'Where is Miss Catherine?' I cried hurriedly. 'No accident, I hope?' 'At Thrushcross Grange,' he answered; 'and I would have been there too, but they had not the manners to ask me to stay.' 'Well, you will catch it!' I said: 'you'll never be content till you're sent about your business. What in the world led you wandering to Thrushcross Grange?' 'Let me get off my wet clothes, and I'll tell you all about it, Nelly,' he replied. I bid him beware of rousing the master, and while he undressed and I waited to put out the candle, he continued - 'Cathy and I escaped from the wash-house to have a ramble at liberty, and getting a glimpse of the Grange lights, we thought we would just go and see whether the Lintons passed their Sunday evenings standing shivering in corners, while their father and mother sat eating and drinking, and singing and laughing, and burning their eyes out before the fire. Do you think they do? Or reading sermons, and being catechised by their manservant, and set to learn a column of Scripture names, if they don't answer properly?' 'Probably not,' I responded. 'They are good children, no doubt, and don't deserve the treatment you receive, for your bad conduct.' 'Don't cant, Nelly,' he said: 'nonsense! We ran from the top of the Heights to the park, without stopping - Catherine completely beaten in the race, because she was barefoot. You'll have to seek for her shoes in the bog to-morrow. We crept through a broken hedge, groped our way up the path, and planted ourselves on a flower-plot under the drawing-room window. The light came from thence; they had not put up the shutters, and the curtains were only half closed. Both of us were able to look in by standing on the basement, and clinging to the ledge, and we saw - ah! it was beautiful - a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre, and shimmering with little soft tapers. Old Mr. and Mrs. Linton were not there; Edgar and his sisters had it entirely to themselves. Shouldn't they have been happy? We should have thought ourselves in heaven! And now, guess what your good children were doing? Isabella - I believe she is eleven, a year younger than Cathy - lay screaming at the farther end of the room, shrieking as if witches were running red-hot needles into her. Edgar stood on the hearth weeping silently, and in the middle of the table sat a little dog, shaking its paw and yelping; which, from their mutual accusations, we understood they had nearly pulled in two between them. The idiots! That was their pleasure! to quarrel who should hold a heap of warm hair, and each begin to cry because both, after struggling to get it, refused to take it. We laughed outright at the petted things; we did despise them! When would you catch me wishing to have what Catherine wanted? or find us by ourselves, seeking entertainment in yelling, and sobbing, and rolling on the ground, divided by the whole room? I'd not exchange, for a thousand lives, my condition here, for Edgar Linton's at Thrushcross Grange - not if I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph off the highest gable, and painting the house- front with Hindley's blood!'

 

