# Wuthering Heights (Full Audiobook) by Emily Brontë - Chapter 29

An episode of [Wuthering Heights (Full Audiobook) by Emily Brontë](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1770106711), 18 Sep 2024, 19 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/62054673/wutheringheights_29_bronte_64kb.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine of Wuthering Heights. This LibriVox recording is
[0:05] Speaker 1: in the public domain. Recording by Ruce Golding. Wuthering Heights
[0:10] Speaker 1: by Emily Bronte, Chapter twenty nine. The evening after the funeral,
[0:17] Speaker 1: my young lady and I were seated in the library,
[0:21] Speaker 1: now musing mournfully, one of us despairingly on our loss,
[0:26] Speaker 1: now venturing conjectures as to the gloomy future. We had
[0:32] Speaker 1: just agreed. The best destiny which could await Catherine would
[0:35] Speaker 1: be a permission to continue resident at the grange, at
[0:39] Speaker 1: least during Linton's life, he being allowed to join her there,
[0:44] Speaker 1: and I to remain as housekeeper. That seemed rather too
[0:50] Speaker 1: favorable an arrangement to be hoped for. And yet I
[0:54] Speaker 1: did hope, and began to cheer up under the prospect
[0:58] Speaker 1: of retaining my home and my employment, and above all
[1:03] Speaker 1: my beloved young mistress. When a servant, one of the
[1:07] Speaker 1: discarded ones not yet departed, rushed hastily in and said
[1:12] Speaker 1: that devil Heathcliff was coming through the court. Should he
[1:16] Speaker 1: fasten the door in his face? If we had been
[1:20] Speaker 1: mad enough to order that proceeding, we had not time.
[1:24] Speaker 1: He made no ceremony of knocking or announcing his name.
[1:28] Speaker 1: He was master, and availed himself of the master's privilege
[1:32] Speaker 1: to walk straight in without saying a word. The sound
[1:37] Speaker 1: of our informant's voice directed him to the library. He entered, and,
[1:42] Speaker 1: motioning him out, shut the door. It was the same
[1:48] Speaker 1: room into which he had been ushered as a guest
[1:50] Speaker 1: eighteen years before, the same moon shone through the window,
[1:56] Speaker 1: and the same autumn landscape lay outside. We had not
[2:01] Speaker 1: yet lighted a candle, but all the apartment was visible,
[2:05] Speaker 1: even to the portraits on the wall, the splendid head
[2:10] Speaker 1: of Missus Linton and the graceful one of her husband.
[2:15] Speaker 1: Heathcliff advanced to the hearth. Time had little altered his
[2:20] Speaker 1: person either. There was the same man, his dark face
[2:26] Speaker 1: rather sallower and more composed, his frame a stone or
[2:31] Speaker 1: too heavier, perhaps, and no other difference. Catherine had risen
[2:37] Speaker 1: with an impulse to dash out when she saw him, stop,
[2:43] Speaker 1: he said, arresting her by the arm. No more runnings away?
[2:49] Speaker 1: Where would you go? I'm come to fetch you home,
[2:54] Speaker 1: and I hope you'll be a dutiful daughter and not
[2:57] Speaker 1: encourage my son to further de dis obedience. I was
[3:02] Speaker 1: embarrassed how to punish him when I discovered his part
[3:05] Speaker 1: in the business. It's such a cobweb. A pinch would
[3:10] Speaker 1: annihilate him. But you will see by his look that
[3:14] Speaker 1: he has received his due. I brought him down one
[3:18] Speaker 1: evening the day before yesterday, and just set him in
[3:21] Speaker 1: a chair and never touched him. Afterwards, I sent Hayton out,
[3:26] Speaker 1: and we had the room to ourselves. In two hours,
[3:31] Speaker 1: I called Joseph to carry him up again. And since
[3:35] Speaker 1: then my presence is as potent on his nerves as
[3:38] Speaker 1: a ghost, and I fancy he sees me often though
[3:42] Speaker 1: I am not near. Hayton says, he wakes and shrieks
[3:47] Speaker 1: in the night, by the hour together and calls you
[3:51] Speaker 1: to protect him from me. And whether you like your
[3:55] Speaker 1: precious mate or not, you must come is your concern.
[4:00] Speaker 1: Now I yield all my interest in him to you.
