 chapter 33 of Weathering Heights this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Maya Tafidis Weathering Heights by Emily Bronte chapter 33 on the morrow of that Monday earn show being still unable to follow his ordinary employment and therefore remaining about the house I speedily found it would be impracticable to retain my charge beside me as heretofore she got downstairs before me I'm out into the garden where she had seen her cousin performing some easy work and when I went to beat them come to breakfast I saw she had persuaded him to clear large space of ground from current and gooseberry bushes and they were busy planning together an importation of plants from the Grange was terrified of the devastation which had been accomplished in a brief half hour the black current trees were the apple of Joseph's eye and she had just fixed her choice of a flower bed in the midst of them there that will be all shown to the master I exclaimed the minute it is covered what excuse have you to offer for taking such liberties with a garden we shall have a fun explosion on the head of it see if you don't Mr. Heta I wonder you should have no more weight than to go and make that mess of her bidding might forgotten there were Joseph's and said earn show rather puzzled but I'll tell him I did it we always ate our meals with Mr. Heathcliff I held the mistress's post in making tea and carving so I was indispensable at table Catherine usually sat by me but today she stole nearer to Herton but I presently saw she would have no more discretion in her friendship than she had in her hostility now mind you don't talk with and notice you're causing too much for my whispered instructions as we enter the room to certainly know Mr. Heathcliff and he'll be mad at you both not going to she answered the minute after she had siloed to him and was sticking prim roses in his plate of porridge he dared not speak to her there he dared hardly look and yet she went teasing to use twice on the point being provoked to laugh I frowned and then she glanced towards the master whose mind was occupied and other subjects in his company as his countenance evinced and she was serious for an instant scrutinizing him with deep gravity afterwards she turned and recommenced her nonsense at last Herton uttered a smothered laugh Mr. Heathcliff started his eye rapidly served our faces Catherine met it with her accustomed look of nervousness and yet defiance which he aboard it is well you are out of my reach he exclaimed what fiend possesses you to stare back at me continually with those infernal eyes down with them don't remind me of your existence again I thought I had cured your laughing chose me muttered her turn will you say demanding the master her turn looked at his plate and did not repeat the confession Mr. Heathcliff looked at him a bit and then silently resume his breakfast and his interrupted musing we had nearly finished and the two young people prudently shifted wider asunder so I anticipated no further disturbance during that sitting when Joseph appeared at the door revealing my screvering lip and furious eyes that the outrage committed on his precious shrubs was detected must have seen Kathy in her cousin about the spot before examined it for while his jaws worked like those of a cow chewing it's cut and read his pitch difficult to understand began I'm gonna have my way and I'm gonna go I hit him to do where I start for 60 years and I thought I'd like my books up into the garage draw my pizza stuff and they start have kitchen to this sound for sake of quietness it were hard to get my own half stone but I thought I could do that but nah she was time I got in from me and by the heart master I can turn it yeah may bend to the or can you will I know and used it and an old man doesn't soon get used to new buttons I'd raise around my bite in my supper ham on road now now we eat it interrupted he's got it short but she grievance I'll interfere no quarrel between you and Nellie to me thrust you into the cool hole for anything I care it's no no answer or some shift for Nellie nasty ill-noticed shoes thing God she can tell solo nobody she would never so handsome but what a body more look at her about winking some place and graceless queen that's wish charlotte we are bowling in our forward ways till now fair breast my heart it's forgotten all I have done for him and made in him and going and driven up a whole road grandest countries garden and here he lamented outright unmanned by a sense of his bitter injuries and earn shows in gratitude and dangerous condition with a full drunk ask me to his leave her turn the two Hispanic fold with I've pulled up to all three bushes reply the young man but I'm going to stand again and why have you pulled him up so the master Catherine wisely put in her tongue we wanted to plant some flowers there she cried I'm the only person to blame for I wish him to do it with the devil give you leave to touch a stick about the place the man enough father-in-law much surprised you to obey her he added turning to her to the latter was speechless his cousin replied you shouldn't grudge a few yards of earth for me to ornament when you have taken all my land had any said his life and my money she continued returning his uncle air and meantime biting a piece of crust the remnant have a breakfast silence his claim get done and be gone and her turns land and his money pursue the reckless thing it and I have fans now I shall tell him all about you but the Masterson confounded a moment he grew pale and rose up eyeing her all the while with an expression of mortal hate if you strike me her turn