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发信人: fzx (化石), 信区: English
标 题: Wuthering Heights 3
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Thu May 20 14:06:12 1999), 转信
Chapter 3
While leading the way upstairs, she recommended that I should hide the
candle, and not make anoise; for her master had an odd notion about the
chamber she would put me in, and never letanybody lodge there willingly.
I asked the reason. She did not know, she answered: she had onlylived there
a year or two; and they had so many queer goings on, she could not begin
to be curious.
Too stupefied to be curious myself, I fastened my door and glanced round
for the bed. The wholefurniture consisted of a chair, a clothes-press,
and a large oak case, with squares cut out near thetop resembling coach
windows. Having approached this structure I looked inside, and perceived
itto be a singular sort of old-fashioned couch, very conveniently designed
to obviate the necessity forevery member of the family having a room to
himself. In fact it formed a little closet, and the ledgeof a window, which
it enclosed, served as a table. I slid back the panelled sides, got in
with mylight, pulled them together again, and felt secure against the
vigilance of Heathcliff, and everyoneelse.
The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up
in one corner; and itwas covered with writing scratched on the paint. This
writing, however, was nothing but a namerepeated in all kinds of
characters, large and small--Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied
toCatherine Heathcliff, and again to Catherine Linton.
In vapid listlessness I leant my head against the window, and continued
spelling over CatherineEarnshaw--Heathcliff--Linton, till my eyes closed;
but they had not rested five minutes when a glareof white letters started
from the dark as vivid as spectres--the air swarmed with Catherines;
androusing myself to dispel the obtrusive name, I discovered my candle
wick reclining on one of theantique volumes, and perfuming the place with
an odour of roasted calfskin. I snuffed it off, and,very ill at ease under
the influence of cold and lingering nausea, sat up and spread open the
injuredtome on my knee. It was a Testament, in lean type, and smelling
dreadfully musty: a fly-leaf bore theinscription --`Catherine Earnshaw,
her book', and a date some quarter of a century back. I shut it,and took
up another, and another, till I had examined all. Catherine's library was
select, and its stateof dilapidation proved it to have been well used;
though not altogether for a legitimate purpose:scarcely one chapter had
escaped a pen-and-ink commentary--at least, the appearance ofone--
covering every morsel of blank that the printer had left. Some were
detached sentences; otherparts took the form of a regular diary, scrawled
in an unformed childish hand. At the top of an extrapage (quite a treasure,
probably, when first lighted on) I was greatly amused to behold an
excellentcaricature of my friend Joseph,--rudely, yet powerfully
sketched. An immediate interest kindledwithin me for the unknown
Catherine, and I began forthwith to decipher her faded hieroglyphics.
`An awful Sunday!' commenced the paragraph beneath. `I wish my father
were back again.Hindley is a detestable substitute his conduct to
Heathcliff is atrocious--H. and I are going torebel--we took our
initiatory step this evening.
`All day had been flooding with rain; we could not go to church, so Joseph
must needs get up acongregation in the garret; and, while Hindley and his
wife basked downstairs before a comfortablefire--doing anything but
reading their Bibles, I'll answer for it--Heathcliff, myself, and the
unhappyplough-boy, were commanded to take our prayer books, and mount:
we were ranged in a row, ona sack of corn, groaning and shivering, and
hoping that Joseph would shiver too, so that he mightgive us a short homily
for his own sake. A vain idea! The service lasted precisely three hours;
andyet my brother had the face to exclaim, when he saw us descending, "What,
done already?" OnSunday evenings we used to be permitted to play, if we
did not make much noise; now a mere titteris sufficient to send us into
comers!