[4:06] Speaker 1: Why not let Catherine continue here, I pleaded, and send
[4:12] Speaker 1: Master Linton to her. As you hate them both, you'd
[4:16] Speaker 1: not missed them. There can only be a daily plague
[4:19] Speaker 1: to your unnatural heart. I'm seeking a tenant for the grange,
[4:25] Speaker 1: he answered, and I want my children about me, to
[4:29] Speaker 1: be sure. Besides that, Lass owes me her services for
[4:34] Speaker 1: her bread. I'm not gonna nurture her in luxury and idleness.
[4:39] Speaker 1: After Linton is gone, make haste and get ready now,
[4:43] Speaker 1: and don't oblige me to compel you. I shall, said Catherine.
[4:50] Speaker 1: Linton is all I have to love in the world.
[4:53] Speaker 1: And though you have done what you could to make
[4:55] Speaker 1: him hateful to me and me to him, you cannot
[4:59] Speaker 1: make us hate each other. And I defy you to
[5:02] Speaker 1: hurt him when I am by, and I defy you
[5:05] Speaker 1: to frighten me. You are a boastful champion, replied Heathcliff.
[5:13] Speaker 1: But I don't like you well enough to hurt him.
[5:16] Speaker 1: You shall get the full benefit of the torment as
[5:19] Speaker 1: long as it lasts. It is not I who will
[5:22] Speaker 1: make him hateful to you. It is his own sweet spirit.
[5:28] Speaker 1: He's as bitter as gall at your desertion and its consequences.
[5:33] Speaker 1: Don't expect thanks for this noble devotion. I heard him
[5:38] Speaker 1: draw a pleasant picture to Zillah of what he would
[5:41] Speaker 1: do if he were as strong as I. The inclination
[5:45] Speaker 1: is there, and his very weakness will sharpen his wits
[5:49] Speaker 1: to find a substitute for strength. I know he has
[5:54] Speaker 1: a bad nature, said Catherine. He's your son. I'm glad
[6:00] Speaker 1: I've a better to forgive it, and I know he
[6:04] Speaker 1: loves me, and for that reason I love him. Mister Heathcliff,
[6:10] Speaker 1: you have nobody to love you, And however miserable you
[6:15] Speaker 1: make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking
[6:19] Speaker 1: that your cruelty arises from your greater misery. You are miserable,
[6:25] Speaker 1: are you not? Lonely like the devil, and envious like him?
[6:32] Speaker 1: Nobody loves you, Nobody will cry for you when you die.
[6:38] Speaker 1: I wouldn't be you, Catherine spoke, with a kind of
[6:43] Speaker 1: dreary triumph. She seemed to have made up her mind
[6:48] Speaker 1: to enter into the spirit of her future family and
[6:52] Speaker 1: draw pleasure from the griefs of her enemies. You shall
[6:56] Speaker 1: be sorry to be yourself presently, said father in law.
[7:01] Speaker 1: If you will stand there another minute, begone which and
[7:05] Speaker 1: get your things, She scornfully withdrew in her absence. I
[7:11] Speaker 1: began to beg for Zillah's place at the heights, offering
[7:14] Speaker 1: to resign mine to her, but he would suffer it
[7:18] Speaker 1: on no account. He bid me be silent, and then
[7:22] Speaker 1: for the first time allowed himself a glance round the
[7:26] Speaker 1: room and a look at the pictures. Having studied missus Linton's,
[7:31] Speaker 1: he said, I shall have that home, not because I
[7:35] Speaker 1: need it. But he turned abruptly to the fire and
[7:40] Speaker 1: continued with what, for lack of a better word, I
[7:43] Speaker 1: must call a smile. I'll tell you what I did yesterday.
[7:50] Speaker 1: I got the sexton who was digging Linton's grave to
[7:54] Speaker 1: remove the earth of her coffin lid, and I opened it.
[8:01] Speaker 1: I thought once I would have stayed there when I
[8:05] Speaker 1: saw her face again, it is hers. Yet he had
[8:10] Speaker 1: hard work to stir me, but he said it would
[8:14] Speaker 1: change if the air blew on it. And so I
[8:18] Speaker 1: struck one side of the coffin loose and covered it up,
[8:23] Speaker 1: not Linton's side, damn him. And she'd been soldered in lead.
[8:30] Speaker 1: And I bribed the sext and to pull it away
[8:32] Speaker 1: when I'm laid there and slide mine out too. I'll
[8:37] Speaker 1: have it made so, and then by the time Linton
[8:42] Speaker 1: gets to us, you'll not know which is which. You
[8:47] Speaker 1: were very wicked, mister Heathcliff, I exclaimed, Were you not
[8:52] Speaker 1: ashamed to disturb the dead? I disturbed nobody, Nelly, he replied,
[8:59] Speaker 1: And I gave some ease to myself. I shall be
[9:03] Speaker 1: a great deal more comfortable now, and you will have
[9:07] Speaker 1: a better chance of keeping me underground when I get there.
