第65章

`The doleful silence was broken at length by the sound of the kitchen latch: Heathcliff had returned from his watch earlier than usual;owing, I suppose, to the sudden storm.That entrance was fastened, and we beard him coming round to get in by the other.I rose with an irrepressible expression of what I felt on my lips, which induced my companion, who had been staring towards the door, to turn and look at me.

``I'Il keep him out five minutes,'' he exclaimed.``You won't object?''

`"No, you may keep him out the whole night for me,'' I answered.

``Do! put the key in the lock, and draw the bolts.''

`Earnshaw accomplished this ere his guest reached the front; he then came and brought his chair to the other side of my table, leaning over it, and searching in my eyes, a sympathy with the burning hate that gleamed from his: as he both looked and felt like an assassin, he couldn't exactly find that; but he discovered enough to encourage him to speak.

`"You and I'', he said, ``have each a great debt to settle with the man out yonder! If we were neither of us cowards, we might combine to discharge it.Are you as soft as your brother? Are you willing to endure to the last, and not once attempt a repayment?''

``I'm weary of enduring now,'' I replied; ``and I'd be glad of a retaliation that wouldn't recoil on myself; but treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends: they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.''

``Treachery and violence are a just return for treachery and violence!''

cried Hindley.``Mrs Heathcliff, I'll ask you to do nothing; but sit still and be dumb.Tell me now, can you? I'm sure you would have as much pleasure as I in witnessing the conclusion of the fiend's existence; he'll be your death unless you overreach him; and he'll be my ruin.Damn the hellish villain! He knocks at the door as if he were master here already! Promise to hold your tongue, and before that clock strikes--it wants three minutes of one--you're a free woman!''

`He took the implements which I described to you in my letter from his breast, and would have turned down the candle.I snatched it away, however, and seized his arm.

` ``I'Il not hold my tongue!'' I said; ``you mustn't touch him.

Let the door remain shut, and be quiet!''

` ``No! I've formed my resolution, and by God I'll execute it!''

cried the desperate being.``I'Il do you a kindness in spite of yourself, and Hareton justice! And you needn't trouble your head to screen me; Catherine is gone.Nobody alive would regret me, or be ashamed, though I cut my throat this minute--and it's time to make an end!''

`I might as well have struggled with a bear, or reasoned with a lunatic.The only resource left me was to run to a lattice and warn his intended victim of the fate which awaited him.

`"You'd better seek shelter somewhere else tonight!'' I exclaimed in a rather triumphant tone.``Mr Earnshaw has a mind to shoot you, if you persist in endeavouring to enter.''

``You'd better open the door, you--"he answered, addressing me by some elegant term that I don't care to repeat.

``I shall not meddle in the matter,'' I retorted again.``Come in and get shot, if you please! I've done my duty.''

`With that I shut the window and returned to my place by the fire;having too small a stock of hypocrisy at my command to pretend any anxiety for the danger that menaced him.Earnshaw swore passionately at me: affirming that I loved the villain yet; and calling me all sorts of names for the base spirit I evinced.And I, in my secret heart (and conscience never reproached me), thought what a blessing it would be for him should Heathcliff put him out of misery; and what a blessing for me should he send Heathcliff to his right abode! As I sat nursing these reflections, the casement behind me was banged on to the floor by a blow from the latter individual, and his black countenance liked blightingly through.The stanchions stood too close to suffer his shoulders to follow, and I smiled, exulting in my fancied security.His hair and clothes were whitened with snow, and his sharp cannibal teeth, revealed by cold and wrath, gleamed through the dark.

`"Isabella, let me in, or I'll make you repent!'' he ``girned'', as Joseph calls it.

I cannot commit murder,'' I replied.``Mr Hindley stands sentinel with a knife and loaded pistol.''

``Let me in by the kitchen door,'' he said.

``Hindley will be there before you,'' I answered: ``and that's a poor love of yours that cannot bear a shower of snow! We were left at peace on our beds as long as the summer moon shone, but the moment a blast of winter returns, you must run for shelter! Heathcliff, if I were you, I'd go stretch myself over her grave and die like a faithful dog.The world is surely not worth living in now, is it? You had distinctly impressed on me the idea that Catherine was the whole joy of your life: I can't imagine how you think of surviving her loss.''

``He's there, is he?'' exclaimed my companion, rushing to the gap.``If I can get my arm out I can hit him!''

`I'm afraid, Ellen, you'll set me down as really wicked; but you don't know all, so don't judge.I wouldn't have aided or abetted an attempt on even his life for anything.Wish that he were dead, I must; and therefore I was fearfully disappointed, and unnerved by terror for the consequences of my taunting speech, when he flung himself on Earnshaw's weapon and wrenched it from his grasp.