`"You forget you have a master here," says the tyrant. "I'll demolish
the first who puts me out oftemper! I insist on perfect sobriety and
silence. Oh, boy! was that you? Frances, darling, pull hishair as you go
by: I heard him snap his fingers." Frances pulled his hair heartily, and
then went andseated herself on her husband's knee; and there they were,
like two babies, kissing and talkingnonsense by the hour--foolish palaver
that we should be ashamed of. We made ourselves as snugas our means allowed
in the arch of the dresser. I had just fastened our pinafores together,
and hungthem up for a curtain, when in comes Joseph on an errand from the
stables. He tears down myhandiwork, boxes my ears, and croaks--
`"T' maister nobbut just buried, and Sabbath nut o'ered, und t' sahnd
uh t' gospel still i' yer lugs,and yah darr be laiking! Shame on ye! sit
ye dahn, ill childer! they's good books eneugh if ye'll read'em! sit ye
dahn, and think uh yer sowls!"
`Saying this, he compelled us so to square our positions that we might
receive from the far-off fire adull ray to show us the text of the lumber
thrust upon us. I could not bear the employment. I tookmy dingy volume
by the scroop, and hurled it into the dog kennel, vowing I hated a good
book.Heathcliff kicked his to the same place. Then there was a hubbub!
`"Maister Hindley!" shouted our chaplain. "Maister, coom hither! Miss
Cathy's riven th' back off`Th' Helmet uh Salvation, un' Heathcliff's
pawsed his fit intuh t' first part uh `T' Brooad Way toDestruction!' It's
fair flaysome ut yah let 'em goa on this gait. Ech! th' owd man ud uh laced
'emproperly--but he's goan!"
`Hindley hurried up from his paradise on the hearth, and seizing one of
us by the collar, and theother by the arm, hurled both into the back kitchen;
where, Joseph asseverated, "owd Nick" wouldfetch us as sure as we were
living: and, so comforted, we each sought a separate nook to await
hisadvent. I reached this book, and a pot of ink from a shelf, and pushed
the house door ajar to giveme light, and I have got the time on with writing
for twenty minutes; but my companion is impatient,and proposes that we
should appropriate the dairywoman's cloak, and have a scamper on themoors,
under its shelter. A pleasant suggestion--and then, if the surly old man
come in, he maybelieve his prophecy verified--we cannot be damper, or
colder, in the rain than we are here.'
***I suppose Catherine fulfilled
her project, for the next sentence took up another subject: she
waxedlachrymose.
`How little did I dream that Hindley would ever make me cry so!' she wrote.
`My head aches, till Icannot keep it on the pillow; and still I can't give
over. Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him avagabond, and won't let him sit
with us, nor eat with us any more; and, he says, he and I must notplay
together, and threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his orders.
He has beenblaming our father (how dared he?) for treating H. too liberally;
and swears he will reduce him to hisright place--'
***I began to nod drowsily over
the dim page: my eye wandered from manuscript to print, I saw a
redornamented title--`Seventy Times Seven, and the First of the
Seventy-First. A Pious Discoursedelivered by the Reverend Jabes
Branderham, in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough.' And while Iwas, half
consciously, worrying my brain to guess what Jabes Branderham would make
of hissubject, I sank back in bed, and fell asleep. Alas, for the effects
of bad tea and bad temper! whatelse could it be that made me pass such
a terrible night? I don't remember another that I can at allcompare with
it since I was capable of suffering.
I began to dream, almost before I ceased to be sensible of my locality.
I thought it was morning;and I had set out on my way home, with Joseph
for a guide. The snow lay yards deep in our road;and, as we floundered
on, my companion wearied me with constant reproaches that I had notbrought
a pilgrim's staff: telling me that I could never get into the house without
one, and boastfullyflourishing a heavy-headed cudgel, which I understood
to be so denominated. For a moment Iconsidered it absurd that I should
need such a weapon to gain admittance into my own residence.Then a new
idea flashed across me. I was not going there: we were journeying to hear
the famousJabes Branderham preach from the text--`Seventy Times Seven';
and either Joseph, the preacher,or I had committed the `First of the
Seventy-First', and were to be publicly exposed andexcommunicated.
