第69章

I confess this blow was greater to me than the shock of Mrs Linton's death: ancient associations lingered round my heart; I sat down in the porch and wept as for a blood relation, desiring Kenneth to get another servant to introduce him to the master.I could not hinder myself from pondering on the question--`Had he had fair play?' Whatever I did, that idea would bother me: it was so tiresomely pertinacious that I resolved on requesting leave to go to Wuthering Heights, and assist in the last duties to the dead.Mr Linton was extremely reluctant to consent, but Ipleaded eloquently for the friendless condition in which he lay; and Isaid my old master and foster-brother had a claim on my services as strong as his own.Besides, I reminded him that the child Hareton was his wife's nephew, and, in the absence of nearer kin, he ought to act as its guardian;and he ought to and must inquire how the property was left, and look over the concerns of his brother-in-law.He was unfit for attending to such matters then, but he bid me speak to his lawyer; and at length permitted me to go.His lawyer had been Earnshaw's also: I called at the village, and asked him to accompany me.He shook his head, and advised that Heathcliff should be let alone; affirming, if the truth were known, Hareton would be found little else than a beggar.

`His father died in debt,' he said; `the whole property is mortgaged, and the sole chance for the natural heir is to allow him an opportunity of creating some interest in the creditor's heart, that he may be inclined to deal leniently towards him.'

When I reached the Heights, I explained that I had come to see everything carried on decently; and Joseph, who appeared in sufficient distress, expressed satisfaction at my presence.Mr Heathcliff said he did not perceive that I was wanted; but I might stay and order the arrangements for the funeral, if I chose.

`Correctly,' he remarked, `that fool's body should be buried at the crossroads, without ceremony of any kind.I happened to leave him ten minutes yesterday afternoon, and in that interval he fastened the two doors of the house against me, and he has spent the night in drinking himself to death deliberately! We broke in this morning, for we heard him snorting like a horse; and there he was, laid over the settle; flaying and scalping would not have wakened him.I sent for Kenneth, and he came; but not till the beast had changed into carrion: he was both dead and cold, and stark;and so you'll allow it was useless making more stir about him!'

The old servant confirmed this statement, but muttered:

`Aw'd rayther he'd goan hisseln fur t' doctor! Aw sud uh taen tent uh t' maister better nur him--un he warn't deead when Aw left, nowt uh t' soart!'

I insisted on the funeral being respectable.Mr Heathcliff said I might have my own way there too; only, he desired me to remember that the money for the whole affair came out of his pocket.He maintained a hard, careless deportment, indicative of neither joy nor sorrow; if anything, it expressed a flinty gratification at a piece of difficult work successfully executed.I observed once, indeed, something like exultation in his aspect:

it was just when the people were bearing the coffin from the house.He had the hypocrisy to represent a mourner: and previous to following with Hareton, he lifted the unfortunate child on to the table and muttered, with peculiar gusto, `Now, my bonny lad, you are mine ! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!' The unsuspecting thing was pleased at this speech: he played with Heathcliff's whiskers, and stroked his cheek; but I divined its meaning, and observed tartly, `That boy must go back with me to Thrushcross Grange, sir.There is nothing in the world less yours than he is!'

`Does Linton say so?' he demanded.

`Of course--he has ordered me to take him,' I replied.

`Well,' said the scoundrel, `we'll not argue the subject now:

but I have a fancy to try my hand at rearing a young one; so intimate to your master that I must supply the place of this with my own, if he attempt to remove it.I don't engage to let Hareton go undisputed; but I'll be pretty sure to make the other come! Remember to tell him.'

This hint was enough to bind our hands.I repeated its substance on my return; and Edgar Linton, little interested at the commencement, spoke no more of interfering I'm not aware that he could have done it to any purpose, had he been ever so willing.

The guest was now the master of Wuthering Heights: he held firm possession, and proved to the attorney--who, in his turn, proved it to Mr Linton--that Earnshaw had mortgaged every yard of land he owned, for cash to supply his mania for gaming; and he, Heathcliff, was the mortgagee.

In that manner Hareton, who should now be the first gentleman in the neighbourhood, was reduced to a state of complete dependence on his father's inveterate enemy; and lives in his own house as a servant, deprived of the advantage of wages, and quite unable to right himself, because of his friendlessness, and his ignorance that he has been wronged.