| 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 亨得利先生回来奔丧了，而且有一件事使我们大为吃惊，也令左邻右舍说长道短——他引回来一个媳妇。她是何人，娘家在哪，他从未给我们提过。大概她既没钱财自夸，也没门第值得炫耀，不然亨得利也不至于一直把这桩婚事瞒着不告诉他父亲。 她倒不至于为了她自己的舒心而搅得全家不得安宁。一跨进门槛，她所见到的每样东西以及她周围发生的每项事情——看来都使她心情愉悦，除葬礼准备和吊唁者到场之外。这时，我从她的言谈举止看得出，她有点半憨——她跑进自己卧室，叫我也进去，虽然我正该给孩子们穿孝服，她却坐在那儿，身体发抖，双手紧握，不停地问：“他们走了没？”然后，她就开始声嘶力竭地形容看到黑色对她产生的影响，她心生害怕、身体哆嗦，最后又哭起来——当我问她怎么回事时，她回答说不知道，只是觉得非常怕死！我劝她说，她和我一样不至于马上就死。她身子相当消瘦，可是人很年轻，气色挺好，一双眼睛像钻石一样闪亮。我倒也确实注意到她上楼时呼吸急促，只要突然有一点最轻微的声响，也会令她浑身发抖，而且有时候咳嗽起来令人心烦。可是我一点也不知道这些症状预示着什么，也不至于心血来潮对她表示同情。在这里我们一般不大主动亲近外来户，罗克伍德先生，除非他们先跟我们亲近。 一别三年，俄韶少爷的变化相当大。他比之前瘦了，脸上失去了血色，谈吐衣着都跟从前大不相同。就在回来的当天，他吩咐周思福和我从今往后就在后厨居住，把正屋腾出来给他。的确，他本想收拾出一个小房间，铺上地毯，糊糊墙壁，当作客厅。可是他的新媳妇喜欢那白色地板和火光熊熊的大壁炉，那些锡镴盘子和青花瓷的橱柜，还有狗窝，在加上他们平时在正屋活动时，有宽敞的空间可以走动。因此他想为了取悦媳妇，就没必要再收拾出一个客厅了，于是便放弃了这个念头。 在新认识的人当中，她为找到一个妹妹而显露出高兴之色。刚开始时，她跟阚思睿说起话来没完没了，她亲她，跟她跑来跑去，还给了她许多礼物。但是没多久，她对阚思睿的喜欢劲没了。当她的脾气变得乖戾时，亨得利也变得像个暴君。她只要说几个字，流露出对黑思克里夫的不满，就足以唤醒亨得利对黑思克里夫的全部旧恨。他把黑思克里夫从大伙中赶到下人那里去，剥夺他从副牧师那儿受教诲的权利，坚持让他在外面干活，强迫他跟庄园里其他的小伙子们一样辛苦地劳动。 起初黑思克里夫还很能忍受他的地位被降低，因为阚思把她所学的都教给他，还陪他在地里干活或玩耍。他俩发誓要象粗野的野人一样长大。少爷完全不过问他俩的言行举止，所以他们也乐得躲开他。他甚至也没留意他俩周日是否去礼拜堂，只有周思福和副牧师看见他俩不在的时候，才来责怪他的疏忽。这就提醒他下令给黑思克里夫一顿鞭子，让阚思睿饿一顿午饭或晚饭。但是他俩一大早跑到旷野，在那儿呆一整天，这已成为他们的主要娱乐活动之一，随后的惩罚反而成了一笑了之的小事一桩。尽管副牧师尽可能多地给阚思睿布置圣经章节要她背诵，尽管周思福把黑思克里夫抽打得胳膊直到阵阵作痛，可是只要他俩又聚在一起，或至少在他俩筹划出什么报复的恶作剧计划的那一分钟，他们就把什么都忘了。有多少次我眼看他们一天比一天变得肆无忌惮，我只好自己暗自流泪，我又不敢说一个字，唯恐失掉我对这两个无亲无故的小冤家还有的一点点权力。一个周日晚上，碰巧又因为太吵闹或是一个类似的其他小过失，他俩被撵出了起居室。当我去叫他俩吃晚饭时，哪儿也找不到他们，我们搜遍了整座房子，楼上楼下，以及院子和马号，连个人影儿也没有。最后，亨得利脾气大发，叫我们闩上门，赌咒说这天夜里谁也不许放他们进来。全家都去睡了，我急得躺不住，便把我的窗子打开，伸出头去倾听着，虽然外面在下着雨，我决定只要是他们回来，我就不顾禁令，放他们进来。过了一会，我听见路上有脚步声，有盏马灯的光一闪一闪地进了大门。我把围巾披在头上，跑了出去，以防他俩敲门把俄韶少爷吵醒。只有黑思克里夫一个人——我看只有他一个人回来，可把我吓了一跳。 |
