Грозовой перевал / Wuthering Heights

�You scandalous old hypocrite!’ she replied. �Are you not afraid of being carried away bodily, whenever you mention the devil’s name? I warn you to refrain from provoking me, or I’ll ask your abduction as a special favour! Stop! look here, Joseph,’ she continued, taking a long, dark book from a shelf; �I’ll show you how far I’ve progressed in the Black Art: I shall soon be competent to make a clear house of it. The red cow didn’t die by chance; and your rheumatism can hardly be reckoned among providential visitations!’

�Oh, wicked, wicked!’ gasped the elder; �may the Lord deliver us from evil!’

�No, reprobate! you are a castaway be off, or I’ll hurt you seriously! I’ll have you all modelled in wax and clay! and the first who passes the limits I fix shall I’ll not say what he shall be done to but, you’ll see! Go, I’m looking at you!’

The little witch put a mock malignity into her beautiful eyes, and Joseph, trembling with sincere horror, hurried out, praying, and ejaculating �wicked’ as he went.

I thought her conduct must be prompted by a species of dreary fun; and, now that we were alone, I endeavoured to interest her in my distress.

�Mrs. Heathcliff,’ I said earnestly, �you must excuse me for troubling you. I presume, because, with that face, I’m sure you cannot help being good-hearted. Do point out some landmarks by which I may know my way home: I have no more idea how to get there than you would have how to get to London!’

�Take the road you came,’ she answered, ensconcing herself in a chair, with a candle, and the long book open before her.

�It is brief advice, but as sound as I can give.’

�Then, if you hear of me being discovered dead in a bog or a pit full of snow, your conscience won’t whisper that it is partly your fault?’

�How so? I cannot escort you. They wouldn’t let me go to the end of the garden wall.’

�YOU! I should be sorry to ask you to cross the threshold, for my convenience, on such a night,’ I cried.

�I want you to tell me my way, not to SHOW it: or else to persuade Mr. Heathcliff to give me a guide.’

�Who? There is himself, Earnshaw, Zillah, Joseph and I. Which would you have?’

�Are there no boys at the farm?’

�No; those are all.’

�Then, it follows that I am compelled to stay.’

�That you may settle with your host. I have nothing to do with it.