Dr.
Seward's Diary10 September I was conscious of the Professor's hand
on my head, and started awake all in a second. That is one of the things that
we learn in an asylum, at any rate. "And how is our patient?" "Well,
when I left her, or rather when she left me," I answered. "Come,
let us see," he said. And together we went into the room. The blind
was down, and I went over to raise it gently, whilst Van Helsing stepped, with
his soft, cat-like tread, over to the bed. As I raised the blind, and the
morning sunlight flooded the room, I heard the Professor's low hiss of inspiration,
and knowing its rarity, a deadly fear shot through my heart. As I passed over
he moved back, and his exclamation of horror, "Gott in Himmel!" needed
no enforcement from his agonized face. He raised his hand and pointed to the bed,
and his iron face was drawn and ashen white. I felt my knees begin to tremble. There
on the bed, seemingly in a swoon, lay poor Lucy, more horribly white and wan-looking
than ever. Even the lips were white, and the gums seemed to have shrunken back
from the teeth, as we sometimes see in a corpse after a prolonged illness. Van
Helsing raised his foot to stamp in anger, but the instinct of his life and all
the long years of habit stood to him, and he put it down again softly. "Quick!"
he said. "Bring the brandy." I flew to the dining room, and returned
with the decanter. He wetted the poor white lips with it, and together we rubbed
palm and wrist and heart. He felt her heart, and after a few moments of agonizing
suspense said, "It is not too late. It beats, though but feebly. All
our work is undone. We must begin again. There is no young Arthur here now. I
have to call on you yourself this time, friend John." As he spoke, he was
dipping into his bag, and producing the instruments of transfusion. I had taken
off my coat and rolled up my shirt sleeve. There was no possibility of an opiate
just at present, and no need of one; and so, without a moment's delay, we began
the operation. After a time, it did not seem a short time either, for the
draining away of one's blood, no matter how willingly it be given, is a terrible
feeling, Van Helsing held up a warning finger. "Do not stir," he said.
"But I fear that with growing strength she may wake, and that would make
danger, oh, so much danger. But I shall precaution take. I shall give hypodermic
injection of morphia." He proceeded then, swiftly and deftly, to carry out
his intent. The effect on Lucy was not bad, for the faint seemed to merge
subtly into the narcotic sleep. It was with a feeling of personal pride that I
could see a faint tinge of colour steal back into the pallid cheeks and lips.
No man knows, till he experiences it, what it is to feel his own lifeblood drawn
away into the veins of the woman he loves. The Professor watched me critically.
"That will do," he said. "Already?" I remonstrated. "You
took a great deal more from Art." To which he smiled a sad sort of smile
as he replied, "He is her lover, her fiance. You have work, much work
to do for her and for others, and the present will suffice." When we
stopped the operation, he attended to Lucy, whilst I applied digital pressure
to my own incision. I laid down, while I waited his leisure to attend to me, for
I felt faint and a little sick. By and by he bound up my wound, and sent me downstairs
to get a glass of wine for myself. As I was leaving the room, he came after me,
and half whispered. "Mind, nothing must be said of this. If our young
lover should turn up unexpected, as before, no word to him. It would at once frighten
him and enjealous him, too. There must be none. So!" When I came back
he looked at me carefully, and then said, "You are not much the worse. Go
into the room, and lie on your sofa, and rest awhile, then have much breakfast
and come here to me." I followed out his orders, for I knew how right
and wise they were. I had done my part, and now my next duty was to keep up my
strength. I felt very weak, and in the weakness lost something of the amazement
at what had occurred. I fell asleep on the sofa, however, wondering over and over
again how Lucy had made such a retrograde movement, and how she could have been
drained of so much blood with no sign any where to show for it. I think I must
have continued my wonder in my dreams, for, sleeping and waking my thoughts always
came back to the little punctures in her throat and the ragged, exhausted appearance
of their edges, tiny though they were. Lucy slept well into the day, and
when she woke she was fairly well and strong, though not nearly so much so as
the day before. When Van Helsing had seen her, he went out for a walk, leaving
me in charge, with strict injunctions that I was not to leave her for a moment.
I could hear his voice in the hall, asking the way to the nearest telegraph office. Lucy
chatted with me freely, and seemed quite unconscious that anything had happened.
I tried to keep her amused and interested. When her mother came up to see her,
she did not seem to notice any change whatever, but said to me gratefully, "We
owe you so much, Dr. Seward, for all you have done, but you really must now take
care not to overwork yourself. You are looking pale yourself. You want a wife
to nurse and look after you a bit, that you do!" As she spoke, Lucy turned
crimson, though it was only momentarily, for her poor wasted veins could not stand
for long an unwonted drain to the head. The reaction came in excessive pallor
as she turned imploring eyes on me. I smiled and nodded, and laid my finger on
my lips. With a sigh, she sank back amid her pillows. Van Helsing returned
in a couple of hours, and presently said to me: "Now you go home, and eat
much and drink enough. Make yourself strong. I stay here tonight, and I shall
sit up with little miss myself. You and I must watch the case, and we must have
none other to know. I have grave reasons. No, do not ask me. Think what you will.
Do not fear to think even the most not-improbable. Goodnight." In the
hall two of the maids came to me, and asked if they or either of them might not
sit up with Miss Lucy. They implored me to let them, and when I said it was Dr.
Van Helsing's wish that either he or I should sit up, they asked me quite piteously
to intercede with the 'foreign gentleman'. I was much touched by their kindness.
Perhaps it is because I am weak at present, and perhaps because it was on Lucy's
account, that their devotion was manifested. For over and over again have I seen
similar instances of woman's kindness. I got back here in time for a late dinner,
went my rounds, all well, and set this down whilst waiting for sleep. It is coming.
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