We came to the chapel. I have passed it really in my walks, twice or thrice;
it lies in a hollow,between two hills; an elevated hollow, near a swamp,
whose peaty moisture is said to answer all thepurposes of embalming on
the few corpses deposited there. The roof has been kept whole hitherto;but
as the clergyman's stipend is only twenty pounds per annum, and a house
with two rooms,threatening speedily to determine into one, no clergyman
will undertake the duties of pastor:especially as it is currently reported
that his flock would rather let him starve than increase the livingby one
penny from their own pockets. However, in my dream, Jabes had a full and
attentivecongregation; and he preached--good God! what a sermon'. divided
into four hundred and ninetyparts, each fully equal to an ordinary address
from the pulpit, and each discussing a separate sin!Where he searched for
them, I cannot tell. He had his private manner of interpreting the phrase,
andit seemed necessary the brother should sin different sins on every
occasion. They were of the mostcurious character: odd transgressions that
I never imagined previously.
Oh, how weary I grew. How I writhed, and yawned, and nodded, and revived!
How I pinchedand pricked myself, and rubbed my eyes, and stood up, and
sat down again, and nudged Joseph toinform me if he would ever have done.
I was condemned 10 hear all out: finally, he reached the`First of the
Seventy-First'. At that crisis, a sudden inspiration descended on me; I
was moved torise and denounce Jabes Branderham as the sinner of the sin
that no Christian need pardon.
`Sir,' I exclaimed, `sitting here within these four walls, at one stretch,
I have endured and forgiventhe four hundred and ninety heads of your
discourse. Seventy times seven times have I plucked upmy hat and been about
to depart--seventy times seven times have you preposterously forced me
toresume my seat. The four hundred and ninety-first is too much.
Fellow-martyrs, have at him! Draghim down, and crush him to atoms, that
the place which knows him may know him no more!'
`Thou art the Man!' cries Jabes, after a solemn pause, leaning over his
cushion. `Seventy timesseven times didst thou gapingly contort thy
visage--seventy times seven did I take counsel with mysoul--Lo, this is
human weakness: this also may be absolved! The First of the Seventy-First
iscome. Brethren, execute upon him the judgment written. Such honour have
all His saints!'
With that concluding word, the whole assembly, exalting their pilgrim's
staves, rushed round me ina body; and I, having no weapon to raise in
self-defence, commenced grappling with Joseph, mynearest and most
ferocious assailant, for his. In the confluence of the multitude, several
clubscrossed; blows, aimed at me, fell on other sconces. Presently the
whole chapel resounded withrappings and counter-rappings: every man's
hand was against his neighbour; and Branderham,unwilling to remain idle,
poured forth his zeal in a shower of loud taps on the boards of the
pulpit,which responded so smartly that, at last, to my unspeakable relief,
they woke me. And what was itthat had suggested the tremendous tumult?
What had played Jabes's part in the row? Merely, thebranch of a fir tree
that touched my lattice, as the blast wailed by, and rattled its dry cones
againstthe panes! I listened doubtingly an instant; detected the
disturber, then turned and dozed, anddreamt again: if possible, still more
disagreeably than before.
This time, I remembered I was lying in the oak closet, and I heard
distinctly the gusty wind, and thedriving of the snow; I heard, also, the
fir bough repeat its teasing sound, and ascribed it to the rightcause:
but it annoyed me so much, that I resolved to--silence it, if possible;
and, I thought, I roseand endeavoured to unhasp the casement. The hook
was soldered into the staple: a circumstanceobserved by me when awake,
but forgotten. `I must stop it, nevertheless!' I muttered, knocking
myknuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the
importunate branch; instead ofwhich, my fingers closed on the fingers of
a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmarecame over me: I
tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy
voicesobbed, `Let me in--let me in!' `Who are you?' I asked, struggling,
meanwhile, to disengage myself.`Catherine Linton,' it replied,
shiveringly (why did I think of Linton? I had read Earnshaw twentytimes
for Linton); `I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor!' As it spoke,
I discerned,obscurely, a child's face looking through the window. Terror
made me cruel; and, finding it uselessto attempt shaking the creature off,
I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and frotill
the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it wailed, `Let me
in!' and maintained itstenacious grip, almost maddening me with fear. `How
can I?' I said at length. `Let me go, if youwant me to let you in!' The
fingers relaxed, I snatched mine through the hole, hurriedly piled
thebooks up in a pyramid against it, and stopped my ears to exclude the
lamentable prayer. I seemedto keep them closed above a quarter of an hour;
yet, the instant I listened again, there was thedoleful cry moaning on!
