Wuthering Heights

he was drunk as a Lord, he was also drunk
as a baron and as an admiral. He had been doing the white-eared elephant. He
seized Linton by the arm and swung him round his head.”
    ‘ “ ‘Der, get to thy room,’
he drooled, throwing Linton into the kitchen. I followed and he shut us out. It
was all terrible. C’était terrible. I took my leave. I took it with me
on my pony. Hareton appeared. ‘Der I’m grieved,’ he said, ‘der, I’m sorry.’ So
I gave him a cut with my whip. He snatched it and ate it. ‘Der, tank you,’ he
said.’

Chapters XXV, XXVI, XXVII and XXVIII 25
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    INTON WROTE to Master Edgar, he begged
to see Cathy again. “You inquire after my health, the truth is I haven’t any. I
am not like my father, I am more your nephew than his son. I am two-thirds
nephew and one-third son. I know I have my faults like peeing out of the window
at night, but I love Catherine. Yours, Linton. P.S. Fish.”
    ‘Finally, Master Edgar,
halfway down a bottle of Martell, agreed. Cathy and I rode out to meet Linton
and his coughing on the moor. We found him lying on the heath coughing. He did
not rise until we were within coughing distance, then he started. He walked so
feebly with a stick, he looked so pale I immediately exclaimed. “Christ, Master
Heathcliff, how ill you look, why didn’t we meet lying down in the hospital?”
    ‘ “I’ll try and arrange
it,” he said, and fell back, thud!, and fell asleep with his mouth open. He was
awakened by the entry of a fly, and in the ensuing choking he swallowed it.
    ‘ “I think,” said Cathy,
“you’d be more comfortable at home than sitting here swallowing flies.”
    ‘Linton tried to
regurgitate the fly, but only brought up a breakfast sausage. We didn’t want to
leave him lying here for fear people passing by would surely bury him. For
safety, we told him to keep coughing.
    ‘ “Where are you, you
little creep?” came Heathcliff’s voice. “Ah, Nelly, can you and Cathy come and
have tea with me, please?”
    ‘We hung Linton across a
horse, and he coughed us back to Wuthering Heights.
    ‘When we got in, Heathcliff
shut the door and locked it. It was a fiendish trap! Heathcliff intended to
keep Cathy prisoner and force her to marry Linton, which he did. 25 I was kept prisoner
in a room. During this period, Heathcliff struck Cathy. “Take that and that and
that,” he said, each time giving her a curried fish. 26 These were terrible days. Des journees
terribles. After five days he finally let us go. I’d been bursting to.
    ‘Back at the Grange, Master
Edgar was on his last legs, he only had one pair left. He could barely manage Crofts
Original 1793. I sat by his bed, I sat by his cupboard, I sat by his
chest-of-drawers, but no matter where I sat, he still went on dying.
    ‘There was a rapid knocking
on the door. It made me jump, I reached four feet eight inches. An alkomer’s
record for my age. It was Cathy! “Is papa still alive?” she asked.
    ‘ “Yes, yes,” I said.
“Hurry up, he’s waiting to die.” She arrived at his bedside to see a bottle of £ 1/10 s . slip from his nerveless fingers.
    ‘Cathy sat by his bed all
night but, exhausted, she fell asleep, during which time he snuffed it, so she
missed him. Yes he had gone, so had the £ 1/10 s .
    ‘The funeral was hurried,
the coffin was dropped in the hole and in ten minutes it was filled in. It was
a sad day, une journée triste.’

Chapters XXIX and XXX
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    FTER THE funeral, Cathy and I were seated in
the library when Heathcliff was admitted. Time had little altered his person,
it was still as big as ever. Cathy went to dash from his presence.
    ‘ “Stop,” he said,
arresting her by his arm. “I’m arresting you by your arm,” he continued. “I’ve
come to take you home to Wuthering Heights and your husband. Make haste.”
    ‘He faced the fire and
said, “The day Catherine was buried, I stood by the grave. I realized that two
yards of loose earth was all that lay between us. I got a spade and got down to
the coffin. I split the lid and I thought I’ll have her in my arms yet. If she
be cold, I’ll get a hot-water bottle. I lifted the lid and there lay my Cathy, her
face had gone a bit.”
    ‘I interrupted him, “Mr
Heathcliff, how can you disturb the dead!”
    ‘ “It’s very easy,” he
said. “All you need is a shovel.” ‘Cathy came down, packed with make