[00:01.02] Chapter 14.
[00:03.90] Return to Wathering Heights.
[00:08.31] Soon after this, I left the Grange and traveled about Europe.
[00:14.25] I was away from England for some two years.
[00:20.63] On my return, I went to shoot Grouse at the manner of a friend of mine.
[00:28.65] I had never stayed with this friend before, and was surprised to see on my journey there, a sign post with the name Giton.
[00:39.43] I had not realized that I was so near my old home.
[00:44.81] I couldn't, of course, resist making my way as soon as I could, to see my dear servant, Nelly Dean.
[00:53.77] But, at Thrushcross Grange, I was told that she now lived at Wathering Heights.
[01:02.35] She works for that man?
[01:05.62] I exclaimed, that villain Heathcliff?
[01:11.45] Nay, sir, said the girl who had opened the door to me.
[01:18.14] Heathcliff's dead.
[01:22.96] She gazed at me for a moment, then added,
[01:29.82] There was something odd about it, sir.
[01:34.71] Everyone says so.
[01:38.99] I hurried straight to the Heights and found Nelly sitting on a wooden bench under the window of the house.
[01:49.41] She was shelling peas into a bowl held in her lap.
[01:55.45] And, as she worked, she glanced fondly at Catherine, who sat close by in the little garden.
[02:05.66] Haton sat at Catherine's side, and their two heads were bent over a book.
[02:15.02] I approached softly, not wanting to disturb this peaceful scene.
[02:24.62] But Nelly heard the creak of the gate and jumped to her feet, only narrowly saving the peas from being scattered over the path.
[02:37.99] Why?
[02:39.97] Mr. Lockwood, sir, she exclaimed.
[02:45.46] Nelly, I replied, going up to her and nodding towards the young pair in the garden.
[02:53.75] The house itself seemed brighter, sunnier, with its doors open to the air and with fresh curtains at its windows.
[03:04.78] What a change!
[03:09.98] And how come you to be here of all places?
[03:18.73] Sir, two months after Heathcliff took Catherine from the Grange, he sent for me.
[03:29.50] And right glad I was to go, and was welcomed by my mistress with tears and open arms.
[03:41.67] Liton was ill and lay all but lifeless on the settle.
[03:50.25] He didn't move from it day or night, so Zilla told me, but just moaned and fretted.
[04:00.89] Dr. Kenneth said there was little to be done.
[04:06.60] And, she said, it was certain that neither Heathcliff nor Catherine did anything to make him easier.
[04:17.87] He died, and was buried with little grieving on the part of either Catherine or his father.
[04:29.06] In fact, sir, the one who seemed sorriest for the poor creature's death was Haton.
[04:38.19] I think he regarded Liton as sick, weakly animal, to be looked after as best as was possible.
[04:48.82] Of course, Heathcliff continued to treat Haton himself as a farm hand.
[04:58.80] As for Catherine, Heathcliff couldn't bear the sight of her.
[05:10.17] I don't blame Catherine for her treatment of Liton.
[05:15.60] She had truly loved him, and he repaid her love with treachery.
[05:23.51] As for Heathcliff, I supposed that his guilty conscience troubled him each time he looked at her.
[05:34.59] Little wonder my poor young mistress kept to her room.
[05:41.58] But she had one friend, even though she was rude to him at first.
[05:49.55] Haton began showing his concern for her by laying books at her door.
[05:57.02] Books that he was using to try to teach himself to read.
[06:03.99] In my first few days at the Heights, I heard him stumbling over the simplest words.
[06:14.41] But that old misery Joseph cackled away to himself about how it was late in the day for any learning, and how he had best keep to his place in life, the place where the good Lord has seen fit to put him.
[06:31.26] This roused Haton, who by rights ought to have been the owner of Wathering Heights.
[06:41.44] Catherine took his side.
[06:44.47] She too had been cheated out of her inheritance.
[06:51.08] She began to teach Haton to read, and a right quick scholar he proved to be.
[06:59.37] She had steeled herself to stand up against Heathcliff over these lessons.
[07:07.59] I too imagined the books would be flung to the back of the fire, but nothing of the sort took place.
[07:16.99] A change had come over Heathcliff, and he seemed not to notice what went on around him.
[07:26.90] I asked if he were ill, but he just shook his head.
[07:33.13] He moved from his bedroom to a smaller room, and night after night, we heard the sound of his footsteps as he paced back and forth, back and forth.
[07:48.17] Then, one night, when I carried up some candles for him, I found him leaning out through the open casement window.
[07:59.23] It seemed to me as though he had been talking or calling to someone below.
[08:08.69] But when I set the candles on the little shelf and glanced down, there was no one to be seen.
[08:20.69] I thought that the whole thing had been my fancy, sir.
[08:28.16] But night after night we heard him call, heard the creak of the casement window as it was blown back and forth.
[08:40.67] For sometimes, he fell into a doze and slept for a time with his head on the window ledge, and the wind blowing the pane to and fro.
[08:54.03] Nelly, I said, he was in the room where I was lodged, the room with the little cabinet and the names Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, and Catherine Liton.
[09:10.13] You know then, sir, said she, and gave me a keen glance.
[09:18.91] It was the worst night of my life, Nelly.
[09:24.88] And I told her about the spirit that had called to me.
[09:31.76] It seemed like a bad dream, I said, but it was real.
[09:39.17] It was very real.
[09:43.47] I don't doubt it, Mr. Lockwood, she replied.
[09:49.55] I think that at last she came for Heathcliff.
[09:56.74] Kathy came.
[10:00.69] I heard his footsteps on the stairs and the slam of the door as he left the house.
[10:11.56] It was in the small hours of the morning, and he didn't return.
[10:21.58] He was found dead, close by where Kathy is buried, and is now buried there himself.
[10:31.86] In his will, he gave the two houses back to their rightful owners.
[10:39.69] Wathering Heights to Haton, and Thrushcross Grange to Catherine.
[10:49.24] She rose from the bench, holding the bowl.
[10:54.76] Come into the house and have some tea, sir, she said.
[11:03.57] And so that is the end of the story, I remarked, following her with a backward glance at the young couple in the garden.
[11:14.11] They were laughing and gazing lovingly at each other.
[11:20.91] And a happy ending too.
[11:27.60] Not quite the end, sir, said Nelly, after she had rung for the tea to be brought.
[11:37.65] I was walking on the more sometime after Heathcliff died, and came across a little shepherd lad.
[11:47.03] He was in tears.
[11:53.18] Have your lambs strayed, my bonny?
[11:57.21] I asked.
[11:59.50] Shall I help you look for them?
[12:05.44] My lambs are safe, said the lad.
[12:11.12] It's Heathcliff.
[12:13.87] Heathcliff and a woman are up there, and I dare't go past.
[12:22.17] I thought at first that this was just the child's fancy.
[12:29.67] But others have seen them, sir, seen the two of them together.
[12:38.03] They say that their ghosts haunt the Moors.
[12:47.73] I stayed with Nelly for some time longer, and then made my way back on foot.
[12:55.47] When I reached the two graves, I paused for a time, gazing at Kathy's headstone, now covered with moss, and at Heathcliff's, which was raw, bare stone.
[13:13.59] It was a gentle night.
[13:17.94] Dusk was falling, and moths fluttered amongst the heath and the hair bells.
[13:27.87] As I listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, I wondered how anyone could ever imagine anything but peace for the sleepers in that quiet earth.