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Chapter 33

1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 On the morrow of that Monday, Earnshaw being still unable to follow his ordinary employments, and therefore remaining about the house, I speedily found it would be impracticable to retain my charge beside me, as heretofore.  She got downstairs before me, and out into the garden, where she had seen her cousin performing some easy work; and when I went to bid them come to breakfast, I saw she had persuaded him to clear a large space of ground from currant and gooseberry bushes, and they were busy planning together an importation of plants from the Grange.

2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 I was terrified at the devastation which had been accomplished in a brief half-hour; the black-currant trees were the apple of Joseph’s eye, and she had just fixed her choice of a flower-bed in the midst of them.

3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 ‘There!  That will be all shown to the master,’ I exclaimed, ‘the minute it is discovered.  And what excuse have you to offer for taking such liberties with the garden?  We shall have a fine explosion on the head of it: see if we don’t!  Mr. Hareton, I wonder you should have no more wit than to go and make that mess at her bidding!’

4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 ‘I’d forgotten they were Joseph’s,’ answered Earnshaw, rather puzzled; ‘but I’ll tell him I did it.’

5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 We always ate our meals with Mr. Heathcliff.  I held the mistress’s post in making tea and carving; so I was indispensable at table.  Catherine usually sat by me, but to-day she stole nearer to Hareton; and I presently saw she would have no more discretion in her friendship than she had in her hostility.

6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 ‘Now, mind you don’t talk with and notice your cousin too much,’ were my whispered instructions as we entered the room.  ‘It will certainly annoy Mr. Heathcliff, and he’ll be mad at you both.’

7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 ‘I’m not going to,’ she answered.

8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 The minute after, she had sidled to him, and was sticking primroses in his plate of porridge.

9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 He dared not speak to her there: he dared hardly look; and yet she went on teasing, till he was twice on the point of being provoked to laugh.  I frowned, and then she glanced towards the master: whose mind was occupied on other subjects than his company, as his countenance evinced; and she grew serious for an instant, scrutinizing him with deep gravity.  Afterwards she turned, and recommenced her nonsense; at last, Hareton uttered a smothered laugh.  Mr. Heathcliff started; his eye rapidly surveyed our faces, Catherine met it with her accustomed look of nervousness and yet defiance, which he abhorred.

10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 ‘It is well you are out of my reach,’ he exclaimed.  ‘What fiend possesses you to stare back at me, continually, with those infernal eyes?  Down with them! and don’t remind me of your existence again.  I thought I had cured you of laughing.’

11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 ‘It was me,’ muttered Hareton.

12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 0 ‘What do you say?’ demanded the master.

13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 0 Hareton looked at his plate, and did not repeat the confession.  Mr. Heathcliff looked at him a bit, and then silently resumed his breakfast and his interrupted musing.  We had nearly finished, and the two young people prudently shifted wider asunder, so I anticipated no further disturbance during that sitting: when Joseph appeared at the door, revealing by his quivering lip and furious eyes that the outrage committed on his precious shrubs was detected.  He must have seen Cathy and her cousin about the spot before he examined it, for while his jaws worked like those of a cow chewing its cud, and rendered his speech difficult to understand, he began:—

14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 ‘I mun hev’ my wage, and I mun goa!  I hed aimed to dee wheare I’d sarved fur sixty year; and I thowt I’d lug my books up into t’ garret, and all my bits o’ stuff, and they sud hev’ t’ kitchen to theirseln; for t’ sake o’ quietness.  It wur hard to gie up my awn hearthstun, but I thowt I could do that!  But nah, shoo’s taan my garden fro’ me, and by th’ heart, maister, I cannot stand it!  Yah may bend to th’ yoak an ye will—I noan used to ’t, and an old man doesn’t sooin get used to new barthens.  I’d rayther arn my bite an’ my sup wi’ a hammer in th’ road!’

15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0 ‘Now, now, idiot!’ interrupted Heathcliff, ‘cut it short!  What’s your grievance?  I’ll interfere in no quarrels between you and Nelly.  She may thrust you into the coal-hole for anything I care.’