[9:12] Speaker 1: Disturbed her, No, she has disturbed me night and day
[9:19] Speaker 1: through eighteen years, incessantly, remorselessly till yesternight. And yesternight I
[9:30] Speaker 1: was tranquil. I dreamt I was sleeping the last sleep
[9:35] Speaker 1: by that sleeper, with my heart stopped and my cheek
[9:42] Speaker 1: frozen against hers. And if she had been dissolved into
[9:48] Speaker 1: earth or worse, what would you have dreamt of? Then?
[9:52] Speaker 1: I said, of dissolving with her and being more happy. Still,
[9:59] Speaker 1: he answered, do you suppose I dread any change of
[10:04] Speaker 1: that sort? I expected such a transformation on raising the lid,
[10:11] Speaker 1: but I'm better pleased that it should not commence till
[10:14] Speaker 1: I share it. Besides, unless I had received a distinct
[10:21] Speaker 1: impression of her passionless features, that strange feeling would hardly
[10:27] Speaker 1: have been removed. It began oddly. You know, I was
[10:34] Speaker 1: wild after she died, and eternally from dawn to dawn,
[10:40] Speaker 1: praying her to return to me her spirit. I have
[10:44] Speaker 1: a strong faith in ghosts. I have a conviction that
[10:49] Speaker 1: they can and do exist among us. The day she
[10:54] Speaker 1: was buried, there came a fall of snow. In the evening.
[10:58] Speaker 1: I went to the church yard. It blew bleak as winter.
[11:03] Speaker 1: All round was solitary. I didn't fear that her fool
[11:08] Speaker 1: of a husband would wander up the glen so late,
[11:12] Speaker 1: and no one else had business to bring them there.
[11:16] Speaker 1: Being alone and conscious, two yards of loose earth was
[11:21] Speaker 1: the sole barrier between us. I said to myself, I'll
[11:26] Speaker 1: have her in my arms again. If she be cold,
[11:31] Speaker 1: I'll think it is this north wind that chills me.
[11:34] Speaker 1: And if she'd be motionless, it is sleep. I got
[11:40] Speaker 1: a spade from the toolhouse and began to delve with
[11:43] Speaker 1: all my might. It scraped the coffin. I fell to
[11:47] Speaker 1: work with my hands. The wood commenced, cracking about the screws.
[11:52] Speaker 1: I was on the point of attaining my object when
[11:55] Speaker 1: it seemed that I heard a sigh from someone above,
[11:59] Speaker 1: close at the edge of the grave and bending down.
[12:03] Speaker 1: If I can only get this off, I muttered, I
[12:06] Speaker 1: wish they may shovel in the earth over us both,
[12:10] Speaker 1: and I wrenched at it more desperately. Still, there was
[12:15] Speaker 1: another sigh close at my ear. I appeared to feel
[12:20] Speaker 1: the warm breath of it, displacing the sleet laden wind.
[12:25] Speaker 1: I knew no living thing in flesh and blood was by,
[12:29] Speaker 1: but as certainly as you perceive the approach to some
[12:33] Speaker 1: substantial body in the dark, though it cannot be discerned,
[12:38] Speaker 1: so certainly I felt that Kathy was there, not under me,
[12:45] Speaker 1: but on the earth. A sudden sense of relief flowed
[12:51] Speaker 1: from my heart through every limb. I relinquished my labor
[12:57] Speaker 1: of agony and turned constant sold at once, unspeakably consoled.
[13:06] Speaker 1: Her presence was with me. It remained while I refilled
[13:11] Speaker 1: the grave and led me home. You may laugh if
[13:17] Speaker 1: you will, but I was sure I should see her there.
[13:23] Speaker 1: I was sure she was with me, and I could
[13:26] Speaker 1: not help talking to her. Having reached the heights, I
[13:30] Speaker 1: rushed eagerly to the door. It was fastened, and I
[13:35] Speaker 1: remember that accursed Earnshaw and my wife opposed my entrance.