`Begone!' I shouted, `I'll never let you in, not if you beg for twenty
years.'`It is twenty years,' mourned the voice: `twenty years. I've been
a waif for twenty years!' Thereatbegan a feeble scratching outside, and
the pile of books moved as if thrust forward. I tried to jumpup; but could
not stir a limb; and so yelled aloud, in a frenzy of fright. To my confusion,
I discoveredthe yell was not ideal: hasty footsteps approached my chamber
door; somebody pushed it open,with a vigorous hand, and a light glimmered
through the squares at the top of the bed. I satshuddering yet, and wiping
the perspiration from my forehead: the intruder appeared to hesitate,and
muttered to himself. At last, he said in a half-whisper, plainly not
expecting an answer, `Is anyone here?' I considered it best to confess
my presence, for I knew Heathcliff's accents, and fearedhe might search
further, if I kept quiet. With this intention, I turned and opened the
panels. I shallnot soon forget the effect my action produced.
Heathcliff stood near the entrance, in his shirt and trousers: with a
candle dripping over his fingers,and his face as white as the wall behind
him. The first creak of the oak startled him like an electricshock! the
light leaped from his hold to a distance of some feet, and his agitation
was so extreme,that he could hardly pick it up.
`It is only your guest, sir,' I called out, desirous to spare him the
humiliation of exposing hiscowardice further. `I had the misfortune to
scream in my sleep, owing to a frightful nightmare. I'msorry I disturbed
you.
`Oh God confound you, Mr Lockwood! I wish you were at the--` commenced
my host, setting thecandle on a chair, because he found it impossible to
hold it steady. `And who showed you up intothis room?' he continued,
crushing his nails into his palms, and grinding his teeth to subdue
themaxillary convulsions. `Who was it? I've a good mind to turn them out
of the house this moment!'
`It was your servant, Zillah,' I replied, flinging myself on to the floor,
and rapidly resuming mygarments. `I should not care if you did, Mr
Heathcliff; she richly deserves it. I suppose that shewanted to get
another proof that the place was haunted, at my expense. Well, it is-
-swarming withghosts and goblins! You have reason in shutting it up, I
assure you. No one will thank you for adoze in such a den!'
`What do you mean?' asked Heathcliff, `and what are you doing? Lie down
and finish out the night,since you are here; but, for heaven's sake! don't
repeat that horrid noise; nothing could excuse it,unless you were having
your throat cut!'
`If the little fiend had got in at the window, she probably would have
strangled me!' I returned. `I'mnot going to endure the persecutions of
your hospitable ancestors again. Was not the ReverendJabes Branderham
akin to you on the mother's side? And that minx, Catherine Linton, or
Earnshaw,or however she was called--she must have been a changeling--
wicked little soul! She told me shehad been walking the earth these twenty
years: a just punishment for her mortal transgressions, I'veno doubt!'
Scarcely were these words uttered, when I recollected the association
of Heathcliff's withCatherine's name in the book,--which had completely
slipped from my memory, till thus awakened.I blushed at my inconsideration;
but, without showing further consciousness of the offence, Ihastened to
add--`The truth is, sir, I passed the first part of the night in'--Here
I stopped afresh--Iwas about to say perusing those old volumes', then it
would have revealed my knowledge of theirwritten, as well as their printed,
contents: so, correcting myself, I went on, `in spelling over the
namescratched on that window-ledge. A monotonous occupation, calculated
to set me asleep, likecounting, or--'
`What can you mean by talking in this way to me?' thundered Heathcliff
with savage vehemence.`How--how dare you, under my roof?--God! he's mad
to speak so!' And he struck his foreheadwith rage.
I did not know whether to resent this language or pursue my explanation;
but he seemed sopowerfully affected that I took pity and proceeded with
my dreams; affirming I had never heard theappellation of `Catherine
Linton' before, but reading it often over produced an impression
whichpersonified itself when I had no longer my imagination under control.
