[00:02.02] Chapter four, Cathy's choice.
[00:04.72] Nelly, I said, do not stir from this room until you have told me more of the story.
[00:11.37] Very well, sir, said Nelly, and took up her knitting again.
[00:16.70] But I must make a leap of three years in my tale.
[00:20.82] You will do nothing of the kind, I told her.
[00:24.82] As you wish, said Nelly.
[00:27.87] Then I will just pass to the next summer, when Francis Earnshaw's baby was born.
[00:35.37] We were busy with the hay, when one of the girls came running over the meadow, calling to us as she ran.
[00:44.42] Oh, such a grand baby, she cried.
[00:48.40] The finest lad that ever breathed, but the mistress is dying.
[00:54.45] Doctor says she's had consumption for these many months and will be dead before winter.
[01:01.86] You're to come back to the house at once, Nelly, for you are to look after the baby.
[01:10.12] I followed the girl, feeling a keen sorrow for Hindley.
[01:15.26] He adored his wife, and I couldn't think how he would bear the loss.
[01:23.50] I found him standing by the door.
[01:27.37] Damn the doctor, he told me.
[01:30.86] There's nothing wrong with Francis, nothing at all.
[01:35.07] He almost persuaded me of the truth of this.
[01:39.54] Certainly he convinced the mistress, for she seemed happy enough with her little son, but very weak.
[01:46.98] She remained like this for several weeks.
[01:52.38] Then, one night, as she leaned on his shoulder, saying that she thought she might be able to get up for a little in the morning, she had a fit of coughing.
[02:04.42] It was only a slight one.
[02:08.97] He raised her in his arms.
[02:12.24] She put her two hands round his neck, and she was gone.
[02:20.99] The child, Herton, was now mine completely, to care for and love.
[02:29.21] The young man at Wethering Heights, I interrupted.
[02:33.79] But surely, Nelly, since he is the son of Hindley Earnshaw, the house ought by rights to belong to him.
[02:44.74] So it ought, sir, said Nelly.
[02:47.98] But you will see how this did not come about.
[02:53.92] After the death of his wife, Hindley fell into bad ways, drinking, gambling and taking no interest in his son at all.
[03:05.04] He became a tyrant, and the servants at last would stand his behavior no longer.
[03:10.79] They left, leaving just Joseph and me to care for everything.
[03:17.48] The master's bad ways and bad companions were a poor example for Kathy and Heathcliff to follow.
[03:26.29] What an infernal house we had, sir.
[03:29.93] None would come near, unless you count a young Edgar Linton who doted on Kathy.
[03:38.47] At 15, she was the queen of the countryside and as headstrong as ever.
[03:47.47] But he never came unless he was certain not to meet up with Hindley in one of his drunken rages.
[03:57.84] Well, it came about that Hindley would be away from home for a day, and Heathcliff decided to give himself a holiday on the strength of this.
[04:09.97] He was 16 by now and a well-built, handsome lad.
[04:16.18] He strolled into the kitchen just as I was helping Kathy arrange her hair.
[04:22.91] Why are you wearing a silk dress? he demanded.
[04:28.30] No reason, said Kathy, her voice wavering, for she knew as well as I that Edgar Linton was due to pay a visit.
[04:39.61] Shouldn't you be in the fields by now?
[04:43.85] Hindley doesn't often free us from his cursed presence, replied Heathcliff.
[04:49.71] I'll work no more today, but stay with you.
[04:53.16] But Joseph will tell, said Kathy quickly, casting an anxious glance at me.
[05:00.32] Joseph is loading lime on the far side of Pennistone Crags, Heathcliff told her.
[05:06.55] He won't be back till dark.
[05:11.59] There was nothing for it, but for Kathy to tell the truth.
[05:16.70] Isabella and Edgar Linton might call today, she said.
[05:24.03] Get Nelly to tell them that you're out, said Heathcliff, flinging himself down on the settle, frowning and surly.
[05:32.62] Look at the calendar there on the wall, Kathy.
[05:36.87] The crosses are for the evenings you spent with the Lintons, the dots for the ones you've spent with me.
[05:46.20] Kathy lost her temper at these words and stamped her foot.
[05:51.31] And should I always be sitting with you? she demanded.
[05:56.43] What good do I get from that?
[05:59.57] What do you talk about?
[06:02.85] You might be dumb for all you say to amuse me, or for anything you do come to that.
[06:12.41] Hindley had stopped Heathcliff's lessons with Kathy a long time ago, and he now seemed to have no desire to learn anything at all, even though I had heard Kathy say a hundred times that she would teach him all that she herself had been taught.
[06:32.72] Heathcliff jumped up at her words, but there was no time for him to say anything about what he felt, for the sound of horses' hooves was heard outside.
[06:43.13] He rushed from the kitchen as Edgar Linton came through the front door.
[06:50.07] I'm not too soon, am I? he asked, casting a glance at me, for I had begun to dust the silver plates on the dresser, having had strict instructions from Hindley that the two of them must never be left alone.
