Mina
Harker's Journal29 September After dinner I came with Dr. Seward
to his study. He brought back the phonograph from my room, and I took a chair,
and arranged the phonograph so that I could touch it without getting up, and showed
me how to stop it in case I should want to pause. Then he very thoughtfully took
a chair, with his back to me, so that I might be as free as possible, and began
to read. I put the forked metal to my ears and listened. When the terrible
story of Lucy's death, and all that followed, was done, I lay back in my chair
powerless. Fortunately I am not of a fainting disposition. When Dr. Seward saw
me he jumped up with a horrified exclamation, and hurriedly taking a case bottle
from the cupboard, gave me some brandy, which in a few minutes somewhat restored
me. My brain was all in a whirl, and only that there came through all the multitude
of horrors, the holy ray of light that my dear Lucy was at last at peace, I do
not think I could have borne it without making a scene. It is all so wild and
mysterious, and strange that if I had not known Jonathan's experience in Transylvania
I could not have believed. As it was, I didn't know what to believe, and so got
out of my difficulty by attending to something else. I took the cover off my typewriter,
and said to Dr. Seward, "Let me write this all out now. We must be
ready for Dr. Van Helsing when he comes. I have sent a telegram to Jonathan to
come on here when he arrives in London from Whitby. In this matter dates are everything,
and I think that if we get all of our material ready, and have every item put
in chronological order, we shall have done much. "You tell me that
Lord Godalming and Mr. Morris are coming too. Let us be able to tell them when
they come." He accordingly set the phonograph at a slow pace, and I
began to typewrite from the beginning of the seventeenth cylinder. I used manifold,
and so took three copies of the diary, just as I had done with the rest. It was
late when I got through, but Dr. Seward went about his work of going his round
of the patients. When he had finished he came back and sat near me, reading, so
that I did not feel too lonely whilst I worked. How good and thoughtful he is.
The world seems full of good men, even if there are monsters in it. Before
I left him I remembered what Jonathan put in his diary of the Professor's perturbation
at reading something in an evening paper at the station at Exeter, so, seeing
that Dr. Seward keeps his newspapers, I borrowed the files of 'The Westminster
Gazette' and 'The Pall Mall Gazette' and took them to my room. I remember how
much the 'Dailygraph' and 'The Whitby Gazette', of which I had made cuttings,
had helped us to understand the terrible events at Whitby when Count Dracula landed,
so I shall look through the evening papers since then, and perhaps I shall get
some new light. I am not sleepy, and the work will help to keep me quiet. |