Heathcliff gradually fell backinto the shelter of the bed, as I spoke;
finally sitting down almost concealed behind it. I guessed,however, by
his irregular and intercepted breathing, that he struggled to vanquish
an excess ofviolent emotion. Not liking to show him that I had heard the
conflict, I continued my toilette rathernoisily, looking at my watch, and
soliloquized on the length of the night: `Not three o'clock yet! Icould
have taken oath it had been six. Time stagnates here: we must surely have
retired to rest ateight!'
`Always at nine in winter, and always rise at four,' said my host,
suppressing a groan: and, as Ifancied, by the motion of his shadow's arm,
dashing a tear from his eyes. `Mr Lockwood,' headded, `you may go into
my room: you'll only be in the way, coming downstairs so early; and
yourchildish outcry has sent sleep to the devil for me.'
`And for me, too,' I replied. `I'll walk in the yard till daylight, and
then I'll be off; and you need notdread a repetition of my intrusion. I'm
now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it countryor town. A
sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.'
`Delightful company!' muttered Heathcliff. `Take the candle, and go
where you please. I shall joinyou directly. Keep out of the yard, though,
the dogs are unchained; and the house--Juno mountssentinel there,
and--nay, you can only ramble about the steps and passages. But, away with
you! I'llcome in two minutes!'
I obeyed, so far as to quit the chamber; when, ignorant where the narrow
lobbies led, I stood still,and was witness, involuntarily, to a piece of
superstition on the part of my landlord, which belied,oddly, his apparent
sense. He got on to the bed, and wrenched open the lattice, bursting, as
hepulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears. `Come in! come
in!' he sobbed. `Cathy, docome. Oh do--once more! Oh! my heart's darling!
hear me this time, Catherine, at last!' Thespectre showed a spectre's
ordinary caprice: it gave no sign of being; but the snow and windwhirled
wildly through, even reaching my station, and blowing out the light.
There was such anguish in the gust of grief that accompanied this raving,
that my compassion mademe overlook its folly, and I drew off, half angry
to have listened at all, and vexed at having relatedmy ridiculous
nightmare, since it produced that agony; though why, was beyond my
comprehension.I descended cautiously to the lower regions, and landed in
the back kitchen, where a gleam of fire,raked compactly together, enabled
me to rekindle my candle. Nothing was stirring except a bridled,grey cat,
which crept from the ashes, and saluted me with a querulous mew.
Two benches, shaped in sections of a circle, nearly enclosed the hearth;
on one of these I stretchedmyself, and Grimalkin mounted the other. We
were both of us nodding, ere anyone invaded ourretreat, and then it was
Joseph, shuffling down a wooden ladder that vanished in the roof, through
atrap: the ascent to his garret, I suppose. He cast a sinister look at
the little flame which I had enticedto play between the ribs, swept the
cat from its elevation, and bestowing himself in the vacancy,commenced
the operation of stuffing a three-inch pipe with tobacco. My presence in
his sanctumwas evidently esteemed a piece of impudence too shameful for
remark: he silently applied the tubeto his lips, folded his arms, and
puffed away. I let him enjoy the luxury unannoyed; and after suckingout
his last wreath, and heaving a profound sigh, he got up, and departed as
solemnly as he came.
A more elastic footstep entered next; and now I opened my mouth for a
`good morning', butclosed it again, the salutation unachieved; for
Hareton Earnshaw was performing his orisons sottovoce, in a series of
curses directed against every object he touched, while he rummaged a
cornerfor a spade or shovel to dig through the drifts. He glanced over
the back of the bench, dilating hisnostrils, and thought as little of
exchanging civilities with me as with my companion the cat. Iguessed, by
his preparations, that egress was allowed, and, leaving my hard couch,
made amovement to follow him. He noticed this, and thrust at an inner door
with the end of his spade,intimating by an inarticulate sound that there
was the place where I must go, if I changed my locality;
It opened into the house, where the females were already astir, Zillah
urging flakes of flame up thechimney with a colossal bellows; and Mrs
Heathcliff, kneeling on the hearth, reading a book by theaid of the blaze.