will strike you said so you may as well sit down if her turn does not turn you out of the room I'll strike him to hell then his life the unable which there you pretend to write him against me what with her do you hear fling her into the kitchen I'll kill her a long time so let her come to my side again head and try it on his breath to persuade her to go drag her away he cries savagely I was trying to talk and he approached to execute his own command he'll not obey you wicked man anymore said Catherine and he'll soon detest you as much as I do wished wished much of the young man with pushfully I mean that he you speak so to him have done but you won't let him strike me she cried come then he whispered earnestly just too late his had to go to hold of her now you go he said to Angel curse to it this time she has provoked me when I could not bear it and I'll make her a better forever he had his hand in her hair her turn attempted to release her looks and treating him not to hurt her that once he's close black eyes flushed he seemed ready to tear a castle in pieces and I was just worked up to risk coming to the rescue well of a sudden his fingers relaxed he shifted his grasp from her head to her arm and gazed intensely in her face then he drew his hand over his eyes to the moment to collect himself apparently and turning anew to Catherine said with assumed kindness you must learn to avoid putting me in a passion on why I shall really murder you sometime go with mrs. Dean and keep with her and confine your insolence to her ears as to her to learn show if I see him listen to you I'll send him seeking his bread where he can get it your love will make him an outcast and a beggar then it take her and leave me all of you leave me I'll let my young lady out she was too glad of her escape to resist the other followed and mr. Heathcliff had the room to himself tell dinner I had counsel Catherine to die upstairs but as soon as he perceived her vacancy he sent me to call her he spoke to none of us a very little and went out directly afterwards intimating that I should not return before evening the two new friends established themselves in the house during his absence where I heard her turn to cheek his cousin on her offering a revelation of a father-in-law's conduct to his father he said he wouldn't suffer were to be uttered in his disparagement if you were the devil it didn't signify he was telling by him and it rather she will abuse himself as she used to then begin on mr. Heathcliff Catherine's waxing cross at this but he found means to make her hold her tongue by asking how she would like him to speak ill of a father then she comprehended that earned show to the master's reputation home to himself and was attached by ties stronger than reason could break chains forged by habit which would be cruel to attempt to loosen she showed a good heart dance for in avoiding both complaints and expressions of antipathy concerning Heathcliff and confessed to me her sorrow that she had endeavored to raise bad spirit between him and her turn indeed I don't believe she has as approved a syllable in the latter's hearing against her oppressor since when the slightest agreement was over they were friends again it has busy as possible in their several occupations of pupil and teacher I came in to sit with them after I had done my work and I felt comforted to watch them that I didn't notice how time got on you know they both appeared in a measure my children I had long been proud of one and now I was sure the other would be a source of equal satisfaction his honest warm and intelligent nature shook up rapidly the clouds of ignorance and degradation in which had been bred and Catherine's sincere recommendations acted as a spur to his industry his brightening mind brightened his features and added spirit and nobility to their aspect I could hardly fancy the same individual I had beheld on the day I discovered my little lady at weathering heights after his expedition to the cracks while I admired and the labored dusk drew on and with it returned the master he came upon us quite unexpectedly entering by the front way and had a full view of the whole three here we could raise our heads to glance at him well I reflected there was never a plethora or more hummest sight and shall be a burning shame to scold him the red firelight glowed on the two body heads that revealed the faces animated with the eager interest of children for though he was 23 and she 18 it had so much of novelty to feel and learn but neither experienced nor evinced the sentiments of somebody's enchanted maturity they lived to their eyes together to encounter Mr. Heathcliff perhaps you had never remarked their eyes are precisely similar and they are those of Catherine Earnshaw the present Catherine has no other likeness to her except a breadth of forehead and a certain arc of the nostril that makes her appear rather haughty whether she will or not with her turn the resemblance is carried further it is singular at all times then it was particularly striking because his senses were alert and his mental faculties waken to unwanted activity I suppose this resemblance disarmed Mr. Heathcliff he walked to the heart in evident agitation but it quickly subsided as he looked at the young man or I should say altered its character for it was there yet he took the book from his hand and glanced at the open page then returned it without any observation merely signing Catherine away her companion lingered very little behind her and I was about to depart also but he beat me sit still to the pro conclusion is it not he observed having brooded a while on