Chapter 22

The runaways

01 In passing through the garden, I saw something white hanging from a hook fixed into the wall. It was Miss Isabella's little dog, tied with a handkerchief, and nearly at its last breath. While untying the animal it seemed to me that I heard the beat of horses' feet sounding rapidly at some distance, but I had so many things on my mind that I hardly gave a thought to the strangeness of such a noise at two o'clock in the morning.

02 Doctor Kenneth, a plain, rough man. was luckily just coming out of his house to see a sick man in the village. He turned back with me immediately.

03 'Nelly Dean,' he said, 'I can't help thinking there is an extra cause for this. A strong healthy girl like Catherine doesn't become ill for nothing. What started it?'

04 'The master will tell you,' I replied cautiously, 'but you know the Earnshaws' violent natures, and Mrs Linton is worse than any of them.'

05 On examining the case for himself, he spoke hopefully to Mr Linton of her return to health, if only we could keep her continually and absolutely quiet. To me, he said the danger was not so much death as permanent harm to the mind.

06 I did not close my eyes that night, nor did Mr Linton: indeed, we never went to bed, and the servants were all up long before the usual hour. Everybody was active except Miss Isabella, and all began to notice how deeply she slept. Her brother, too, asked if she had got up, and seemed hurt by her lack of anxiety for her sister-in-law.

07 One of the servants, a thoughtless girl, came crying up the stairs, open-mouthed:

08 'OhI Oh! what will we have next? Master, master, our young lady ... '

09 'Less noise!' I exclaimed hastily.

10 'Speak lower, Mary, What's the matter?' said Mr Linton.

11 'She's gone! She's gone! Heathcliff's run off with her!' cried the girl.

12 The girl had been to the village, and had met the boy who brought the milk. He had told of how a gentleman and a lady had stopped to have a horse's shoe fixed two miles out of Gimmerton, not long after midnight. There was no mistaking Heathcliff, and the covering over the lady's head had fallen back when she took a drink of water, and shown her face clearly.

13 'Shall we try and fetch her back?' I asked. 'What should we do?'

14 'She went of her own free will,' answered the master. 'Trouble me no more about her. In future she is my sister in name only.'

15 He made no further mention of her to me, except to direct me to send what property she had in the house, to her fresh home, wherever it was, when I knew it.