“凯瑟琳呢？”我急忙问道，“希望没出什么事？”“在画眉山庄呢。”他回答道，“本来我也该在那儿的，但是他们没有好好的留我。”“好吧，你等着挨揍吧！”我说，“每次你不被揍，你是不会满足的。你们究竟为什么要跑到画眉山庄去？”“让我先把湿衣服脱掉，我再把事情原原本本的告诉你，雷莉。”他回答道。我求他小心点以免惊醒主人，等他脱好衣服，我把蜡烛灭掉，他继续说道，“我和凯西从洗衣房跑出去，自由自在的漫步，突然看见了画眉山庄的灯光。我们就想去看看林顿家的大人坐在桌前吃饭、喝酒、唱歌、说笑还有被壁炉的火烤得两眼放光的时候，他们家的孩子不是站在墙角冻得发抖。你认为他们会吗？或者是读经书，被仆人一一抽问，如果他们答得不好得话，就被罚背一长串的经文名字？”“很可能不会。”我答道，“不用说，他们是好孩子，他们不该受到那样的惩罚，因为你老犯错误。”“别偏心，雷莉！”他说，“毫无根据！我们从山庄一口气跑到谷地。凯瑟琳已经完全跑不动了，因为她光着脚。你明天得在沼泽地里去找她得鞋子。我们从坏了得篱笆爬了进去，摸索着前进，然后站在客厅窗户外得花坛里。因为百叶窗没有合上，窗帘也只是半拉着，灯光从里面照了出来。我们两个站在地上，趴在窗台上就可以看见里面了。啊，很漂亮！我们看见一个极为辉煌的房间，地上铺着深红色的地毯，椅子上套着深红色的套子，桌子上铺着深红色的桌布，雪白的天花板用金子镶边，一大堆用银色链子串着的玻璃珠子吊在房子中央，上面细小的蜡烛散发着柔和的光芒。老林顿先生和夫人不在家，只有埃德加和他妹妹在家。他们该有多开心啊？如果是我们得话，那感觉跟在天堂一样。现在猜猜你得好孩子们在做什么？伊莎贝拉，我想她有11岁了，她比凯西小1岁。她赖在屋子的那头地上尖叫，那尖叫声就跟有巫婆用炽热的针扎她一样，埃德加则是站在壁炉旁边静静的抹眼泪，而桌子中间则坐在一只小狗，舞动着它的爪子乱叫。从他们相互的指责中，我们知道他们两个差点把小狗扯成了两半。这些笨蛋！这是他们的乐事吧！为了能抱着这温暖的毛绒绒的东西两个人吵了起来，先是吵着要，现在又不要了，两个都哭了起来。我们立即大笑这些娇生惯养的东西，我们瞧不起他们！你什么时候见过我想要和凯西争东西？或是你有看见我们单独在一起的时候以这些为乐趣：相互大骂，哭闹、在屋子里打滚，各自占据屋子的一头？就算是活一千次，我也不愿意用我在这里的生活去换埃德加在画眉山庄的日子，就算我可以有权利把约瑟夫从最高的墙上扔下去，用欣德利的血粉刷房子正面的墙！我也不换。”

'Hush, hush!' I interrupted. 'Still you have not told me, Heathcliff, how Catherine is left behind?'

 

“嘘，嘘！”我打断他，“你还没有告诉我凯瑟琳怎么没有回来呢？”

'I told you we laughed,' he answered. 'The Lintons heard us, and with one accord they shot like arrows to the door; there was silence, and then a cry, "Oh, mamma, mamma! Oh, papa! Oh, mamma, come here. Oh, papa, oh!" They really did howl out something in that way. We made frightful noises to terrify them still more, and then we dropped off the ledge, because somebody was drawing the bars, and we felt we had better flee. I had Cathy by the hand, and was urging her on, when all at once she fell down. "Run, Heathcliff, run!" she whispered. "They have let the bull-dog loose, and he holds me!" The devil had seized her ankle, Nelly: I heard his abominable snorting. She did not yell out - no! she would have scorned to do it, if she had been spitted on the horns of a mad cow. I did, though: I vociferated curses enough to annihilate any fiend in Christendom; and I got a stone and thrust it between his jaws, and tried with all my might to cram it down his throat. A beast of a servant came up with a lantern, at last, shouting - "Keep fast, Skulker, keep fast!" He changed his note, however, when he saw Skulker's game. The dog was throttled off; his huge, purple tongue hanging half a foot out of his mouth, and his pendent lips streaming with bloody slaver. The man took Cathy up; she was sick: not from fear, I'm certain, but from pain. He carried her in; I followed, grumbling execrations and vengeance. "What prey, Robert?" hallooed Linton from the entrance. "Skulker has caught a little girl, sir," he replied; "and there's a lad here," he added, making a clutch at me, "who looks an out-and- outer! Very like the robbers were for putting them through the window to open the doors to the gang after all were asleep, that they might murder us at their ease. Hold your tongue, you foul- mouthed thief, you! you shall go to the gallows for this. Mr. Linton, sir, don't lay by your gun." "No, no, Robert," said the old fool. "The rascals knew that yesterday was my rent-day: they thought to have me cleverly. Come in; I'll furnish them a reception. There, John, fasten the chain. Gi