the scene had just witnessed an absurd termination to my violent exertion I get levels and mattocks to demolish the two houses and train myself to be capable of working like a curious and when everything is ready and in my power I find the will to lift a slate of either roof has vanished my old enemies have not beaten me now would be the precise time to revenge myself on the representatives I could do it and none could hinder me but where the use I don't care for striking I can't take the trouble to raise my hand that sounds as if I had been laboring the whole time only to exhibit a final trait of magnanimity it is far from being the case I have lost the faculty of enjoying the destruction and I am too idle to destroy for nothing deli there's a strange change approaching I mean it's shadow at present it takes a little interest in my daily life but I hardly remember to eat and drink those two who have left the room are the only objects which retain a distinct material appearance to me that appearance causes me pain mounting to agony about her I won't speak and I don't desire to think but I earnestly wish you were invisible a presence evokes only maddening sensation he moves me differently yet if I could do it without seeming insane I'd never see him again you'll perhaps think me rather inclined to become so he added making an effort to smile if I try to describe the thousand forms of past associations and ideas he awakens or embodies but you'll not talk or what I tell you but my mind is so eternally secluded in itself it is tempting at last to turn it out to another five minutes ago I turned seem the personification of my youth not a human being I fell to him in such a variety of ways that it would have been impossible to have a costume rationally in the first place his tumbling likeness to Catherine connected him feebly with her that however which you may suppose the most important to arrest my imagination is actually the least for what is not connected with her to me what does not recall her I cannot look down to this floor but her features are shaped in the flags in every cloud in every tree feeling the air at night and code by glimpses in every object by day I am surrounded with her image the most ordinary faces of men and women my own features mock me with a resemblance the entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that indeed exists and that I have lost her well her transaspect was the ghost of my immortal love of my wild endeavours to hold my right my degradation my pride my happiness and my anguish that it is fenced to repeat this close to you only it will let you know why with reluctance to be always alone his society is no benefit rather an aggravation of the constant torment I suffer and it partly contributes to render me regardless how he and his cousin go together I can't give them no attention anymore what do you mean by a changed mr his cliff I said lamb that his manner though he was neither in danger of losing his senses nor dying according to my judgment he was quite strong and healthy and as to his reason from childhood he had a delight in dwelling on dark things and entertaining all the fancies might have had a monument on the subject of his departed idol but to every other point his wits were as sound as mine I shall not know that till it comes he said I'm only half conscious of it now you have no feeling of illness have you I asked no Nelly I have not he answered then if you are not afraid of death I pursued afraid no replied have neither fear nor resentment nor hope of death why should I with my heart constitution and temperate mode of living and unparalleled occupations I ought to and probably shall remain above ground so there is carefully black hair on my head and yet I cannot continue in this condition I have to remind myself to breathe almost remind my heart to beat and it is like bending back a stiff spring it is by compulsion that I do the slightest actor prompted by you and thought and by compulsion that I notice anything alive or dead which is not associated with universal it I have a single wish and my whole being and faculties are yearning to attain it they have yearned to it so long and so unwaveringly but I'm convinced it will be reached and soon because it has devoured my existence I'm swallowed up in the anticipation of its fulfillment my confessions have not relieved me but they may account for some otherwise unaccountable phases of humor which I show oh god it is a long fight I wish it were over he began to pace the room maturing terrible things to himself till I was inclined to believe as he said Joseph did that conscience had turned his heart to an earthly hell I wanted greatly how it would end though he seldom before had revealed this state of mind even by looks it was his habitual mood I had no doubt he asserted himself but not a soul from his general bearing would have contested the fact she did not when you saw him Mr Lockwood and the pure of which is pink he was just the same as them only founder of continued solitude and perhaps still more like Nick in company and of chapter 33 chapter 34 of Wuthering Heights this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larissa Jaworski Brisbane Australia Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte chapter 34 for some days after that evening Mr Heathcliff shunned meeting us at meals yet he would not consent formally to exclude Herton and Kathy he had an aversion to yielding so completely to his feelings choosing rather to absent himself and eating once in 24 hours seemed sufficient sustenance for him one night after the family were in bed I heard him go