She held her hand interposed between the furnace heat and her eyes, and
seemedabsorbed in her occupation; desisting from it only to chide the
servant for covering her with sparks,or to push away a dog, now and then,
that snoozled its nose over-forwardly into her face. I wassurprised to
see Heathcliff there also. He stood by the fire, his back towards me, just
finishing astormy scene to poor Zillah; who ever and anon interrupted her
labour to pluck up the corner of herapron, and heave an indignant groan.
`And you, you worthless'--he broke out as I entered, turning to his
daughter-in-law, and employingan epithet as harmless as duck, or sheep,
but generally represented by a dash--. `There you are, atyour idle tricks
again! The rest of them do earn their bread--you live on my charity! Put
your trashaway, and find something to do. You shall pay me for the plague
of having you eternally in mysight--do you hear, damnable jade?'
`I'll put my trash away, because you can make me, if I refuse,' answered
the young lady, closingher book, and throwing it on a chair. `But I'll
not do anything, though you should swear your tongueout, except what I
please!'
Heathcliff lifted his hand, and the speaker sprang to a safer distance,
obviously acquainted with itsweight. Having no desire to be entertained
by a cat-and-dog combat; I stepped forward briskly, asif eager to partake
the warmth of the hearth, and innocent of any knowledge of the
interrupteddispute. Each had enough decorum to suspend further
hostilities: Heathcliff placed his fist, out oftemptation, in his pockets;
Mrs Heathcliff curled her lip, and walked to a seat far off, where shekept
her word by playing the part of a statue during the remainder of my stay.
That was not long. Ideclined joining their breakfast, and, at the first
gleam of dawn, took an opportunity of escaping intothe free air, now clear,
and still, and cold as impalpable ice.
My landlord hallooed for me to stop, ere I reached the bottom of the garden,
and offered toaccompany me across the moor. It was well he did, for the
whole hill-back was one billowy, whiteocean; the swells and falls not
indicating corresponding rises and depressions in the ground: manypits,
at least, were filled to a level; and entire ranges of mounds, the refuse
of the quarries, blottedfrom the chart which my yesterday's walk left
pictured in my mind. I had remarked on one side ofthe road, at intervals
of six or seven yards, a line of upright stones, continued through the
wholelength of the barren: these were erected, and daubed with lime on
purpose to serve as guides in thedark; and also when a fall, like the
present, confounded the deep swamps on either hand with thefirmer path:
but, excepting a dirty dot pointing up here and there, all traces of their
existence hadvanished: and my companion found it necessary to warn me
frequently to steer to the right or left,when I imagined I was following,
correctly, the windings of the road. We exchanged littleconversation, and
he halted at the entrance of Thrushcross Park, saying, I could make no
errorthere. Our adieux were limited to a hasty bow, and then I pushed
forward, trusting to my ownresources; for the porter's lodge is untenanted
as yet. The distance from the gate to the Grange istwo miles: I believe
I managed to make it four; what with losing myself among the trees, and
sinkingup to the neck in snow: a predicament which only those who have
experienced it can appreciate. Atany rate, whatever were my wanderings,
the clock chimed twelve as I entered the house; and thatgave exactly an
hour for every mile of the usual way from Wuthering Heights.
My human fixture and her satellites rushed to welcome me; exclaiming,
tumultuously, they hadcompletely given me up; everybody conjectured that
I perished last night; and they were wonderinghow they must set about the
search for my remains. I bid them be quiet, now that they saw mereturned,
and, benumbed to my very heart, I dragged upstairs; whence, after putting
on dry clothes,and pacing to and fro thirty or forty minutes, to restore
the animal heat, I am adjourned to my study,feeble as a kitten: almost
too much so to enjoy the cheerful fire and smoking coffee which theservant
has prepared for my refreshment.
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※ 修改:.fzx 于 May 20 14:31:05 修改本文.[FROM: heart.hit.edu.cn]
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