Chapter: As soon as I had perused this epistle I went to the master, and informed
him that his sister had arrived at the Heights, and sent me a letter
expressing her sorrow for Mrs. Linton's situation, and her ardent desire
to see him; with a wish that he would transmit to her, as early as
possible, some token of forgiveness by me.

'Forgiveness!' said Linton.  'I have nothing to forgive her, Ellen.  You
may call at Wuthering Heights this afternoon, if you like, and say that I
am not angry, but I'm sorry to have lost her; especially as I can never
think she'll be happy.  It is out of the question my going to see her,
however: we are eternally divided; and should she really wish to oblige
me, let her persuade the villain she has married to leave the country.'

'And you won't write her a little note, sir?' I asked, imploringly.

'No,' he answered.  'It is needless.  My communication with Heathcliff's
family shall be as sparing as his with mine.  It shall not exist!'

Mr. Edgar's coldness depressed me exceedingly; and all the way from the
Grange I puzzled my brains how to put more heart into what he said, when
I repeated it; and how to soften his refusal of even a few lines to
console Isabella. I daresay she had been on the watch for me since
morning: I saw her looking through the lattice as I came up the garden
causeway, and I nodded to her; but she drew back, as if afraid of being
observed. I entered without knocking. There never was such a dreary,
dismal scene as the formerly cheerful house presented! I must confess,
that if I had been in the young lady's place, I would, at least, have
swept the hearth, and wiped the tables with a duster. But she already
partook of the pervading spirit of neglect which encompassed her. Her
pretty face was wan and listless; her hair uncurled: some locks hanging
lankly down, and some carelessly twisted round her head. Probably she
had not touched her dress since yester evening. Hindley was not there.
Mr. Heathcliff sat at a table, turning over some papers in his
pocket-book; but he rose when I appeared, asked me how I did, quite
friendly, and offered me a chair. He was the only thing there that
seemed decent; and I thought he never looked better. So much had
circumstances altered their positions, that he would certainly have
struck a stranger as a born and bred gentleman; and his wife as a
thorough little slattern! She came forward eagerly to greet me, and held
out one hand to take the expected letter. I shook my head. She wouldn't
understand the hint, but followed me to a sideboard, where I went to lay
my bonnet, and importuned me in a whisper to give her directly what I
had brought. Heathcliff guessed the meaning of her manoeuvres, and
said--'If you have got anything for Isabella (as no doubt you have,
Nelly), give it to her. You needn't make a secret of it: we have no
secrets between us.'

'Oh, I have nothing,' I replied, thinking it best to speak the truth at
once.  'My master bid me tell his sister that she must not expect either
a letter or a visit from him at present.  He sends his love, ma'am, and
his wishes for your happiness, and his pardon for the grief you have
occasioned; but he thinks that after this time his household and the
household here should drop intercommunication, as nothing could come of
keeping it up.'

Mrs. Heathcliff's lip quivered slightly, and she returned to her seat in
the window.  Her husband took his stand on the hearthstone, near me, and
began to put questions concerning Catherine.  I told him as much as I
thought proper of her illness, and he extorted from me, by
cross-examination, most of the facts connected with its origin.  I blamed
her, as she deserved, for bringing it all on herself; and ended by hoping
that he would follow Mr. Linton's example and avoid future interference
with his family, for good or evil.

'Mrs. Linton is now just recovering,' I said; 'she'll never be like she
was, but her life is spared; and if you really have a regard for her,
you'll shun crossing her way again: nay, you'll move out of this country
entirely; and that you may not regret it, I'll inform you Catherine
Linton is as different now from your old friend Catherine Earnshaw, as
that young lady is different from me.  Her appearance is changed greatly,
her character much more so; and the person who is compelled, of
necessity, to be her companion, will only sustain his affection hereafter
by the remembrance of what she once was, by common humanity, and a sense
of duty!'

'That is quite possible,' remarked Heathcliff, forcing himself to seem
calm: 'quite possible that your master should have nothing but common
humanity and a sense of duty to fall back upon.  But do you imagine that
I shall leave Catherine to his _duty_ and _humanity_? and can you compare
my feelings respecting Catherine to his?  Before you leave this house, I
must exact a promise from you that you'll get me an interview with her:
consent, or refuse, I _will_ see her!  What do you say?'