downstairs and out the front door I did not hear him re-enter and in the morning I found he was still away we were in April then the weather was sweet and warm the grass was green as showers and sun could make it and the two dwarf apple trees near the southern wall in full bloom after breakfast Catherine insisted on my bringing a chair and sitting with my work under the fir trees at the end of the house and she beguiled Herton who had perfectly recovered from his accident to dig and arrange her little garden which was shifted to that corner by the influence of Joseph's complaints I was comfortably reveling in the spring fragrance around and the beautiful soft blue overhead when my young lady who had run down near the gate to procure some primrose roots for a border returned only half laden and informed us that Mr Heathcliff was coming in and he spoke to me she added with a perplexed countenance what did he say asked Herton he told me to be gone as fast as I could she answered but he looked so different from his usual look that I stopped a moment to stare at him how he inquired why almost bright and cheerful no almost nothing very much excited and wild and glad she replied nightwalking amuses him then I remarked affecting a careless manner in reality as surprised as she was and anxious to ascertain the truth of her statement for to see the master looking glad would not be an everyday spectacle I framed an excuse to go in Heathcliff stood at the open door he was pale and he trembled yet certainly he had a strange joyful glitter in his eyes that altered the aspect of his whole face well you have some breakfast I said you must be hungry rambling about all night I wanted to discover where he had been but I did not like to ask directly no I'm not hungry he answered averting his head and speaking rather contemptuously as if he guessed I was trying to divine the occasion of his good humor I felt perplexed I didn't know whether it were not a proper opportunity to offer a bit of admonition I don't think it right to wonder out of doors I observed instead of being in bed it's not wise at any rate in this moist season I dare say you'll catch a bad cold or a fever you have something the matter with you now nothing but what I can bear he replied and with the greatest pleasure provided you'll leave me alone get in and don't annoy me I obeyed and in passing I noticed he breathed as fast as a cat yes I reflected to myself we shall have a fit of illness I cannot conceive what he has been doing that noon he sat down to dinner with us and received a heaped up plate from my hands as if he intended to make amends for previous fasting I've neither cold nor fever nally he remarked in allusion to my morning speech and I'm ready to do justice to the food you give me he took his knife and fork and was going to commence eating when the inclination appeared to become suddenly extinct he laid them on the table looked eagerly toward the window then rose and went out we saw him walking to and fro in the garden while we concluded our meal and Earnshaw said he'd go and ask why he would not dine he thought we had grieved him in some way well is he coming cried Catherine when her cousin returned nay he answered but he's not angry he seemed really pleased indeed only I made him impatient by speaking to him twice and then he bid me be off to you he wondered how I could want the company of anybody else I set his plate to keep warm on the fender and after an hour or two he re-entered when the room was clear in no degree calmer the same unnatural it was unnatural appearance of joy under his black brows the same bloodless hue and his teeth visible now and then in a kind of smile his frame shivering not as one shivers with chill or weakness but as a tight stretched cord vibrates a strong thrilling rather than trembling I will ask what is the matter I thought or who should and I exclaimed have you heard any good news Mr Heathcliff you look uncommonly animated where should good news come from to me he said I'm animated with hunger and seemingly I must not eat your dinner is here I returned why won't you get it I don't want it now he muttered hastily I'll wait till supper and Nellie once and for all let me beg you to warn Hayton and the others away from me I wish to be troubled by nobody I wish to have this place to myself is there some new reason for this banishment I inquired tell me why you are so queer Mr Heathcliff where were you last night I'm not putting the question through idle curiosity but you are putting the question through very idle curiosity he interrupted with a laugh yet I'll answer it last night I was on the threshold of hell today I am within sight of my heaven I have my eyes on it hardly three feet to seven me and now you'd better go you'll neither see nor hear anything to frighten you if you refrain from prying having swept the hearth and wiped the table I departed more perplexed than ever he did not quit the house again that afternoon and no one intruded on his solitude till at eight o'clock I deemed it proper though unsummoned to carry a candle and his supper to him he was leaning against the ledge of an open lattice but not looking out his face was turned to the interior gloom the fire had smoldered to ashes the room was filled with the damp mild air of the cloudy evening and so still that only the murmur of the beck down gimmerton was distinguishable but its ripples and its gurgling over the pebbles or through the large stones which it could not cover I uttered an ejaculation of discontent at seeing the dismal great and commenced shutting the casements one after another till I came to his