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.Still itbecame in a manner necessary; twice, or thrice, Hindley s manifestation of scorn,while his father was near, roused the old man to a fury: he seized his stick tostrike him, and shook with rage that he could not do it.At last, our curate (we had a curate then who made the living answer byteaching the little Lintons and Earnshaws, and farming his bit of land himself)advised that the young man should be sent to college; and Mr.Earnshaw agreed,though with a heavy spirit, for he said Hindley was nought, and would neverthrive as where he wandered.I hoped heartily we should have peace now.It hurt me to think the mastershould be made uncomfortable by his own good deed.I fancied the discontentof age and disease arose from his family disagreements; as he would have it that itdid: really, you know, sir, it was in his sinking frame.We might have got ontolerably, notwithstanding, but for two people Miss Cathy, and Joseph, theservant: you saw him, I daresay, up yonder.He was, and is yet most likely, thewearisomest self-righteous Pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake thepromises to himself and fling the curses to his neighbours.By his knack ofsermonising and pious discoursing, he contrived to make a great impression onMr.Earnshaw; and the more feeble the master became, the more influence hegained.He was relentless in worrying him about his soul s concerns, and aboutruling his children rigidly.He encouraged him to regard Hindley as a reprobate;and, night after night, he regularly grumbled out a long string of tales againstHeathcliff and Catherine: always minding to flatter Earnshaw s weakness byheaping the heaviest blame on the latter.Certainly she had ways with her such as I never saw a child take up before; andshe put all of us past our patience fifty times and oftener in a day: from the hourshe came down-stairs till the hour she went to bed, we had not a minute s securitythat she wouldn t be in mischief.Her spirits were always at high-water mark, hertongue always going singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would notdo the same.A wild, wicked slip she was but she had the bonniest eye, thesweetest smile, and lightest foot in the parish: and, after all, I believe she meantno harm; for when once she made you cry in good earnest, it seldom happenedthat she would not keep you company, and oblige you to be quiet that you mightcomfort her.She was much too fond of Heathcliff.The greatest punishment wecould invent for her was to keep her separate from him: yet she got chided morethan any of us on his account.In play, she liked exceedingly to act the littlemistress; using her hands freely, and commanding her companions: she did so tome, but I would not bear slapping and ordering; and so I let her know.Now, Mr.Earnshaw did not understand jokes from his children: he had alwaysbeen strict and grave with them; and Catherine, on her part, had no idea why herfather should be crosser and less patient in his ailing condition than he was in hisprime.His peevish reproofs wakened in her a naughty delight to provoke him:she was never so happy as when we were all scolding her at once, and she defyingus with her bold, saucy look, and her ready words; turning Joseph s religiouscurses into ridicule, baiting me, and doing just what her father hated mostshowing how her pretended insolence, which he thought real, had more powerover Heathcliff than his kindness: how the boy would do her bidding in anything,and his only when it suited his own inclination.After behaving as badly aspossible all day, she sometimes came fondling to make it up at night. Nay,Cathy, the old man would say, I cannot love thee, thou rt worse than thybrother.Go, say thy prayers, child, and ask God s pardon.I doubt thy motherand I must rue that we ever reared thee! That made her cry, at first; and thenbeing repulsed continually hardened her, and she laughed if I told her to say shewas sorry for her faults, and beg to be forgiven.But the hour came, at last, that ended Mr.Earnshaw s troubles on earth.Hedied quietly in his chair one October evening, seated by the fire-side.A highwind blustered round the house, and roared in the chimney: it sounded wild andstormy, yet it was not cold, and we were all together I, a little removed from thehearth, busy at my knitting, and Joseph reading his Bible near the table (for theservants generally sat in the house then, after their work was done).Miss Cathyhad been sick, and that made her still; she leant against her father s knee, andHeathcliff was lying on the floor with his head in her lap
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