'I say, Mr. Heathcliff,' I replied, 'you must not: you never shall,
through my means.  Another encounter between you and the master would
kill her altogether.'

'With your aid that may be avoided,' he continued; 'and should there be
danger of such an event--should he be the cause of adding a single
trouble more to her existence--why, I think I shall be justified in going
to extremes!  I wish you had sincerity enough to tell me whether
Catherine would suffer greatly from his loss: the fear that she would
restrains me.  And there you see the distinction between our feelings:
had he been in my place, and I in his, though I hated him with a hatred
that turned my life to gall, I never would have raised a hand against
him.  You may look incredulous, if you please!  I never would have
banished him from her society as long as she desired his.  The moment her
regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out, and drunk his blood!  But,
till then--if you don't believe me, you don't know me--till then, I would
have died by inches before I touched a single hair of his head!'

'And yet,' I interrupted, 'you have no scruples in completely ruining all
hopes of her perfect restoration, by thrusting yourself into her
remembrance now, when she has nearly forgotten you, and involving her in
a new tumult of discord and distress.'

'You suppose she has nearly forgotten me?' he said.  'Oh, Nelly! you know
she has not!  You know as well as I do, that for every thought she spends
on Linton she spends a thousand on me!  At a most miserable period of my
life, I had a notion of the kind: it haunted me on my return to the
neighbourhood last summer; but only her own assurance could make me admit
the horrible idea again.  And then, Linton would be nothing, nor Hindley,
nor all the dreams that ever I dreamt.  Two words would comprehend my
future--_death_ and _hell_: existence, after losing her, would be hell.
Yet I was a fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton's
attachment more than mine.  If he loved with all the powers of his puny
being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.  And
Catherine has a heart as deep as I have: the sea could be as readily
contained in that horse-trough as her whole affection be monopolised by
him.  Tush!  He is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her
horse.  It is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him
what he has not?'

'Catherine and Edgar are as fond of each other as any two people can be,'
cried Isabella, with sudden vivacity.  'No one has a right to talk in
that manner, and I won't hear my brother depreciated in silence!'

'Your brother is wondrous fond of you too, isn't he?' observed
Heathcliff, scornfully.  'He turns you adrift on the world with
surprising alacrity.'

'He is not aware of what I suffer,' she replied.  'I didn't tell him
that.'

'You have been telling him something, then: you have written, have you?'

'To say that I was married, I did write--you saw the note.'

'And nothing since?'

'No.'

'My young lady is looking sadly the worse for her change of condition,' I
remarked.  'Somebody's love comes short in her case, obviously; whose, I
may guess; but, perhaps, I shouldn't say.'

'I should guess it was her own,' said Heathcliff.  'She degenerates into
a mere slut!  She is tired of trying to please me uncommonly early.  You'd
hardly credit it, but the very morrow of our wedding she was weeping to
go home.  However, she'll suit this house so much the better for not
being over nice, and I'll take care she does not disgrace me by rambling
abroad.'

'Well, sir,' returned I, 'I hope you'll consider that Mrs. Heathcliff is
accustomed to be looked after and waited on; and that she has been
brought up like an only daughter, whom every one was ready to serve.  You
must let her have a maid to keep things tidy about her, and you must
treat her kindly.  Whatever be your notion of Mr. Edgar, you cannot doubt
that she has a capacity for strong attachments, or she wouldn't have
abandoned the elegancies, and comforts, and friends of her former home,
to fix contentedly, in such a wilderness as this, with you.'