must I close this I asked in order to rouse him for he would not stir the light flashed on his features as I spoke oh mr. Lockwood I cannot express what a terrible start I got by the moment review those deep black eyes that smile in ghastly paleness it appeared to me not mr. Heathcliff but a goblin and in my terror I let the candle bend towards the wall and it left me in darkness yes close it he replied in his familiar voice there that is pure awkwardness why did you hold the candle horizontally be quick and bring another I hurried out in a foolish state of dread and said to Joseph the master wishes you to take him a light and rekindle the fire for I did not go in myself again just then Joseph rattled some fire into the shovel and went in but he brought it back immediately with the suppot train his other hand explaining that mr. Heathcliff was going to bed and wanted nothing to eat till morning we heard him mount the stairs directly he did not proceed to his ordinary chamber but turned into that with the paneled bed its window as I mentioned before is wide enough for anybody to get through and it struck me that he plotted another midnight excursion of which he had rather we had no suspicion is he a ghoul or a vampire I'm used I had read of such hideous incarnate demons and then I set myself to reflect how I had tended to him in infancy and watched him grow to youth and followed him almost throughout his whole course and what absurd nonsense it was to yield to that sense of horror but where did he come from the little dark thing harbored by a good man to his bane muttered superstition as I dozed into unconsciousness and I began half dreaming to weary myself with imagining some fit parentage for him and repeating my waking meditations I tracked his existence over again with grim variations at last picturing his death and funeral of which all I can remember is being exceedingly vexed at having the task of dictating and inscribing for his monument and consulting the sexton about it and as he had no surname and we could not tell his age we were obliged to content ourselves with a single word heathcliff that came true we were if you enter the kiyokyad you'll read on his headstone only that and the date of his death dawn restored me to common sense I rose and went into the garden as soon as I could see to ascertain if there were any footmarks under his window there were none he has stayed at home I thought and he'll be all right today I prepared breakfast for the household as was my usual custom but told hairton and kathy to get there as the master came down for he lay late they preferred taking it out of doors under the trees and I set a little table to accommodate them on my re-entrance I found mr heathcliff below he and joseph were conversing about some farming business he gave clear minute directions concerning the matter discussed but he spoke rapidly and turned his head continually aside and had the same excited expression even more exaggerated when joseph quitted the room he took his seat in the place he generally chose and I put a basin of coffee before him he drew it nearer and then rested his arms on the table and looked at the opposite wall as I supposed surveying one particular portion up and down with glittering restless eyes and with such eager interest that he stopped breathing during half a minute together come now I exclaimed pushing some bread against his hand eat and drink that while it's hot it has been waiting near an hour he didn't notice me and yet he smiled I'd rather have seen him gnash his teeth than smile so mr heathcliff master I cried don't for God's sake stare as if you saw an unearthly vision don't for God's sake shout so loud he replied turn around and tell me are we by ourselves of course was my answer of course we are still I involuntarily obeyed him as if I was not quite sure with a sweep of his hand he cleared a vacant space in front among the breakfast things and leaned forward to gaze more at his ease now I perceived he was not looking at the wall for when I regarded him alone it seemed exactly that he gazed at something within two yards distance and whatever it was it communicated apparently both pleasure and pain in exquisite extremes at least the anguished yet raptured expression of his countenance suggested that idea the fancied object was not fixed either his eyes pursued it with the unwary diligence and even in speaking to me were never weaned away I vainly reminded him of his protracted abstinences from food if he stirred to touch anything in compliance with my entreaties if he stretched a hand out to get a piece of bread his fingers clenched before they reached it and remained on the table forgetful of their aim I sat a model of patients trying to attract his absorbed attention from its engrossing speculation till he grew irritable and got up asking why would not allow him to have his own time in taking his meals and saying that on the next occasion I need and wait I might set things down and go having uttered these words he left the house slowly sauntered down the garden path and disappeared through the gate the hours crept anxiously by another evening came I did not retire to rest till late and when I did I could not sleep he returned after midnight and instead of going to bed shut himself into the room beneath I listened and tossed about and finally dressed and descended it was too irksome to lie there harassing my brain with a hundred idle misgivings I distinguished Mr Heathcliff's step restlessly measuring the floor and he frequently broke the silence by a deep inspiration resembling a groan he muttered detached words also