[13:40] Speaker 1: I remember stopping to kick the breath out of him,
[13:44] Speaker 1: and then hurrying upstairs to my room and hers. I
[13:48] Speaker 1: looked round impatiently. I felt her by me. I could
[13:53] Speaker 1: almost see her, and yet I could not. I ought
[13:58] Speaker 1: to have swept blood and from the anguish of my yearning,
[14:02] Speaker 1: from the fervor of my supplications to have but one glimpse.
[14:09] Speaker 1: I had not one. She showed herself that she often
[14:16] Speaker 1: was in life a devil to me. And since then,
[14:22] Speaker 1: sometimes more and sometimes less, I've been the sport of
[14:27] Speaker 1: that intolerable torture, infernal keeping my nerves at such a
[14:35] Speaker 1: stretch that if they had not resembled cat but they
[14:38] Speaker 1: would long ago of relaxed to the feebleness of Linton's.
[14:44] Speaker 1: When I sat in the house with Hayton, it seemed
[14:47] Speaker 1: that on going out I should meet her. When I
[14:51] Speaker 1: walked on the moors, I should meet her coming in.
[14:55] Speaker 1: When I went from home, I hastened to return. She
[14:58] Speaker 1: must be somewhere at the high so I was certain.
[15:02] Speaker 1: And when I slept in her chamber, I was beaten
[15:06] Speaker 1: out of that. I couldn't lie there, for the moment
[15:12] Speaker 1: I closed my eyes, she was either outside the window,
[15:17] Speaker 1: or sliding back the panels, or entering the room, or
[15:21] Speaker 1: even resting her darling head on the same pillow as
[15:24] Speaker 1: she did when a child. And I must open my
[15:29] Speaker 1: lids to see, And so I opened and closed them
[15:33] Speaker 1: a hundred times a night, to be always disappointed. It
[15:39] Speaker 1: racked me I've often groaned aloud till that old rascal
[15:45] Speaker 1: Joseph no doubt believed that my conscience was playing the
[15:50] Speaker 1: fiend inside of me. Now, since I've seen her, I'm
[15:56] Speaker 1: pacified a little. It was a strange way of killing,
[16:05] Speaker 1: not by inches, but by fractions of hair breadths, to
[16:11] Speaker 1: beguile me with the specter of a hope through eighteen years.
[16:21] Speaker 1: Mister Heathcliff paused and wiped his forehead. His hair clung
[16:27] Speaker 1: to it, wet with perspiration. His eyes were fixed on
[16:31] Speaker 1: the red embers of the fire, the brows not contracted
[16:36] Speaker 1: but raised next the temples, diminishing the grim aspect of
[16:41] Speaker 1: his countenance, but imparting a peculiar look of trouble and
[16:47] Speaker 1: a painful appearance of mental tension towards one absorbing subject.
[16:55] Speaker 1: He only half addressed me, and I maintained silent. I
[17:01] Speaker 1: didn't like to hear him talk. After a short period,
[17:07] Speaker 1: he resumed his meditation on the picture, took it down,
[17:12] Speaker 1: and leant it against the sofa to contemplate it at
[17:16] Speaker 1: better advantage. And while so occupied, Catherine entered, announcing that
[17:22] Speaker 1: she was ready when her pony should be saddled, send
[17:27] Speaker 1: that over tomorrow, said Heathcliff to me. Then turning to her,
[17:32] Speaker 1: he added, you might do without your pony. It is
[17:36] Speaker 1: a fine evening, and you'll need no ponies at Wuthering Heights.
[17:40] Speaker 1: For what journeys you take, your own feet will serve you.
[17:44] Speaker 1: Come along, goodbye, Ellen, whispered my dear little mistress. As
[17:52] Speaker 1: she kissed me. Her lips felt like ice. Come and
[17:58] Speaker 1: see me, Ellen, don't forget yet, take care you do
[18:02] Speaker 1: no such thing. Missus Dean, said her new father. When
[18:07] Speaker 1: I wish to speak to you, I'll come here. I
[18:10] Speaker 1: want none of your prying at my house. He signed
[18:15] Speaker 1: her to precede him, and, casting back a look that
[18:19] Speaker 1: cut my heart, she obeyed. I watched them from the
[18:25] Speaker 1: window walk down the garden. Heathcliff fixed Catherine's arm under his,
[18:32] Speaker 1: though she disputed the act at first. Evidently and with
[18:36] Speaker 1: rapid strides, he hurried her into the alley, whose trees
[18:40] Speaker 1: concealed them. End of Chapter twenty nine. Recording by Ruth
[18:48] Speaker 1: Golding

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.