Wuthering Heights Emily BrontĂ« (best free novels txt) đ
![](/uploads/posts/books/2/6/2/2/7/kniga-wuthering-heights.jpg)
- Author: Emily Brontë
Book online «Wuthering Heights Emily BrontĂ« (best free novels txt) đ». Author Emily BrontĂ«
âWhere is Miss Catherine?â I cried hurriedly. âNo accident, I hope?â âAt Thrushcross Grange,â he answered; âand I would have been there too, but they had not the manners to ask me to stay.â âWell, you will catch it!â I said: âyouâll never be content till youâre sent about your business. What in the world led you wandering to Thrushcross Grange?â âLet me get off my wet clothes, and Iâll tell you all about it, Nelly,â he replied. I bid him beware of rousing the master, and while he undressed and I waited to put out the candle, he continuedâ ââCathy and I escaped from the washhouse to have a ramble at liberty, and getting a glimpse of the Grange lights, we thought we would just go and see whether the Lintons passed their Sunday evenings standing shivering in corners, while their father and mother sat eating and drinking, and singing and laughing, and burning their eyes out before the fire. Do you think they do? Or reading sermons, and being catechised by their manservant, and set to learn a column of Scripture names, if they donât answer properly?â âProbably not,â I responded. âThey are good children, no doubt, and donât deserve the treatment you receive, for your bad conduct.â âDonât cant, Nelly,â he said: ânonsense! We ran from the top of the Heights to the park, without stoppingâ âCatherine completely beaten in the race, because she was barefoot. Youâll have to seek for her shoes in the bog tomorrow. We crept through a broken hedge, groped our way up the path, and planted ourselves on a flower-plot under the drawing-room window. The light came from thence; they had not put up the shutters, and the curtains were only half closed. Both of us were able to look in by standing on the basement, and clinging to the ledge, and we sawâ âah! it was beautifulâ âa splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre, and shimmering with little soft tapers. Old Mr. and Mrs. Linton were not there; Edgar and his sisters had it entirely to themselves. Shouldnât they have been happy? We should have thought ourselves in heaven! And now, guess what your good children were doing? Isabellaâ âI believe she is eleven, a year younger than Cathyâ âlay screaming at the farther end of the room, shrieking as if witches were running red-hot needles into her. Edgar stood on the hearth weeping silently, and in the middle of the table sat a little dog, shaking its paw and yelping; which, from their mutual accusations, we understood they had nearly pulled in two between them. The idiots! That was their pleasure! to quarrel who should hold a heap of warm hair, and each begin to cry because both, after struggling to get it, refused to take it. We laughed outright at the petted things; we did despise them! When would you catch me wishing to have what Catherine wanted? or find us by ourselves, seeking entertainment in yelling, and sobbing, and rolling on the ground, divided by the whole room? Iâd not exchange, for a thousand lives, my condition here, for Edgar Lintonâs at Thrushcross Grangeâ ânot if I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph off the highest gable, and painting the house-front with Hindleyâs blood!â
âHush, hush!â I interrupted. âStill you have not told me, Heathcliff, how Catherine is left behind?â
âI told you we laughed,â he answered. âThe Lintons heard us, and with one accord they shot like arrows to the door; there was silence, and then a cry, âOh, mamma, mamma! Oh, papa! Oh, mamma, come here. Oh, papa, oh!â They really did howl out something in that way. We made frightful noises to terrify them still more, and then we dropped off the ledge, because somebody was drawing the bars, and we felt we had better flee. I had Cathy by the hand, and was urging her on, when all at once she fell down. âRun, Heathcliff, run!â she whispered. âThey have let the bulldog loose, and he holds me!â The devil had seized her ankle, Nelly: I heard his abominable snorting. She did not yell outâ âno! she would have scorned to do it, if she had been spitted on the horns of a mad cow. I did, though: I vociferated curses enough to annihilate any fiend in Christendom; and I got a stone and thrust it between his jaws, and tried with all my might to cram it down his throat. A beast of a servant came up with a lantern, at last, shoutingâ ââKeep fast, Skulker, keep fast!â He changed his note, however, when he saw Skulkerâs game. The dog was throttled off; his huge, purple tongue hanging half a foot out of his mouth, and his pendent lips streaming with bloody slaver. The man took Cathy up; she was sick: not from fear, Iâm certain, but from pain. He carried her in; I followed, grumbling execrations and vengeance. âWhat prey, Robert?â hallooed Linton from the entrance. âSkulker has caught a little girl, sir,â he replied; âand thereâs a lad here,â he added, making a clutch at me, âwho looks an out-and-outer! Very like the robbers were for putting them through the window to open the doors to the gang after all were asleep, that they might murder us at their ease. Hold your tongue, you foul-mouthed thief, you! you shall go to the gallows for this. Mr. Linton, sir, donât lay by your gun.â âNo, no, Robert,â said the old fool. âThe rascals knew that yesterday was my rent-day: they thought to have me cleverly. Come in; Iâll furnish them a reception. There, John, fasten the chain. Give Skulker some water, Jenny. To beard a magistrate in his stronghold, and on the Sabbath, too! Where will their insolence stop? Oh, my dear Mary,
Comments (0)