第92章

``Get to thy own room!'' he said, in a voice almost inarticulate with passion; and his face looked swelled and furious.``Take her there if she comes to see thee: thou shalln't keep me out of this.Begone wi'

ye both!''

`He swore at us, and left Linton no time to answer, nearly throwing him into the kitchen; and he clenched his fist as I followed, seemingly longing to knock me down.I was afraid for a moment, and I let one volume fall; he kicked it after me, and shut us out.I heard a malignant, crackly laugh by the fire, and turning, beheld that odious Joseph standing rubbing his bony hands, and quivering.

``Aw wer sure he'd sarve ye eht! He's a grand lad! He's getten t' raight sperrit in him! He knaws--Aye, he knaws, as weel as Aw do, who sud be t'maister yonder--Ech, ech, ech! He mad ye skift properly!

Ech, ech, ech!''

``Where must we go?'' I said to my cousin, disregarding the old wretch's mockery.

`Linton was white and trembling.He was not pretty then, Ellen:

oh no! he looked frightful; for his thin face and large eyes were wrought into an expression of frantic, powerless fury.He grasped the handle of the door, and shook it: it was fastened inside.

``If you don't let me in I'll kill you!--If you don't let me in, I'll kill you!'' he rather shrieked than said.``Devil! devil!--I'll kill you--I'll kill you!''

`Joseph uttered his croaking laugh again.

``Thear, that's t' father!'' he cried.``That's father! We've alIas summut uh orther side in us.Niver heed Hareton, lad--dunnut be `feard--he cannot get at thee!''

`I took hold of Linton's hands, and tried to pull him away; but he shrieked so shockingly that I dared not proceed.At last his cries were choked by a dreadful fit of coughing; blood gushed from his mouth, and he fell on the ground.I ran into the yard, sick with terror; and called for Zillah, as loud as I could.She soon heard me: she was milking the cows in a shed behind the barn, `and hurrying from her work, she inquired what there was to do? I hadn't breath to explain; dragging her in, I looked about for Linton.Earnshaw had come out to examine the mischief he had caused, and he was then conveying the poor thing upstairs.Zillah and Iascended after him; but he stopped me at the top of the steps, and said I shouldn't go in: I must go home.I exclaimed that he had killed Linton, and I would enter.Joseph locked the door, and declared I should do ``no sich stuff'', and asked me whether I were ``bahn to be as mad as him''.I stood crying, till the housekeeper reappeared.She affirmed he would be better in a bit, but he couldn't do with that shrieking and din;and she took me, and nearly carried me into the house.

`Ellen, I was ready to tear my hair off my head! I sobbed and wept so that my eyes were almost blind; and the ruffian you have such sympathy with stood opposite: presuming every now and then to bid me ``wisht'', and denying that it was his fault; and, finally, frightened by my assertions that I would tell papa, and that he should be put in prison and hanged, he commenced blubbering himself, and hurried out to hide his cowardly agitation.

Still, I was not rid of him: when at length they compelled me to depart, and I had got some hundred yards off the premises, he suddenly issued from the shadow of the roadside, and checked Minny and took hold of me.

``Miss Catherine, I'm ill grieved,'' he began, ``but it's rayther too bad--''

`I gave him a cut with my whip, thinking perhaps he would murder me.He let go, thundering one of his horrid curses, and I galloped home more than half out of my senses.