Chapter 13

Nelly is not wanted

01 'I've not come too soon, have I?' said Edgar, giving me a look.

02 'No,' answered Catherine. 'What are you doing here, Nelly?'

03 'My work, Miss,' I replied. Mr Hindley had given me orders to be present at any private visits young Linton chose to pay.

04 She stepped up behind me and whispered:

05 'Take yourself and your work off!'

06 'It's a good opportunity, now that the master is away,' I answered aloud. 'He hates me to do this tidying when he is in the room. I'm sure Mr Edgar will excuse me.'

07 She, supposing that Edgar could not see her, pulled the cloth from my hand, and pinched me very sharply on the arm. She hurt me extremely, and besides, I enjoyed punishing her pride, so I got up from my knees and screamed out:

08 'Oh, Miss, that's a nasty trick! You've no right to pinch me.'

09 'I didn't touch you, you lying thing!' she exclaimed, her fingers ready to repeat the act, and her ears red with fury.

10 'What's this, then?' I replied, showing the marks on my arm.

11 She struck the ground with her foot; then, driven by the naughty spirit within her, hit me on the cheek, a blow that filled both eyes with water.

12 'Catherine! Catherine!' exclaimed Edgar, deeply upset by the double fault of lying and violence.

13 Little Hareton, who followed me everywhere, and was sitting near me on the floor, began crying himself and talking of 'wicked Aunt Cathy', which turned her fury against him. She seized his shoulders and shook him till the child became pale, and Edgar, without thinking, took hold of her hands to deliver him. In an instant one hand was pulled free, and the astonished young man felt it on his own ear in a way that could not be mistaken for a joke.

14 The insulted visitor moved to the place where he had put down his hat, pale and with a trembling lip.

15 'Where are you going?' demanded Catherine, advancing to the door.

16 'Can I stay after you have struck me?' asked Edgar.

17 Catherine was silent.

18 'You've made me afraid and ashamed of you,' he continued. 'I'll not come here again.'

19 Catherine's tears began to fall.

20 'And you told an untruth,' he said.

21 'Well, go, if you please! Get away! And now I'll cry—I'll cry till I'm sick!'

22 She dropped down on her knees by a chair.

23 Edgar kept his determination as far as the yard, and then he looked back through the window. He possessed the power to go away as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half-killed, or a bird half-eaten. He turned and hastened into the house again, and shut the door behind him.

24 When I went in later to inform them that Earnshaw had come home furiously drunk, I saw that the quarrel had merely brought them closer, and assisted them to put off the appearance of friendship, and confess themselves lovers.