第117章

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.

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.

`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!'

`I'd forgotten they were Joseph's,' answered Earnshaw, rather puzzled; `but I'll tell him I did it.'

`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 today she stole nearer to Hareton; and I presently saw she would have no more discretion in her friendship than she had in her hostility.

`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.'

`I'm not going to,' she answered.

The minute after, she had sidled to him, and was sticking primroses in his plate of porridge.

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; and 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.

`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.'

`It was me,' muttered Hareton."What do you say?' demanded the master.

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:

`Aw mun hev my wage, and Aw mun goa! Aw bed aimed tuh dee, wheare Aw'd sarved fur sixty year; `un Aw thowt Aw'd lug my books up intuh t' garret, un' all my bits uh stuff, un' they sud hev t' kitchen tuh theirseln;fur t' sake uh quietness.It wur hard tuh gie up my awn hearthstun, bud Aw thowt Aw could do that! Bud, nah, shoo's taan my garden frough me, un' by th' heart, maister, Aw cannot stand it! Yah muh bend tuh th'

yoak, an ye will Aw noan used to `t, and an ow'd man dosen't sooin get used tuh new barthens.Aw'd rayther arn my bite an' my sup wi' a hammer in th' road!'

`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.'

`It's noan Nelly!' answered Joseph.`Aw sudn't shift fur Nellie--nasty ill nowt as shoo is.Thank God! shoo cannot stale t' sowl o' nob'dy!

Shoo wer niver soa handsome, bud whet a body mud look at her `baht winking.

It's yon flaysome, graceless quean, ut s witched ahr lad, wi' her bold een un' her forrard ways--till--Nay! it fair brusts my heart! He's forgetten all Ee done for him, un' made on him, un' goan un' riven up a whole row ut 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.

`Is the fool drunk?' asked Mr Heathcliff.`Hareton, is it you he's finding fault with?'

`I've pulled up two or three bushes,' replied the young man; `but I'm going to set `em again.'

`And why have you pulled them up?' said the master.Catherine unwisely put in her tongue.

"We wanted to plant some flowers there,' she cried.`I'm the only person to blame, for I wished him to do it.'

`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.

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!'

`Your land, insolent slut! You never had any,' said Heathcliff.

`And my money,' she continued; returning his angry glare, and meantime biting a piece of crust, the remnant of her breakfast.

`Silence!' he exclaimed.`Get done, and begone!'

`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!'

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

`If you strike me, Hareton will strike you,' she said; `so you may as well sit down.'