Dr.
Seward's Diary29 September - night - continued When we arrived at
the Berkely Hotel, Van Helsing found a telegram waiting for him. "Am
coming up by train. Jonathan at Whitby. Important news. Mina Harker."
The Professor was delighted. "Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina," he said,
"pearl among women! She arrive, but I cannot stay. She must go to your house,
friend John. You must meet her at the station. Telegraph her en route so that
she may be prepared." When the wire was dispatched he had a cup of
tea. Over it he told me of a diary kept by Jonathan Harker when abroad, and gave
me a typewritten copy of it, as also of Mrs. Harker's diary at Whitby. "Take
these," he said, "and study them well. When I have returned you will
be master of all the facts, and we can then better enter on our inquisition. Keep
them safe, for there is in them much of treasure. You will need all your faith,
even you who have had such an experience as that of today. What is here told,"
he laid his hand heavily and gravely on the packet of papers as he spoke, "may
be the beginning of the end to you and me and many another, or it may sound the
knell of the UnDead who walk the earth. Read all, I pray you, with the open mind,
and if you can add in any way to the story here told do so, for it is all important.
You have kept a diary of all these so strange things, is it not so? Yes! Then
we shall go through all these together when we meet." He then made ready
for his departure and shortly drove off to Liverpool Street. I took my way to
Paddington, where I arrived about fifteen minutes before the train came in. The
crowd melted away, after the bustling fashion common to arrival platforms, and
I was beginning to feel uneasy, lest I might miss my guest, when a sweet-faced,
dainty looking girl stepped up to me, and after a quick glance said, "Dr.
Seward, is it not?" "And you are Mrs. Harker!" I answered
at once, whereupon she held out her hand. "I knew you from the description
of poor dear Lucy, but . . ." She stopped suddenly, and a quick blush overspread
her face. The blush that rose to my own cheeks somehow set us both at ease,
for it was a tacit answer to her own. I got her luggage, which included a typewriter,
and we took the Underground to Fenchurch Street, after I had sent a wire to my
housekeeper to have a sitting room and a bedroom prepared at once for Mrs. Harker. In
due time we arrived. She knew, of course, that the place was a lunatic asylum,
but I could see that she was unable to repress a shudder when we entered. She
told me that, if she might, she would come presently to my study, as she had much
to say. So here I am finishing my entry in my phonograph diary whilst I await
her. As yet I have not had the chance of looking at the papers which Van Helsing
left with me, though they lie open before me. I must get her interested in something,
so that I may have an opportunity of reading them. She does not know how precious
time is, or what a task we have in hand. I must be careful not to frighten her.
Here she is! |
