第89章

`You must come, to cure me,' he answered.`You ought to come, because you have hurt me: you know you have extremely! I was not as ill when you entered as I am at present--was I?'

`But you've made yourself ill by crying and being in a passion.'

`I didn't do it at all,' said his cousin.`However, we'll be friends now.And you want me: you would wish to see me sometimes, really?'

`I told you I did,' he replied impatiently.`Sit on the settle and let me lean on your knee.That's as mamma used to do, whole afternoons together.Sit quite still and don't talk: but you may sing a song, if you can sing; or you may say a nice long interesting ballad--one of those you promised to teach me: or a story.I'd rather have a ballad, though: begin.'

Catherine repeated the longest she could remember.The employment pleased both mightily.Linton would have another; and after that another, notwithstanding my strenuous objections; and so they went on until the clock struck twelve, and we heard Hareton in the court, returning for his dinner.

`And tomorrow, Catherine, will you be here tomorrow?' asked young Heathcliff, holding her frock as she rose reluctantly.

`No,' I answered, `nor next day neither.' She, however, gave a different response evidently, for his forehead cleared as she stooped and whispered in his ear.

`You won't go tomorrow, recollect, miss!' I commenced, when we were out of the house.`You are not dreaming of it, are you?'

`Oh, I'll take good care,' I continued: `I'll have that lock mended, and you can escape by no way else.'

`I can get over the wall,' she said, laughing.`The Grange is not a prison, Ellen, and you are not my jailer.And besides, I'm almost seventeen: I'm a woman.And I'm certain Linton would recover quickly if he had me to look after him.I'm older than he is, you know, and wiser:

less childish, am I not? And he'll soon do as I direct him, with some slight coaxing.He's a pretty little darling when he's good.I'd make such a pet of him, if he were mine.We should never quarrel, should we, after we were used to each other? Don't you like him, Ellen?'

`Like him?' I exclaimed.`The worst-tempered bit of a sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens.Happily, as Mr Heathcliff conjectured, he'll not win twenty.I doubt whether he'll see spring, indeed.And small loss to his family whenever he drops off.And lucky it is for us that his father took him: the kinder he was treated, the more tedious and selfish he'd be.I'm glad you have no chance of having him for a husband, Miss Catherine.'

My companion waxed serious at hearing this speech.To speak of his death so regardlessly, wounded her feelings.

`He's younger than I,' she answered, after a protracted pause of meditation, `and he ought to live the longest: he will--he must live as long as I do.He's as strong now as when he first came into the north;I'm positive of that.It's only a cold that ails him, the same as papa has.You say papa will get better, and why shouldn't he?'

`Well, well,' I cried, `after all, we needn't trouble ourselves;for listen, miss, and mind, I'll keep my word,--if you attempt going to Wuthering Heights again, with or without me, I shall inform Mr Linton, and, unless he allow it, the intimacy with your cousin must not be revived.'

`It has been revived,' muttered Cathy sulkily.`Must not be continued, then,' I said.

`We'll see,' was her reply, and she set off at a gallop, leaving me to toil in the rear.

We both reached home before our dinner time; my master supposed we had been wandering through the park, and therefore he demanded no explanation of our absence.As soon as I entered, I hastened to change my soaked shoes and stockings; but sitting such a while at the Heights had done the mischief.

On the succeeding morning I was laid up, and during three weeks I remained incapacitated for attending to my duties: a calamity never experienced prior to that period, and never, I am thankful to say, since.

My little mistress behaved like an angel, in coming to wait on me, and cheer my solitude: the confinement brought me exceedingly low.

It is wearisome, to a stirring active body: but few have slighter reasons for complaint than I had.The moment Catherine left Mr Linton's room, she appeared at my bedside.Her day was divided between us; no amusement usurped a minute: she neglected her meals, her studies, and her play; and she was the fondest nurse that ever watched.She must have had a warm heart, when she loved her father so, to give so much to me.I said her days were divided between us; but the master retired early, and I generally needed nothing after six o'clock; thus the evening was her own.Poor thing! I never considered what she did with herself after tea.And though frequently, when she looked in to bid me good night, I remarked a fresh colour in her cheeks and a pinkness over her slender fingers; instead of fancying the hue borrowed from a cold ride across the moors, I laid it to the charge of a hot fire in the library.