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CHAPTER VI Mr. Hindley came home to the funeral; and—a thing that amazed us, and set the neighbours gossiping right and left—he brought a wife with him. What she was, and where she was born, he never informed us: probably, she had neither money nor name to recommend her, or he would scarcely have kept the union from his father. She was not one that would have disturbed the house much on her own account. Every object she saw, the moment she crossed the threshold, appeared to delight her; and every circumstance that took place about her: except the preparing for the burial, and the presence of the mourners. I thought she was half silly, from her behaviour while that went on: she ran into her chamber, and made me come with her, though I should have been dressing the children: and there she sat shivering and clasping her hands, and asking repeatedly—‘Are they gone yet?’ Then she began describing with hysterical emotion the effect it produced on her to see black; and started, and trembled, and, at last, fell a-weeping—and when I asked what was the matter, answered, she didn’t know; but she felt so afraid of dying! I imagined her as little likely to die as myself. She was rather thin, but young, and fresh-complexioned, and her eyes sparkled as bright as diamonds. I did remark, to be sure, that mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick; that the least sudden noise set her all in a quiver, and that she coughed troublesomely sometimes: but I knew nothing of what these symptoms portended, and had no impulse to sympathise with her. We don’t in general take to foreigners here, Mr. Lockwood, unless they take to us first. Young Earnshaw was altered considerably in the three years of his absence. He had grown sparer, and lost his colour, and spoke and dressed quite differently; and, on the very day of his return, he told Joseph and me we must thenceforth quarter ourselves in the back-kitchen, and leave the house for him. Indeed, he would have carpeted and papered a small spare room for a parlour; but his wife expressed such pleasure at the white floor and huge glowing fireplace, at the pewter dishes and delf-case, and dog-kennel, and the wide space there was to move about in where they usually sat, that he thought it unnecessary to her comfort, and so dropped the intention. She expressed pleasure, too, at finding a sister among her new acquaintance; and she prattled to Catherine, and kissed her, and ran about with her, and gave her quantities of presents, at the beginning. Her affection tired very soon, however, and when she grew peevish, Hindley became tyrannical. A few words from her, evincing a dislike to Heathcliff, were enough to rouse in him all his old hatred of the boy. He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm. Heathcliff bore his degradation pretty well at first, because Cathy taught him what she learnt, and worked or played with him in the fields. They both promised fair to grow up as rude as savages; the young master being entirely negligent how they behaved, and what they did, so they kept clear of him. He would not even have seen after their going to church on Sundays, only Joseph and the curate reprimanded his carelessness when they