Chapter 16

The return

01 Much against my wish, I was persuaded to leave Wuthering Heights and go with Cathy to her new home. Little Hareton was nearly five years old, and I had just begun to teach him his letters. We made a sad parting.

02 When she was at Thrushcross Grange, Catherine behaved much better than I had dared to expect. She seemed almost too fond of Edgar, and even to his sister she showed plenty of affection. I noticed that Mr Edgar had a deep-rooted fear of causing her the least displeasure. In order not to cause grief to a kind master, I learnt to be more careful with my tongue and for the space of half a year the gunpowder lay harmless as sand, because no fire came near to explode it. Catherine had days of low spirits and silence now and then, which her husband respected as the result of her former illness, but I believe they were really in possession of deep and growing happiness.

03 It ended.

04 On a golden evening in September I was coming from the garden with a basket of apples that I had been gathering. It was half dark, and the moon looked over the high wall of the yard, making strange shadows in the corners of the building.

05 My eyes were on the moon, when I heard a voice behind me say:

06 'Nelly, is that you?'

07 It was a deep voice, and foreign in sound, yet something in the manner of pronouncing my name made it familiar. Somebody moved near the door of the house, and as I came nearer I saw more clearly a tall man dressed in dark clothes.

08 'Who can it be?' I thought.

09 A ray of light fell on his face. The cheeks were pale, and half covered with black hair; the forehead was heavy, the eyes deep-set and strange. I recognized the eyes.

10 'What!' I cried. 'You've come back? Is it really you?'

11 'Yes, it's Heathcliff,' he replied, looking from me up at the windows. 'Are they at home? Where is she? Speak! I want to have one word with her—with your mistress. Go, and say that some person from Gimmerton village desires to see her.'

12 'How will she take it? How changed you are! Have you been a soldier?'

13 'Go and carry my message,' he interrupted. 'I'm in torment till you do!'

14 When I got to the sitting room, Mr and Mrs Linton were sitting together at a window looking over the trees and park to the valley and village of Gimmerton. All looked wonderfully peaceful, and I could not persuade myself to speak.

15 I was actually going away leaving the words unsaid, when a sense of my own foolishness forced me to return and give the message.

16 'Close the curtains, Nelly, and bring up tea. I'll be back again directly.'

17 She left the room, and Edgar inquired carelessly who it was.

18 'Someone that mistress does not expect. That Heathcliff, sir, who used to live at Mr Earnshaw's.'

19 'What! The gypsy—the ploughboy?'

20 'Take care! You must not call him by those names, master. She was nearly heartbroken when he ran off.'

21 Shortly after, Catherine flew upstairs, wild and breathless.

22 'Oh, Edgar, Edgar,' she exclaimed, throwing her arms round his neck, 'Heathcliff's come back!'

23 'Well, well,' cried her husband in a disagreeable voice, 'there's no need to be so excited, surely!'

24 'I know you didn't like him,' she answered, keeping back her delight a little, 'yet, for my sake, you must be friends now. Shall I tell him to come up?'

25 'Here?' he said. 'Wouldn't the kitchen be a more suitable place?'

26 Mrs Linton looked at him, half angry, half laughing.

27 'No,' she replied, after a time, 'I can't sit in the kitchen.'

28 She was about to run off again, but Edgar stopped her.

29 'You ask him to step up,' he said, addressing me. 'Catherine, the whole household need not witness the sight of your welcoming a runaway servant as a brother.'