the only one I could catch was the name of Catherine coupled with some wild terms of endearment or suffering and spoken as one would speak to a person present low and earnest and rung from the depth of his soul I had not courage to walk straight into the apartment but I desired to divert him from his reverie and therefore fell foul of the kitchen fire stirred it and began to scrape the cinders it drew him forth sooner than I expected he opened the door immediately and said Nelly come here is it morning come in with your light it is striking for I answered you want candles to take upstairs you might have lit one at this fire no I don't wish to go upstairs he said come in and kindle me a fire and do anything there is to do about the room I must blow the coals red first before I can carry any I replied getting a chair and the bellows he roamed to and fro meantime in a state approaching distraction his heavy size succeeded each other so thick as to leave no space for common breathing between when day breaks I'll send for green he said I wish to make some legal inquiries of him while I can bestow a thought on those matters and while I can act calmly I have not written my will yet and how to leave my property I cannot determine I wish I could annihilate it from the face of the earth I would not talk so Mr Heathcliff I interposed let your will be a while you'll be spared to repent of your many injustices yet I never expected that your nerves would be disordered they are present marvelously so however and almost entirely through your own fault the way you've passed these three days might knock up a titan do take some food and some repose you need only look at yourself in a glass to see how you require both your cheeks are hollow and your eyes bloodshot like a person starving with hunger and going blind with loss of sleep it's not my fault that I cannot eat or rest he replied I assure you it's through no settled designs I'll do both as soon as I possibly can but you might as well bit a man struggling in the water to rest within arm's length of the shore I must reach it first and then I'll rest well never mind Mr Greene as to repenting of my injustices I've done no injustice and I repent of nothing I'm too happy and yet I'm not happy enough my soul's bliss kills my body but does not satisfy itself happy master I cried strange happiness if you would hear me without being angry I might offer some advice that would make you happier what is that he asked give it you are aware Mr Heathcliff I said that from the time you were 13 years old you have lived a selfish un-Christian life and probably hardly had a Bible in your hands during all that period you must have forgotten the contents of the book and you may not have a space to search it now could it be hurtful to send for someone some minister of any denomination it does not matter which to explain it and show you how very far you have heard from its precepts and how unfit you will be for its heaven unless a change takes place before you die I'm rather obliged than angry Nelly he said for you remind me of the manner in which I desire to be buried it is to be carried into the churchyard in the evening you and Heaton may if you please accompany me and mind particularly to notice that the sexton obeys my directions concerning the two coffins no minister need come nor need anything be said over me I tell you I have nearly attained my heaven and that of others is altogether unvalued and uncovered by me and supposing you persevered in your obstinate fast and died by that means and they refused to bury you in the precincts of the kirk I said shocked at his godless indifference how would you like it they won't do that he replied if they did you must have me removed secretly and if you neglect it you shall prove practically that the dead are not annihilated as soon as he heard the other members of the family stirring he retired to his den and I breathed freer but in the afternoon while Joseph and Heaton were at their work he came into the kitchen again and with a wild look bid me come and sit in the house he wanted somebody with him I declined telling him plainly that his strange talk and manner frightened me and I had neither the nerve nor the will to be his companion alone I believe you think me a fiend he said with his dismal laugh something too horrible to live under a decent roof then turning to Catherine who was there and who drew behind me at his approach he added half sneeringly will you come Chuck I'll not hurt you no I've made myself worse than the devil well there is one who won't shrink for my company by God she's relentless oh damn it it's unutterably too much for flesh and blood to bear even mine he solicited the society of no one more at dusk he went into his chamber through the whole night and far into the morning we heard him groaning and murmuring to himself Heaton was anxious to enter but I bid him fetch Mr Kenneth and he should go in and see him when he came and I requested admittance and tried to open the door I found it locked and Heathcliff bid us be damned he was better and would be left alone so the doctor went away the following evening was very wet indeed it poured down till day dawn and as I took my morning walk around the house I observed the master's window swinging open and the rain driving straight in he cannot be in bed I thought those showers would drench him through he must either be up or out but I'll make no more ado I'll go boldly and look having succeeded in obtaining entrance with another key I ran to unclose the panels for the chamber was vacant and quickly pushing them aside I peeped in Mr Heathcliff