16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 0 ‘It’s noan Nelly!’ answered Joseph.  ‘I sudn’t shift for Nelly—nasty ill nowt as shoo is.  Thank God! shoo cannot stale t’ sowl o’ nob’dy!  Shoo wer niver soa handsome, but what a body mud look at her ‘bout winking.  It’s yon flaysome, graceless quean, that’s witched our lad, wi’ her bold een and her forrard ways—till—Nay! it fair brusts my heart!  He’s forgotten all I’ve done for him, and made on him, and goan and riven up a whole row o’ t’ grandest currant-trees i’ t’ garden!’ and here he lamented outright; unmanned by a sense of his bitter injuries, and Earnshaw’s ingratitude and dangerous condition.

17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0 ‘Is the fool drunk?’ asked Mr. Heathcliff.  ‘Hareton, is it you he’s finding fault with?’

18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 0 ‘I’ve pulled up two or three bushes,’ replied the young man; ‘but I’m going to set ’em again.’

19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0 ‘And why have you pulled them up?’ said the master.

20 Leave a comment on paragraph 20 0 Catherine wisely put in her tongue.

21 Leave a comment on paragraph 21 0 ‘We wanted to plant some flowers there,’ she cried.  ‘I’m the only person to blame, for I wished him to do it.’

22 Leave a comment on paragraph 22 0 ‘And who the devil gave you leave to touch a stick about the place?’ demanded her father-in-law, much surprised.  ‘And who ordered you to obey her?’ he added, turning to Hareton.

23 Leave a comment on paragraph 23 0 The latter was speechless; his cousin replied—‘You shouldn’t grudge a few yards of earth for me to ornament, when you have taken all my land!’

24 Leave a comment on paragraph 24 0 ‘Your land, insolent slut!  You never had any,’ said Heathcliff.

25 Leave a comment on paragraph 25 0 ‘And my money,’ she continued; returning his angry glare, and meantime biting a piece of crust, the remnant of her breakfast.

26 Leave a comment on paragraph 26 0 ‘Silence!’ he exclaimed.  ‘Get done, and begone!’

27 Leave a comment on paragraph 27 0 ‘And Hareton’s land, and his money,’ pursued the reckless thing.  ‘Hareton and I are friends now; and I shall tell him all about you!’

28 Leave a comment on paragraph 28 0 The master seemed confounded a moment: he grew pale, and rose up, eyeing her all the while, with an expression of mortal hate.

29 Leave a comment on paragraph 29 0 ‘If you strike me, Hareton will strike you,’ she said; ‘so you may as well sit down.’

30 Leave a comment on paragraph 30 0 ‘If Hareton does not turn you out of the room, I’ll strike him to hell,’ thundered Heathcliff.  ‘Damnable witch! dare you pretend to rouse him against me?  Off with her!  Do you hear?  Fling her into the kitchen!  I’ll kill her, Ellen Dean, if you let her come into my sight again!’

31 Leave a comment on paragraph 31 0 Hareton tried, under his breath, to persuade her to go.

32 Leave a comment on paragraph 32 0 ‘Drag her away!’ he cried, savagely.  ‘Are you staying to talk?’  And he approached to execute his own command.

33 Leave a comment on paragraph 33 0 ‘He’ll not obey you, wicked man, any more,’ said Catherine; ‘and he’ll soon detest you as much as I do.’

34 Leave a comment on paragraph 34 0 ‘Wisht! wisht!’ muttered the young man, reproachfully; ‘I will not hear you speak so to him.  Have done.’

35 Leave a comment on paragraph 35 0 ‘But you won’t let him strike me?’ she cried.

36 Leave a comment on paragraph 36 0 ‘Come, then,’ he whispered earnestly.

37 Leave a comment on paragraph 37 0 It was too late: Heathcliff had caught hold of her.

38 Leave a comment on paragraph 38 0 ‘Now, you go!’ he said to Earnshaw.  ‘Accursed witch! this time she has provoked me when I could not bear it; and I’ll make her repent it for ever!’

39 Leave a comment on paragraph 39 0 He had his hand in her hair; Hareton attempted to release her locks, entreating him not to hurt her that once.  Heathcliff’s black eyes flashed; he seemed ready to tear Catherine in pieces, and I was just worked up to risk coming to the rescue, when of a sudden his fingers relaxed; he shifted his grasp from her head to her arm, and gazed intently in her face.  Then he drew his hand over his eyes, stood a moment to collect himself apparently, and turning anew to Catherine, said, with assumed calmness—‘You must learn to avoid putting me in a passion, or I shall really murder you some time!  Go with Mrs. Dean, and keep with her; and confine your insolence to her ears.  As to Hareton Earnshaw, if I see him listen to you, I’ll send him seeking his bread where he can get it!  Your love will make him an outcast and a beggar.  Nelly, take her; and leave me, all of you!  Leave me!’