absented themselves; and that reminded him to order Heathcliff a flogging, and Catherine a fast from dinner or supper. But it was one of their chief amusements to run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day, and the after punishment grew a mere thing to laugh at. The curate might set as many chapters as he pleased for Catherine to get by heart, and Joseph might thrash Heathcliff till his arm ached; they forgot everything the minute they were together again: at least the minute they had contrived some naughty plan of revenge; and many a time I’ve cried to myself to watch them growing more reckless daily, and I not daring to speak a syllable, for fear of losing the small power I still retained over the unfriended creatures. One Sunday evening, it chanced that they were banished from the sitting-room, for making a noise, or a light offence of the kind; and when I went to call them to supper, I could discover them nowhere. We searched the house, above and below, and the yard and stables; they were invisible: and, at last, Hindley in a passion told us to bolt the doors, and swore nobody should let them in that night. The household went to bed; and I, too, anxious to lie down, opened my lattice and put my head out to hearken, though it rained: determined to admit them in spite of the prohibition, should they return. In a while, I distinguished steps coming up the road, and the light of a lantern glimmered through the gate. I threw a shawl over my head and ran to prevent them from waking Mr. Earnshaw by knocking. There was Heathcliff, by himself: it gave me a start to see him alone. |
第6章 亨得利先生回來奔喪了，而且有一件事使我們大為吃驚，也令左鄰右舍說長道短——他引回來一個媳婦。她是何人，娘家在哪，他從未給我們提過。大概她既沒錢財自誇，也沒門第值得炫耀，不然亨得利也不至於一直把這樁婚事瞞著不告訴他父親。 她倒不至於為了她自己的舒心而攪得全家不得安寧。一跨進門檻，她所見到的每樣東西以及她周圍發生的每項事情——看來都使她心情愉悅，除葬禮準備和吊唁者到場之外。這時，我從她的言談舉止看得出，她有點半憨——她跑進自己臥室，叫我也進去，雖然我正該給孩子們穿孝服，她卻坐在那兒，身體發抖，雙手緊握，不停地問：“他們走了沒？”然後，她就開始聲嘶力竭地形容看到黑色對她產生的影響，她心生害怕、身體哆嗦，最後又哭起來——當我問她怎麽回事時，她回答說不知道，隻是覺得非常怕死！我勸她說，她和我一樣不至於馬上就死。她身子相當消瘦，可是人很年輕，氣色挺好，一雙眼睛像鑽石一樣閃亮。我倒也確實注意到她上樓時呼吸急促，隻要突然有一點最輕微的聲響，也會令她渾身發抖，而且有時候咳嗽起來令人心煩。可是我一點也不知道這些症狀預示著什麽，也不至於心血來潮對她表示同情。在這裏我們一般不大主動親近外來戶，羅克伍德先生，除非他們先跟我們親近。 一別三年，俄韶少爺的變化相當大。他比之前瘦了，臉上失去了血色，談吐衣著都跟從前大不相同。就在回來的當天，他吩咐周思福和我從今往後就在後廚居住，把正屋騰出來給他。的確，他本想收拾出一個小房間，鋪上地毯，糊糊牆壁，當作客廳。可是他的新媳婦喜歡那白色地板和火光熊熊的大壁爐，那些錫鑞盤子和青花瓷的櫥櫃，還有狗窩，在加上他們平時在正屋活動時，有寬敞的空間可以走動。因此他想為了取悅媳婦，就沒必要再收拾出一個客廳了，於是便放棄了這個念頭。 在新認識的人當中，她為找到一個妹妹而顯露出高興之色。剛開始時，她跟闞思睿說起話來沒完沒了，她親她，跟她跑來跑去，還給了她許多禮物。但是沒多久，她對闞思睿的喜歡勁沒了。當她的脾氣變得乖戾時，亨得利也變得像個暴君。她隻要說幾個字，流露出對黑思克裏夫的不滿，就足以喚醒亨得利對黑思克裏夫的全部舊恨。他把黑思克裏夫從大夥中趕到下人那裏去，剝奪他從副牧師那兒受教誨的權利，堅持讓他在外麵幹活，強迫他跟莊園裏其他的小夥子們一樣辛苦地勞動。 起初黑思克裏夫還很能忍受他的地位被降低，因為闞思把她所學的都教給他，還陪他在地裏幹活或玩耍。他倆發誓要象粗野的野人一樣長大。少爺完全不過問他倆的言行舉止，所以他們也樂得躲開他。他甚至也沒留意他倆周日是否去禮拜堂，隻有周思福和副牧師看見他倆不在的時候，才來責怪他的疏忽。這就提醒他下令給黑思克裏夫一頓鞭子，讓闞思睿餓一頓午飯或晚飯。但是他倆一大早跑到曠野，在那兒呆一整天，這已成為他們的主要娛樂活動之一，隨後的懲罰反而成了一笑了之的小事一樁。盡管副牧師盡可能多地給闞思睿布置聖經章節要她背誦，盡管周思福把黑思克裏夫抽打得胳膊直到陣陣作痛，可是隻要他倆又聚在一起，或至少在他倆籌劃出什麽報複的惡作劇計劃的那一分鍾，他們就把什麽都忘了。有多少次我眼看他們一天比一天變得肆無忌憚，我隻好自己暗自流淚，我又不敢說一個字，唯恐失掉我對這兩個無親無故的小冤家還有的一點點權力。一個周日晚上，碰巧又因為太吵鬧或是一個類似的其他小過失，他倆被攆出了起居室。當我去叫他倆吃晚飯時，哪兒也找不到他們，我們搜遍了整座房子，樓上樓下，以及院子和馬號，連個人影兒也沒有。最後，亨得利脾氣大發，叫我們閂上門，賭咒說這天夜裏誰也不許放他們進來。全家都去睡了，我急得躺不住，便把我的窗子打開，伸出頭去傾聽著，雖然外麵在下著雨，我決定隻要是他們回來，我就不顧禁令，放他們進來。過了一會，我聽見路上有腳步聲，有盞馬燈的光一閃一閃地進了大門。我把圍巾披在頭上，跑了出去，以防他倆敲門把俄韶少爺吵醒。隻有黑思克裏夫一個人——我看隻有他一個人回來，可把我嚇了一跳。 |
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