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85 Wuthering Heights By Emily BronteCHAPTER XIIWhile Miss Linton moped about the park and garden, always silent, and almost alwaysin tears; and her brother shut himself up among books that he never opened—wearying, I guessed, with a continual vague expectation that Catherine, repenting herconduct, would come of her own accord to ask pardon, and seek a reconciliation—and she fasted pertinaciously, under the idea, probably, that at every meal Edgar wasready to choke for her absence, and pride alone held him from running to cast himself ather feet; I went about my household duties, convinced that the Grange had but onesensible soul in its walls, and that lodged in my body. I wasted no condolences on Miss,nor any expostulations on my mistress; nor did I pay much attention to the sighs of mymaster, who yearned to hear his lady’s name, since he might not hear her voice. Idetermined they should come about as they pleased for me; and though it was atiresomely slow process, I began to rejoice at length in a faint dawn of its progress: as Ithought at first.Mrs. Linton, on the third day, unbarred her door, and having finished the water in herpitcher and decanter, desired a renewed supply, and a basin of gruel, for she believedshe was dying. That I set down as a speech meant for Edgar’s ears; I believed no suchthing, so I kept it to myself and brought her some tea and dry toast. She ate and drankeagerly, and sank back on her pillow again, clenching her hands and groaning. ‘Oh, I willdie,’ she exclaimed, ‘since no one cares anything about me. I wish I had not taken that.’Then a good while after I heard her murmur, ‘No, I’ll not die—he’d be glad—he does notlove me at all—he would never miss me!’‘Did you want anything, ma’am?’ I inquired, still preserving my external composure, inspite of her ghastly countenance and strange, exaggerated manner.‘What is that apathetic being doing?’ she demanded, pushing the thick entangled locksfrom her wasted face. ‘Has he fallen into a lethargy, or is he dead?’‘Neither,’ replied I; ‘if you mean Mr. Linton. He’s tolerably well, I think, though hisstudies occupy him rather more than they ought: he is continually among his books,since he has no other society.’I should not have spoken so if I had known her true condition, but I could not get rid ofthe notion that she acted a part of her disorder.‘Among his books!’ she cried, confounded. ‘And I dying! I on the brink of the grave! MyGod! does he know how I’m altered?’ continued she, staring at her reflection in a mirrorhanging against the opposite wall. ‘Is that Catherine Linton? He imagines me in a pet—in play, perhaps. Cannot you inform him that it is frightful earnest? Nelly, if it be not toolate, as soon as I learn how he feels, I’ll choose between these two: either to starve atonce—that would be no punishment unless he had a heart—or to recover, and leave thewww.globalgrey.co.uk