40 Leave a comment on paragraph 40 0 I led my young lady out: she was too glad of her escape to resist; the other followed, and Mr. Heathcliff had the room to himself till dinner.  I had counselled Catherine to dine up-stairs; but, as soon as he perceived her vacant seat, he sent me to call her.  He spoke to none of us, ate very little, and went out directly afterwards, intimating that he should not return before evening.

41 Leave a comment on paragraph 41 1 The two new friends established themselves in the house during his absence; where I heard Hareton sternly check his cousin, on her offering a revelation of her father-in-law’s conduct to his father.  He said he wouldn’t suffer a word to be uttered in his disparagement: if he were the devil, it didn’t signify; he would stand by him; and he’d rather she would abuse himself, as she used to, than begin on Mr. Heathcliff.  Catherine was waxing cross at this; but he found means to make her hold her tongue, by asking how she would like him to speak ill of her father?  Then she comprehended that Earnshaw took the master’s reputation home to himself; and was attached by ties stronger than reason could break—chains, forged by habit, which it would be cruel to attempt to loosen.  She showed a good heart, thenceforth, in avoiding both complaints and expressions of antipathy concerning Heathcliff; and confessed to me her sorrow that she had endeavoured to raise a bad spirit between him and Hareton: indeed, I don’t believe she has ever breathed a syllable, in the latter’s hearing, against her oppressor since.

42 Leave a comment on paragraph 42 0 When this slight disagreement was over, they were friends again, and as busy as possible in their several occupations of pupil and teacher.  I came in to sit with them, after I had done my work; and I felt so soothed and comforted to watch them, that I did not notice how time got on.  You know, they both appeared in a measure my children: I had long been proud of one; and now, I was sure, the other would be a source of equal satisfaction.  His honest, warm, and intelligent nature shook off rapidly the clouds of ignorance and degradation in which it had been bred; and Catherine’s sincere commendations acted as a spur to his industry.  His brightening mind brightened his features, and added spirit and nobility to their aspect: I could hardly fancy it the same individual I had beheld on the day I discovered my little lady at Wuthering Heights, after her expedition to the Crags.  While I admired and they laboured, dusk drew on, and with it returned the master.  He came upon us quite unexpectedly, entering by the front way, and had a full view of the whole three, ere we could raise our heads to glance at him.  Well, I reflected, there was never a pleasanter, or more harmless sight; and it will be a burning shame to scold them.  The red fire-light glowed on their two bonny heads, and revealed their faces animated with the eager interest of children; for, though he was twenty-three and she eighteen, each had so much of novelty to feel and learn, that neither experienced nor evinced the sentiments of sober disenchanted maturity.

43 Leave a comment on paragraph 43 0 They lifted their eyes together, to encounter Mr. Heathcliff: perhaps you have never remarked that their eyes are precisely similar, and they are those of Catherine Earnshaw.  The present Catherine has no other likeness to her, except a breadth of forehead, and a certain arch of the nostril that makes her appear rather haughty, whether she will or not.  With Hareton the resemblance is carried farther: it is singular at all times, then it was particularly striking; because his senses were alert, and his mental faculties wakened to unwonted activity.  I suppose this resemblance disarmed Mr. Heathcliff: he walked to the hearth in evident agitation; but it quickly subsided as he looked at the young man: or, I should say, altered its character; for it was there yet.  He took the book from his hand, and glanced at the open page, then returned it without any observation; merely signing Catherine away: her companion lingered very little behind her, and I was about to depart also, but he bid me sit still.

44 Leave a comment on paragraph 44 0 ‘It is a poor conclusion, is it not?’ he observed, having brooded awhile on the scene he had just witnessed: ‘an absurd termination to my violent exertions?  I get levers and mattocks to demolish the two houses, and train myself to be capable of working like Hercules, and when everything is ready and in my power, I find the will to lift a slate off either roof has vanished!  My old enemies have not beaten me; now would be the precise time to revenge myself on their representatives: I could do it; and none could hinder me.  But where is the use?  I don’t care for striking: I can’t take the trouble to raise my hand!  That sounds as if I had been labouring the whole time only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity.  It is far from being the case: I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing.

45 Leave a comment on paragraph 45 0 ‘Nelly, there is a strange change approaching; I’m in its shadow at present.  I take so little interest in my daily life that I hardly remember to eat and drink.  Those two who have left the room are the only objects which retain a distinct material appearance to me; and that appearance causes me pain, amounting to agony.  About her I won’t speak; and I don’t desire to think; but I earnestly wish she were invisible: her presence invokes only maddening sensations.  He moves me differently: and yet if I could do it without seeming insane, I’d never see him again!  You’ll perhaps think me rather inclined to become so,’ he added, making an effort to smile, ‘if I try to describe the thousand forms of past associations and ideas he awakens or embodies.  But you’ll not talk of what I tell you; and my mind is so eternally secluded in itself, it is tempting at last to turn it out to another.

46 Leave a comment on paragraph 46 0 ‘Five minutes ago Hareton seemed a personification of my youth, not a human being; I felt to him in such a variety of ways, that it would have been impossible to have accosted him rationally.  In the first place, his startling likeness to Catherine connected him fearfully with her.  That, however, which you may suppose the most potent to arrest my imagination, is actually the least: for what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her?  I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in the flags!  In every cloud, in every tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day—I am surrounded with her image!  The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance.  The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!  Well, Hareton’s aspect was the ghost of my immortal love; of my wild endeavours to hold my right; my degradation, my pride, my happiness, and my anguish—

47 Leave a comment on paragraph 47 0 ‘But it is frenzy to repeat these thoughts to you: only it will let you know why, with a reluctance to be always alone, his society is no benefit; rather an aggravation of the constant torment I suffer: and it partly contributes to render me regardless how he and his cousin go on together.  I can give them no attention any more.’

48 Leave a comment on paragraph 48 0 ‘But what do you mean by a change, Mr. Heathcliff?’ I said, alarmed at his manner: though he was neither in danger of losing his senses, nor dying, according to my judgment: he was quite strong and healthy; and, as to his reason, from childhood he had a delight in dwelling on dark things, and entertaining odd fancies.  He might have had a monomania on the subject of his departed idol; but on every other point his wits were as sound as mine.

49 Leave a comment on paragraph 49 0 ‘I shall not know that till it comes,’ he said; ‘I’m only half conscious of it now.’

50 Leave a comment on paragraph 50 0 ‘You have no feeling of illness, have you?’ I asked.

51 Leave a comment on paragraph 51 0 ‘No, Nelly, I have not,’ he answered.

52 Leave a comment on paragraph 52 0 ‘Then you are not afraid of death?’ I pursued.

53 Leave a comment on paragraph 53 0 ‘Afraid?  No!’ he replied.  ‘I have neither a fear, nor a presentiment, nor a hope of death.  Why should I?  With my hard constitution and temperate mode of living, and unperilous occupations, I ought to, and probably shall, remain above ground till there is scarcely a black hair on my head.  And yet I cannot continue in this condition!  I have to remind myself to breathe—almost to remind my heart to beat!  And it is like bending back a stiff spring: it is by compulsion that I do the slightest act not prompted by one thought; and by compulsion that I notice anything alive or dead, which is not associated with one universal idea.  I have a single wish, and my whole being and faculties are yearning to attain it.  They have yearned towards it so long, and so unwaveringly, that I’m convinced it will be reached—and soon—because it has devoured my existence: I am swallowed up in the anticipation of its fulfilment.  My confessions have not relieved me; but they may account for some otherwise unaccountable phases of humour which I show.  O God!  It is a long fight; I wish it were over!’

54 Leave a comment on paragraph 54 0 He began to pace the room, muttering terrible things to himself, till I was inclined to believe, as he said Joseph did, that conscience had turned his heart to an earthly hell.  I wondered greatly how it would end.  Though he seldom before had revealed this state of mind, even by looks, it was his habitual mood, I had no doubt: he asserted it himself; but not a soul, from his general bearing, would have conjectured the fact.  You did not when you saw him, Mr. Lockwood: and at the period of which I speak, he was just the same as then; only fonder of continued solitude, and perhaps still more laconic in company.

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Source: https://marginalia.sunygeneseoenglish.org/wuthering-heights/wh-chapter-33/