The Ending

Goodbye to Wuthering Heights

Mr Lockwood's last words

Chapter 55

The dead are at peace

01 Mrs Dean was silent for a minute at the end of her story.

02 'They are going to the Grange, then?' I asked.

03 'Yes, as soon as they are married, and that will be on New Year's day.'

04 'And who will live here?'

05 'Why, Joseph will take care of the house, with perhaps a boy to keep him company. They will live in the kitchen, and the rest of the house will be shut up.'

06 'For the use of such ghosts as choose to haunt it,' I remarked.

07 'No, Mr Lockwood,' said Nelly, shaking her head, 'I believe that the dead are at peace.'

08 At that moment the garden gate opened. The wanderers were returning.

09 'They are afraid of nothing,' I said.

10 As they stepped up to the door, and paused to take a last look at the moon, or rather, at each other, by her light, l felt a desire to avoid them, and hastily saying goodbye to Mrs Dean, I passed through the kitchen and left.

11 My walk home was lengthened by a turn in the direction of the churchyard. I looked for, and soon discovered, the three stones at the head of the graves on the slope next to the moor: the middle one grey, and half buried in wild plants; Edgar Linton's only covered at the foot with grass, and Heathcliff's still bare.

12 I remained near them, under the mild sky. I watched the insects among the heather and the wild flowers. I listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass. And I wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet rest for the sleepers in that quiet earth.