[07:04.96] Kathy came up behind me and whispered in my ear, Take yourself and your dusters elsewhere, Nelly.
[07:13.28] I must do my work, miss, I answered, at which she gave me a very sharp and painful nip in the arm.
[07:22.57] Oh, miss! I cried.
[07:25.74] That's a nasty trick.
[07:28.04] You've no right to nip me and I won't put up with it.
[07:33.54] I didn't touch you, you lying creature, she said, blushing scarlet.
[07:40.41] What's that then? I asked, showing the mark that was already turning purple.
[07:46.64] She stamped her foot, and then her wayward spirit getting the better of her, as it so often did, slapped me hard across the cheek.
[07:59.82] Catherine, love! cried Linton, shocked at the behavior of his idol.
[08:06.65] Little Herton, who had been quietly playing on the floor until now, set up a wailing and babbled something about wicked aunt Kathy.
[08:18.02] That drew her fury down onto his own innocent head.
[08:22.34] She seized the child and shook him until he grew pale.
[08:26.75] Linton sprang to take the child from her arms and handed him to me.
[08:34.18] For his pains, he received a stinging blow on his ear.
[08:42.12] He stepped back in astonishment, and then moved towards the door.
[08:49.33] That's right, thought I.
[08:52.41] Take warning and be gone, now that you have had a glimpse of what she's really like.
[08:59.54] Where are you going? demanded Kathy.
[09:03.72] I can't stay after you have struck me, said Linton.
[09:08.02] Go then, said Kathy, and I'll cry.
[09:12.33] I'll cry myself sick.
[09:16.37] And straight away, she dropped to her knees by a chair, buried her face in its cushions and set to weeping.
[09:26.81] Linton took a step or two towards her.
[09:31.55] Miss is dreadfully wayward, sir, I said.
[09:36.13] She's as bad as any spoiled child.
[09:40.22] You'd best be riding home, or she'll make herself sick just to annoy us and cause trouble.
[09:48.62] But the soft thing merely sat down and reached out his hands to her.
[09:55.32] He had as much power to leave as a mouse caught by a cat.
[10:01.95] The two spent the rest of the afternoon together, murmuring into each other's ears.
[10:09.44] Then Hindley came home, fighting drunk and ready to pull the house down around us.
[10:17.73] His return drove Linton speedily to his horse, and Kathy to her room.
[10:23.79] I hid little Herton and took the shot out of the master's gun.
[10:31.32] After Hindley had fallen asleep in the living room, I took Herton from the kitchen cupboard and sat with him on my knee, rocking him and singing softly to soothe him.
[10:44.31] The poor child spent many a terrified hour in the darkness of that cupboard, listening to the raging of his father, and it always took a time to calm him down afterwards.
[10:58.68] Later, Heathcliff came in for his supper and then left, so I supposed, to do his work in the stables.
[11:09.38] I was mistaken in this, as I discovered later.
[11:14.20] Because he knew that Hindley was insensible with drink, Heathcliff stayed in the kitchen, lying down on a settle that stood in a far dark corner.
[11:26.55] It was then that Kathy crept into the room.
[11:32.28] Where's Heathcliff? she asked.
[11:35.96] At his work with the horses, I said.
[11:39.89] He didn't contradict me or give away his hiding place.
[11:44.17] Perhaps he had fallen into a dose and only woke later to hear what Kathy had to say.
[11:51.27] Oh, I'm so unhappy, said she, sitting down on the hearth by my knee.
[11:59.72] A pity, I replied.
[12:02.96] So many friends and so few cares and yet can't be content.
[12:09.91] Nelly, will you keep a secret for me? she asked, gazing up at me in that way she had of making you love and forgive her, no matter what she had done before.
[12:23.77] Is it worth keeping? I asked.
[12:27.48] Yes, it is.
[12:29.88] It worries me and I want to know what I should do.
[12:35.64] Edgar Linton has asked me to marry him, and I've given him an answer.
[12:43.55] Before I tell you what it was, I want you to say what you think my answer ought to have been.
[12:53.25] How can I say? I told her.
[12:56.72] I think he is a fool to ask you after seeing your behavior this afternoon.
[13:03.85] She jumped to her feet at this.
[13:06.96] Well, he did, and I accepted him.
[13:12.26] Say I did the right thing, Nelly.
[13:17.34] Do you love him? I asked.
[13:20.58] Of course I do, she said.
[13:26.17] Then she sighed and sat down at my knee once more.
[13:32.36] Nelly, she said.
[13:36.12] Do you ever have strange dreams?
[13:43.57] I dreamt that I was in heaven and that it didn't seem like home, and I broke my heart with weeping.
[13:58.03] The angels were so angry that they flung me back to earth, and I woke with joy to find myself in the middle of the Moors.
[14:08.54] I have no more right to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven.
[14:15.95] If Hindley hadn't brought Heathcliff so low, I should not have thought of it, but it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now.
[14:29.33] It was then, sir, that I became aware of Heathcliff's presence.
[14:35.18] He stayed until he heard her say that it would degrade her to marry him, and then he rose in the shadows and silently left the room.