'She abandoned them under a delusion,' he answered; 'picturing in me a
hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous
devotion.  I can hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature,
so obstinately has she persisted in forming a fabulous notion of my
character and acting on the false impressions she cherished.  But, at
last, I think she begins to know me: I don't perceive the silly smiles
and grimaces that provoked me at first; and the senseless incapability of
discerning that I was in earnest when I gave her my opinion of her
infatuation and herself.  It was a marvellous effort of perspicacity to
discover that I did not love her.  I believed, at one time, no lessons
could teach her that!  And yet it is poorly learnt; for this morning she
announced, as a piece of appalling intelligence, that I had actually
succeeded in making her hate me!  A positive labour of Hercules, I assure
you!  If it be achieved, I have cause to return thanks.  Can I trust your
assertion, Isabella?  Are you sure you hate me?  If I let you alone for
half a day, won't you come sighing and wheedling to me again?  I daresay
she would rather I had seemed all tenderness before you: it wounds her
vanity to have the truth exposed.  But I don't care who knows that the
passion was wholly on one side: and I never told her a lie about it.  She
cannot accuse me of showing one bit of deceitful softness.  The first
thing she saw me do, on coming out of the Grange, was to hang up her
little dog; and when she pleaded for it, the first words I uttered were a
wish that I had the hanging of every being belonging to her, except one:
possibly she took that exception for herself.  But no brutality disgusted
her: I suppose she has an innate admiration of it, if only her precious
person were secure from injury!  Now, was it not the depth of
absurdity--of genuine idiotcy, for that pitiful, slavish, mean-minded
brach to dream that I could love her?  Tell your master, Nelly, that I
never, in all my life, met with such an abject thing as she is.  She even
disgraces the name of Linton; and I've sometimes relented, from pure lack
of invention, in my experiments on what she could endure, and still creep
shamefully cringing back!  But tell him, also, to set his fraternal and
magisterial heart at ease: that I keep strictly within the limits of the
law.  I have avoided, up to this period, giving her the slightest right
to claim a separation; and, what's more, she'd thank nobody for dividing
us.  If she desired to go, she might: the nuisance of her presence
outweighs the gratification to be derived from tormenting her!'

'Mr. Heathcliff,' said I, 'this is the talk of a madman; your wife, most
likely, is convinced you are mad; and, for that reason, she has borne
with you hitherto: but now that you say she may go, she'll doubtless
avail herself of the permission.  You are not so bewitched, ma'am, are
you, as to remain with him of your own accord?'

'Take care, Ellen!' answered Isabella, her eyes sparkling irefully; there
was no misdoubting by their expression the full success of her partner's
endeavours to make himself detested.  'Don't put faith in a single word
he speaks.  He's a lying fiend! a monster, and not a human being!  I've
been told I might leave him before; and I've made the attempt, but I dare
not repeat it!  Only, Ellen, promise you'll not mention a syllable of his
infamous conversation to my brother or Catherine.  Whatever he may
pretend, he wishes to provoke Edgar to desperation: he says he has
married me on purpose to obtain power over him; and he sha'n't obtain
it--I'll die first!  I just hope, I pray, that he may forget his
diabolical prudence and kill me!  The single pleasure I can imagine is to
die, or to see him dead!'

'There--that will do for the present!' said Heathcliff.  'If you are
called upon in a court of law, you'll remember her language, Nelly!  And
take a good look at that countenance: she's near the point which would
suit me.  No; you're not fit to be your own guardian, Isabella, now; and
I, being your legal protector, must retain you in my custody, however
distasteful the obligation may be.  Go up-stairs; I have something to say
to Ellen Dean in private.  That's not the way: up-stairs, I tell you!
Why, this is the road upstairs, child!'

He seized, and thrust her from the room; and returned muttering--'I have
no pity!  I have no pity!  The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to
crush out their entrails!  It is a moral teething; and I grind with
greater energy in proportion to the increase of pain.'

'Do you understand what the word pity means?' I said, hastening to resume
my bonnet.  'Did you ever feel a touch of it in your life?'

'Put that down!' he interrupted, perceiving my intention to depart.  'You
are not going yet.  Come here now, Nelly: I must either persuade or
compel you to aid me in fulfilling my determination to see Catherine, and
that without delay.  I swear that I meditate no harm: I don't desire to
cause any disturbance, or to exasperate or insult Mr. Linton; I only wish
to hear from herself how she is, and why she has been ill; and to ask if
anything that I could do would be of use to her.  Last night I was in the
Grange garden six hours, and I'll return there to-night; and every night
I'll haunt the place, and every day, till I find an opportunity of
entering.  If Edgar Linton meets me, I shall not hesitate to knock him
down, and give him enough to insure his quiescence while I stay.  If his
servants oppose me, I shall threaten them off with these pistols.  But
wouldn't it be better to prevent my coming in contact with them, or their
master?  And you could do it so easily.  I'd warn you when I came, and
then you might let me in unobserved, as soon as she was alone, and watch
till I departed, your conscience quite calm: you would be hindering
mischief.'

