Читать книгу Wuthering Heights / Грозовой перевал. Уровень 3 - Эмили Бронте, Эмили Бронте - Страница 7

Mr. Hindley came home to the funeral; and he brought a wife with him! What she was, and where she was born, he never informed us. Probably, she had neither money nor name to recommend her. He kept the union from his father. I thought she was half silly, from her behaviour.

Young Earnshaw was changed considerably in the three years of his absence. On the very day of his return, he told Joseph and me we must now live in the back-kitchen. His wife expressed pleasure at everything she saw. She was glad to find a sister among her new acquaintance, too. She chatted to Catherine, and kissed her, and gave her many presents, at the beginning. Her affection tired very soon, however, and when she grew peevish, Hindley became tyrannical. A few words from her, showing dislike to Heathcliff, were enough to rouse in him all his old hatred of the boy. He drove him from their company to the servants. He stopped his studies. Heathcliff had to work outdoors instead.

Heathcliff bore this pretty well at first, because Cathy taught him what she learnt, and worked or played with him in the fields. They both were growing up as rude as savages. It was one of their chief amusements to run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day, and later they only laughed at punishment.

One Sunday evening, they were banished from the sitting-room for making a noise. When I went to call them to supper, I could discover them nowhere. At last, Hindley in a passion told us to bolt the doors, and ordered not to let them in that night. In a while, I distinguished steps coming up the road, and the light of a lantern glimmered through the gate. I threw a shawl over my head and ran out. I wanted to prevent them from waking Mr. Earnshaw. There was Heathcliff, by himself.

'Where is Miss Catherine?' I cried hurriedly. 'No accident, I hope?'

'At Thrushcross Grange,' he answered; 'and I wanted to be there too, but they had not the manners[8] to ask me to stay'.

He told me then they had run to see, through the window, how the Lintons were spending their evening. There they saw Edgar Linton and his two sisters arguing very silly over petting the dog. They laughed and made themselves discovered, and a bulldog ran and bit Cathy by her ankle. At first the household thought our children were thieves. Then they recognized Catherine for what she was. Then they sent Heathcliff off and left the girl there to take care of Catherine. The worst thing for Heathcliff was that she liked it there – by the fire, in a family circle, everyone adoring and admiring her. Heathcliff, of course, felt heartbroken.

The luckless adventure made Earnshaw furious, and no surprise. And then Mr. Linton paid us a visit himself on the morrow, and read the young master such a lecture on the road. Heathcliff received no flogging. But the first word he speaks to Miss Catherine will ensure a dismissal. Mrs. Earnshaw undertook to keep her sister-in-law in due restraint when she returned home.