

12 I often wondered what my master saw to admire so much in the disagreeable boy, who never, as far as I can remember, showed any signs of being grateful for the fond treatment he received. He was simply without feeling towards his protector, though knowing very well the hold he had on his heart.

13 I remember Mr Earnshaw once bought a pair of horses for the boys. Heathcliff took the finer one, but it soon got something wrong with its foot. When he discovered this, he said to Hindley:

14 'You must exchange horses with me, or I'll tell your father of the three beatings you've given me this week.'

15 Hindley threatened him with an iron weight.

16 'Throw it,' said Heathcliff, 'and I'll tell how you boasted that you would turn me out of doors as soon as he died, and see whether he won't turn you out directly.'

17 Hindley threw it, hitting him on the breast, and causing him to fall down. He was up again at once, breathless and pale, and if I hadn't prevented it, he would have gone at once to the master and got full revenge.

18 'Take my horse, you beggarly gypsy,' said young Hindley, 'and I pray he may break your neck!'

19 Heathcliff had gone to take possession of the animal, when Hindley finished his speech by knocking his feet from under him. I was surprised to see how calmly the child picked himself up, and went on with what he was doing, exchanging saddles and all. I persuaded him to let me lay the blame for the marks left by Hindley's blows, on the horse, and he minded little what story was told, as he had got what he wanted.