I protested against playing that treacherous part in my employer's house:
and, besides, I urged the cruelty and selfishness of his destroying Mrs.
Linton's tranquillity for his satisfaction.  'The commonest occurrence
startles her painfully,' I said.  'She's all nerves, and she couldn't
bear the surprise, I'm positive.  Don't persist, sir! or else I shall be
obliged to inform my master of your designs; and he'll take measures to
secure his house and its inmates from any such unwarrantable intrusions!'

'In that case I'll take measures to secure you, woman!' exclaimed
Heathcliff; 'you shall not leave Wuthering Heights till to-morrow
morning.  It is a foolish story to assert that Catherine could not bear
to see me; and as to surprising her, I don't desire it: you must prepare
her--ask her if I may come.  You say she never mentions my name, and that
I am never mentioned to her.  To whom should she mention me if I am a
forbidden topic in the house?  She thinks you are all spies for her
husband.  Oh, I've no doubt she's in hell among you!  I guess by her
silence, as much as anything, what she feels.  You say she is often
restless, and anxious-looking: is that a proof of tranquillity?  You talk
of her mind being unsettled.  How the devil could it be otherwise in her
frightful isolation?  And that insipid, paltry creature attending her
from _duty_ and _humanity_!  From _pity_ and _charity_!  He might as well
plant an oak in a flower-pot, and expect it to thrive, as imagine he can
restore her to vigour in the soil of his shallow cares?  Let us settle it
at once: will you stay here, and am I to fight my way to Catherine over
Linton and his footman?  Or will you be my friend, as you have been
hitherto, and do what I request?  Decide! because there is no reason for
my lingering another minute, if you persist in your stubborn ill-nature!'

Well, Mr. Lockwood, I argued and complained, and flatly refused him fifty
times; but in the long run he forced me to an agreement.  I engaged to
carry a letter from him to my mistress; and should she consent, I
promised to let him have intelligence of Linton's next absence from home,
when he might come, and get in as he was able: I wouldn't be there, and
my fellow-servants should be equally out of the way.  Was it right or
wrong?  I fear it was wrong, though expedient.  I thought I prevented
another explosion by my compliance; and I thought, too, it might create a
favourable crisis in Catherine's mental illness: and then I remembered
Mr. Edgar's stern rebuke of my carrying tales; and I tried to smooth away
all disquietude on the subject, by affirming, with frequent iteration,
that that betrayal of trust, if it merited so harsh an appellation,
should be the last.  Notwithstanding, my journey homeward was sadder than
my journey thither; and many misgivings I had, ere I could prevail on
myself to put the missive into Mrs. Linton's hand.

But here is Kenneth; I'll go down, and tell him how much better you are.
My history is _dree_, as we say, and will serve to while away another
morning.

Dree, and dreary!  I reflected as the good woman descended to receive the
doctor: and not exactly of the kind which I should have chosen to amuse
me.  But never mind!  I'll extract wholesome medicines from Mrs. Dean's
bitter herbs; and firstly, let me beware of the fascination that lurks in
Catherine Heathcliff's brilliant eyes.  I should be in a curious taking
if I surrendered my heart to that young person, and the daughter turned
out a second edition of the mother.

 Nelly informs her master of Isabella's letter, and Edgar grants permission for her to visit the Heights. When Nelly calls on Isabella, she finds her pale and listless. Isabella is extremely disappointed that Nelly brings no word from her brother. During Nelly's visit, Heathcliff insults and humiliates Isabella, bragging about his cruelty. He even admits that it was he who hanged her pet dog before their elopement. Heathcliff demands that Nelly arrange a meeting between Catherine and himself. Nelly tells him that such an encounter would surely kill her mistress. Heathcliff threatens Nelly, saying he will detain her at Wuthering Heights and go to the Grange himself. Fearing the consequences of such a drastic action, Nelly yields and agrees to carry Heathcliff's letter to Catherine and to arrange a meeting between them if her mistress consents. At this point, Nelly's story is interrupted by the arrival of the doctor.

