Chapter 24

'I will see her!'

01 As soon as I had finished Isabella's letter, I went to the master and gave him the news of his sister, and her wish for some sign of forgiveness from him.

02 'I have nothing to forgive her, Ellen,' was his reply. 'You may call this afternoon and say I'm sorry I've lost her. We are now divided for ever.'

03 Mr Edgar's coldness saddened me very greatly, and all the way to Wuthering Heights I puzzled my brains as to how to soften his answer.

04 There was never such a miserable scene as the house, formerly so cheerful, presented. The young lady already shared the appearance of neglect that surrounded her. Her pretty face was pale and expressionless, her hair uncurled, some hanging down, and some carelessly twisted round her head. Probably she had not tidied her dress since the evening before.

05 Hindley was not there, but Mr Heathcliff sat at a table. He rose and greeted me in a friendly way, and offered me a chair. He was the only thing that seemed respectable, and I thought he had never looked better. A stranger would have thought him a born gentleman, and his wife a person of low origin.

06 She came forward, half expecting a letter, and I had to tell her brother's words. Her lip trembled and she returned to her seat.

07 Her husband began questioning me about Catherine.

08 'Mrs Linton is now just recovering,' I told him. 'She'll never be like she was, but her life is saved. Her appearance is greatly changed, her character more so, and the person who is forced to be her companion will only keep up his affection by remembering what she was formerly, and by pity and a sense of duty.'

09 Heathcliff forced himself to appear calm.

10 'Do you imagine I shall leave Catherine to your master's duty and pity! Nelly, I must have a promise from you that you'll arrange for me to see her. Agree or refuse, I will see her! What do you say?'

11 'I say, Mr Heathcliff,' I replied, 'that another meeting and quarrel between you and Mr Linton would kill her altogether.'

12 'With your help that may be avoided,' he said. 'The fear that she would suffer from his loss, keeps me from doing my worst. And there you see the difference between our feelings. If he had been in my place, and I in his, I would never have raised a hand against him, as long as she desired his society. The moment her feeling had ended, I would have torn his heart out, but till then—, I would have died by inches, before I touched a single hair of his head!'

13 'And yet,' I interrupted, 'you don't care about ruining her chances of returning to health, by disturbing her now, when she has nearly forgotten you.'

14 'Oh, Nelly! You know she has not! You know as well as I do, that for every thought she spends on Linton, she spends a thousand on me! Such a possibility haunted me on my return last summer, but only her own words would make me admit the horrible idea again. And then—Linton would be nothing, or Hindley, or all the other dreams of revenge that I ever dreamt. Two words would represent my future—death and hell. But Catherine has a heart as deep as I have. Linton is scarcely a degree nearer to her than her dog, or her horse. It is not in him to be loved like me: how then can she love in him what he has not?'

15 'Catherine and Edgar are as fond of each other as any two people can be!' cried Isabella, with a sudden return to life. 'I won't hear my brother spoken of so lightly!'

16 'Your brother is wonderfully fond of you, too, isn't he?' remarked Heathcliff scornfully.

17 'My young lady is looking sadly the worse for her change of condition,' I said. 'I hope you will consider that she is accustomed to being looked after, and waited on. You must let her have a maid. Whatever you think of Mr Edgar, you cannot doubt her powers of affection, or she would never have given up the comforts and happiness of her home to live in this wild place with you.'

18 'She gave them up under a false idea of me as the wonderful sort of man she has read about in novels,' he answered. 'I can hardly look on her as a being of reason, so fixed is the idea she has formed of my character. But at last I think she begins to know me. I don't care who knows that the feeling was all on one side, and I never told her a lie about it. The first thing she saw me do, on coming out of the Grange, was to hang up her little dog, yet even that didn't disgust her. Tell your master, Nelly, that I never in all my life met such a poor-spirited thing as she is. She brings shame even on the name of Linton!'

19 'He says he married me on purpose to gain power over Edgar,' cried Isabella. 'But he shan't do so! I just hope he'll forget his devilish caution and kill me! The only pleasure I can imagine is to die, or to see him dead!'

20 'If you're called upon in a court of law, you'll remember her language, Nelly!' said Heathcliff coolly. 'And take a good look at her face: she's near the point that would suit me. You're not responsible for your actions, Isabella, now, and I, as your lawful husband, must keep you safe and fast. Go upstairs. I have something to say to Ellen in private.'

21 He pushed her from the room.

22 'I have no pity,' he murmured. 'I have no pity! The more the worms suffer, the more I desire to crush them.'

23 I rose to go.

24 'Stop!' he said. 'Come here, Nelly. I must either persuade or force you to help me to see Catherine. I don't wish to cause any disturbance. I'd warn you when I came, and then you might let me in unnoticed, as soon as she was alone.'

25 I argued and complained, and firmly refused him fifty times, but in the end Heathcliff forced me to an agreement. I was to carry a letter from him to my mistress, and, if she was willing, to send him news of Linton's next absence from home, when he might come, and get in in the best way he could.