was there laid on his back his eyes met mine so keen and fierce I started and then he seemed to smile I could not think him dead but his face and throat were washed with rain the bed cloth stripped and he was perfectly still the lattice flapping to and fro had grazed one hand that rested on the sill no blood trickled from the broken skin and when I put my fingers to it I could doubt no more he was dead and stark I hasped the window I came to his black long hair from his forehead I tried to close his eyes to extinguish if possible that frightful lifelike gaze of exaltation before anyone else beheld it they would not shut they seemed to sneer at my attempts and his parted lips and sharp teeth sneered too taken with another fit of cowardice I cried out for Joseph Joseph shuffled up and made a noise but resolutely refused to meddle with him the devils hurried off his soul he cried and he may have his carcass into the bargain for ought I care what a wicked on he looks grinning at death and the old sinner grinned in mockery I thought he intended to cut a caper around the bed but suddenly composing himself he fell on his knees and raised his hands and returned thanks that the lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their rights I felt stunned by the awful event and my memory unavoidably returned to former times with a sort of oppressive sadness but poor Heaton the most wronged was the only one who really suffered much he sat by the corpse all night weeping in bitter earnest he pressed its hand and kissed the sarcastic savage face that everyone else shrank from contemplating and bemoaning him with that strong grief which springs naturally from a generous heart though it be tough as tempered steel Mr. Kenneth was perplexed to pronounce of what disorder the master died I concealed the fact of his having swallowed nothing for four days fearing it might lead to trouble and then I am persuaded he did not abstain on purpose it was the consequence of this strange illness not the cause we buried him to the scandal of the whole neighborhood as he wished Earnshaw and I the sexton and six men to carry the coffin comprehended the whole attendance the six men departed when they had let it down into the grave we stayed to see it covered Heaton with a streaming face dug green sods and laid them over the brown mould itself at present it is as smooth and verdant as its companion mounds and I hope its tenant sleeps us soundly but the country folks if you ask them would swear on the bible that he walks there are those who speak to having met him near the church and on the moor and even within this house idle tales you'll say and so say I yet that old man by the kitchen fire affirms he has seen two of them looking out his chamber window on every rainy night since his death and an odd thing happened to me about a month ago I was going to the Grange one evening a dark evening threatening thunder and just at the turn of the height I encountered a little boy with a sheep and two lambs before him he was crying terribly and I suppose to the lambs were skittish and would not be guided what's the matter my little man I asked there's Heathcliff and a woman yonder and he blubbered and I done it pass them I saw nothing but neither the sheep nor he would go on so I bid him take the road lower down he probably raised the phantoms from thinking as he traversed the moors alone on the nonsense he'd heard his parents and companions repeat yet still I don't like being out in the dark now and I don't like being left by myself in this grim house I cannot help it I shall be glad when they leave it and shift to the Grange they are going to the Grange then I said yes answered Mrs Dean as soon as they are married and that will be on New Year's Day and who will live here then why Joseph will take care of the house and perhaps a lad to keep him company they will live in the kitchen and the rest will be shut up for the use of such ghosts as choose to inhabit it I observed no Mr Lockwood said nelly shaking her head I believe the dead are at peace but it's not right to speak of them with levity at that moment the garden gate swung to the ramblers were returning they are afraid of nothing I grumbled watching their approach through the window together they would brave satan and all his legions as they stepped onto the doorstones and halted to take a last look at the moon or more correctly at each other by her light I felt irresistibly impelled to escape them again and pressing a remembrance into the hand of Mrs Dean and disregarding her expostulations at my rudeness I vanished through the kitchen as they opened the house door and so should have confirmed to Joseph in his opinion of his fellow servants gay in discretions had he not fortunately recognized me for a respectable character by the sweet ring of a sovereign at his feet my walk home was lengthened by a diversion in the direction of the Kirch when beneath its walls I perceived decay had made progress even in seven months many a window showed black gaps deprived of glass and slates jutted off here and there beyond the right line of the roof to be gradually worked off in coming autumn storms I sought and soon discovered the three headstones on the slope next to the moor on the middle one gray and half buried in the heath Edgar Linton's only harmonized by the turf and moss creeping up its foot heath cliffs still bare I lingered around them under that benign sky watched the moths fluttering amongst the heath and hair bells listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth end of chapter 34 end of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte