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‘I can’t stay with her,’ he answered crossly.  ‘I’ll not stay by myself.  She cries so I can’t bear it.  And she won’t give over, though I say I’ll call my father.  I did call him once, and he threatened to strangle her if she was not quiet; but she began again the instant he left the room, moaning and grieving all night long, though I screamed for vexation that I couldn’t sleep.’

‘Is Mr. Heathcliff out?’ I inquired, perceiving that the wretched creature had no power to sympathize with his cousin’s mental tortures.

‘He’s in the court,’ he replied, ‘talking to Doctor Kenneth; who says uncle is dying, truly, at last.  I’m glad, for I shall be master of the Grange after him.  Catherine always spoke of it as her house.  It isn’t hers!  It’s mine: papa says everything she has is mine.  All her nice books are mine; she offered to give me them, and her pretty birds, and her pony Minny, if I would get the key of our room, and let her out; but I told her she had nothing to give, they were all, all mine.  And then she cried, and took a little picture from her neck, and said I should have that; two pictures in a gold case, on one side her mother, and on the other uncle, when they were young.  That was yesterday—I said they were mine, too; and tried to get them from her.  The spiteful thing wouldn’t let me: she pushed me off, and hurt me.  I shrieked out—that frightens her—she heard papa coming, and she broke the hinges and divided the case, and gave me her mother’s portrait; the other she attempted to hide: but papa asked what was the matter, and I explained it.  He took the one I had away, and ordered her to resign hers to me; she refused, and he—he struck her down, and wrenched it off the chain, and crushed it with his foot.’

‘And were you pleased to see her struck?’ I asked: having my designs in encouraging his talk.

‘I winked,’ he answered: ‘I wink to see my father strike a dog or a horse, he does it so hard.  Yet I was glad at first—she deserved punishing for pushing me: but when papa was gone, she made me come to the window and showed me her cheek cut on the inside, against her teeth, and her mouth filling with blood; and then she gathered up the bits of the picture, and went and sat down with her face to the wall, and she has never spoken to me since: and I sometimes think she can’t speak for pain.  I don’t like to think so; but she’s a naughty thing for crying continually; and she looks so pale and wild, I’m afraid of her.’

‘And you can get the key if you choose?’ I said.

‘Yes, when I am up-stairs,’ he answered; ‘but I can’t walk up-stairs now.’

‘In what apartment is it?’ I asked.

‘Oh,’ he cried, ‘I shan’t tell you where it is.  It is our secret.  Nobody, neither Hareton nor Zillah, is to know.  There! you’ve tired me—go away, go away!’  And he turned his face on to his arm, and shut his eyes again.

I considered it best to depart without seeing Mr. Heathcliff, and bring a rescue for my young lady from the Grange.  On reaching it, the astonishment of my fellow-servants to see me, and their joy also, was intense; and when they heard that their little mistress was safe, two or three were about to hurry up and shout the news at Mr. Edgar’s door: but I bespoke the announcement of it myself.  How changed I found him, even in those few days!  He lay an image of sadness and resignation awaiting his death.  Very young he looked: though his actual age was thirty-nine, one would have called him ten years younger, at least.  He thought of Catherine; for he murmured her name.  I touched his hand, and spoke.

‘Catherine is coming, dear master!’ I whispered; ‘she is alive and well; and will be here, I hope, to-night.’

I trembled at the first effects of this intelligence: he half rose up, looked eagerly round the apartment, and then sank back in a swoon.  As soon as he recovered, I related our compulsory visit, and detention at the Heights.  I said Heathcliff forced me to go in: which was not quite true.  I uttered as little as possible against Linton; nor did I describe all his father’s brutal conduct—my intentions being to add no bitterness, if I could help it, to his already over-flowing cup.

He divined that one of his enemy’s purposes was to secure the personal property, as well as the estate, to his son: or rather himself; yet why he did not wait till his decease was a puzzle to my master, because ignorant how nearly he and his nephew would quit the world together.  However, he felt that his will had better be altered: instead of leaving Catherine’s fortune at her own disposal, he determined to put it in the hands of trustees for her use during life, and for her children, if she had any, after her.  By that means, it could not fall to Mr. Heathcliff should Linton die.

Having received his orders, I despatched a man to fetch the attorney, and four more, provided with serviceable weapons, to demand my young lady of her jailor.  Both parties were delayed very late.  The single servant returned first.  He said Mr. Green, the lawyer, was out when he arrived at his house, and he had to wait two hours for his re-entrance; and then Mr. Green told him he had a little business in the village that must be done; but he would be at Thrushcross Grange before morning.  The four men came back unaccompanied also.  They brought word that Catherine was ill: too ill to quit her room; and Heathcliff would not suffer them to see her.  I scolded the stupid fellows well for listening to that tale, which I would not carry to my master; resolving to take a whole bevy up to the Heights, at day-light, and storm it literally, unless the prisoner were quietly surrendered to us.  Her father shall see her, I vowed, and vowed again, if that devil be killed on his own doorstones in trying to prevent it!

Happily, I was spared the journey and the trouble.  I had gone down-stairs at three o’clock to fetch a jug of water; and was passing through the hall with it in my hand, when a sharp knock at the front door made me jump.  ‘Oh! it is Green,’ I said, recollecting myself—‘only Green,’ and I went on, intending to send somebody else to open it; but the knock was repeated: not loud, and still importunately.  I put the jug on the banister and hastened to admit him myself.  The harvest moon shone clear outside.  It was not the attorney.  My own sweet little mistress sprang on my neck sobbing, ‘Ellen, Ellen!  Is papa alive?’

‘Yes,’ I cried: ‘yes, my angel, he is, God be thanked, you are safe with us again!’

She wanted to run, breathless as she was, up-stairs to Mr. Linton’s room; but I compelled her to sit down on a chair, and made her drink, and washed her pale face, chafing it into a faint colour with my apron.  Then I said I must go first, and tell of her arrival; imploring her to say, she should be happy with young Heathcliff.  She stared, but soon comprehending why I counselled her to utter the falsehood, she assured me she would not complain.

I couldn’t abide to be present at their meeting.  I stood outside the chamber-door a quarter of an hour, and hardly ventured near the bed, then.  All was composed, however: Catherine’s despair was as silent as her father’s joy.  She supported him calmly, in appearance; and he fixed on her features his raised eyes that seemed dilating with ecstasy.