第3章
Yesterday afternoon set in misty and cold.I had half a mind to spend it by my study fire, instead of wading through heath and mud to Wuthering Heights.On coming up from dinner, however (N.B.I dine between twelve and one o'clock; the housekeeper, a matronly lady, taken as a fixture along with the house, could not, or would not, comprehend my request that I might be served at five), on mounting the stairs with this lazy intention, and stepping into the room, I saw a servant girl on her knees surrounded by brushes and coal-scuttles, and raising an infernal dust as she extinguished the flames with heaps of cinders.This spectacle drove me back immediately;I took my hat, and, after a four-miles' walk, arrived at Heathcliff's garden gate just in time to escape the first feathery flakes of a snow shower.
On that bleak hill top the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air made me shiver through every limb.Being unable to remove the chain, I jumped over, and, running up the flagged causeway bordered with straggling gooseberry bushes, knocked vainly for admittance, till my knuckles tingled and the dogs howled.
`Wretched inmates!' I ejaculated mentally, `you deserve perpetual isolation from your species for your churlish inhospitality.At least, I would not keep my doors barred in the day time.I don't care--I will get in!' So resolved, I grasped the latch and shook it vehemently.Vinegar-faced Joseph projected his head from a round window of the barn.
`Whet are ye for?' he shouted.`T' maister's dahn i' t' fowld.
Go rahnd by th' end ut' laith, if yah went tuh spake tull him.'
`Is there nobody inside to open the door?' I hallooed, responsively.
`They's nobbut t' missis; and shoo'll nut oppen't an ye mak yer flaysome dins till neeght.'
`Why? Cannot you tell her who I am, eh, Joseph?'
`Nor-ne me! Aw'll hae noa hend wi't,' muttered the head, vanishing.
The snow began to drive thickly.I seized the handle to essay another trial; when a young man without coat, and shouldering a pitchfork, appeared in the yard behind.He hailed me to follow him, and, after marching through a wash-house, and a paved area containing a coal shed, pump, and pigeon cot, we at length arrived in the huge, warm, cheerful apartment, where I was formerly received.It glowed delightfully in the radiance of an immense fire, compounded of coal, peat, and wood; and near the table, laid for a plentiful evening meal, I was pleased to observe the `missis', an individual whose existence I had never previously suspected.I bowed and waited, thinking she would bid me take a seat.She looked at me, leaning back in her chair, and remained motionless and mute.
`Rough weather!' I remarked.`I'm afraid, Mrs Heathcliff, the door must bear the consequence of your servants' leisure attendance: Ihad hard work to make them hear me.'
She never opened her mouth.I stared--she stared also: at any rate, she kept her eyes on me in a cool, regardless manner, exceedingly embarrassing and disagreeable.
`Sit down,' said the young man gruffly.`He'll be in soon.'
I obeyed; and hemmed, and called the villain Juno, who deigned, at this second interview, to move the extreme tip of her tail, in token of owning my acquaintance.
`A beautiful animal!' I commenced again.`Do you intend parting with the little ones, madam?'
`They are not mine,' said the amiable hostess, more repellingly than Heathcliff himself could have replied.
`Ah, your favourites are among these?' I continued, turning to an obscure cushion full of something like cats.
`A strange choice of favourites!' she observed scornfully.
Unluckily, it was a heap of dead rabbits.I hemmed once more, and drew closer to the hearth, repeating my comment on the wildness of the evening.
`You should not have come out,' she said, rising and reaching from the chimney-piece two of the painted canisters.
Her position before was sheltered from the light; now, I had a distinct view of her whole figure and countenance.She was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding; small features, very fair; flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck; and eyes, had they been agreeable in expression, they would have been irresistible: fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn, and a kind of desperation, singularly unnatural to be detected there.The canisters were almost out of her reach;I made a motion to aid her; she turned upon me as a miser might turn if anyone attempted to assist him in counting his gold.
`I don't want your help,' she snapped; `I can get them for myself.'
`I beg your pardon!' I hastened to reply.
`Were you asked to tea?' she demanded, tying an apron over her neat black frock, and standing with a spoonful of the leaf poised over the pot.
`I shall be glad to have a cup,' I answered.
`Were you asked?' she repeated.
`No,' I said, half smiling.`You are the proper person to ask me.'
She flung the tea back, spoon and all, and resumed her chair in a pet; her forehead corrugated, and her red under lip pushed out, like a child's ready to cry.