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there are two sofas.  You shall lie on one, and I on the other, and
our sympathy will be comfort to each other, even though we do not
speak, and even if we sleep."

Arthur went off with him, casting back a longing look on Lucy's face,
which lay in her pillow, almost whiter than the lawn.  She lay quite
still, and I looked around the room to see that all was as it should
be.  I could see that the Professor had carried out in this room, as
in the other, his purpose of using the garlic.  The whole of the
window sashes reeked with it, and round Lucy's neck, over the silk
handkerchief which Van Helsing made her keep on, was a rough chaplet
of the same odorous flowers.

Lucy was breathing somewhat stertorously, and her face was at its
worst, for the open mouth showed the pale gums.  Her teeth, in the
dim, uncertain light, seemed longer and sharper than they had been in
the morning.  In particular, by some trick of the light, the canine
teeth looked longer and sharper than the rest.

I sat down beside her, and presently she moved uneasily.  At the same
moment there came a sort of dull flapping or buffeting at the window.
I went over to it softly, and peeped out by the corner of the blind.
There was a full moonlight, and I could see that the noise was made by
a great bat, which wheeled around, doubtless attracted by the light,
although so dim, and every now and again struck the window with its
wings.  When I came back to my seat, I found that Lucy had moved
slightly, and had torn away the garlic flowers from her throat.  I
replaced them as well as I could, and sat watching her.

Presently she woke, and I gave her food, as Van Helsing had
prescribed.  She took but a little, and that languidly.  There did not
seem to be with her now the unconscious struggle for life and strength
that had hitherto so marked her illness.  It struck me as curious that
the moment she became conscious she pressed the garlic flowers close
to her.  It was certainly odd that whenever she got into that
lethargic state, with the stertorous breathing, she put the flowers
from her, but that when she waked she clutched them close, There was
no possibility of making any mistake about this, for in the long hours
that followed, she had many spells of sleeping and waking and repeated
both actions many times.

At six o'clock Van Helsing came to relieve me.  Arthur had then fallen
into a doze, and he mercifully let him sleep on.  When he saw Lucy's
face I could hear the hissing indraw of breath, and he said to me in a
sharp whisper.  "Draw up the blind.  I want light!"  Then he bent down,
and, with his face almost touching Lucy's, examined her carefully.  He
removed the flowers and lifted the silk handkerchief from her throat.
As he did so he started back and I could hear his ejaculation, "Mein
Gott!" as it was smothered in his throat.  I bent over and looked,
too, and as I noticed some queer chill came over me.  The wounds on
the throat had absolutely disappeared.

For fully five minutes Van Helsing stood looking at her, with his face
at its sternest.  Then he turned to me and said calmly, "She is
dying.  It will not be long now.  It will be much difference, mark me,
whether she dies conscious or in her sleep.  Wake that poor boy, and
let him come and see the last.  He trusts us, and we have promised
him."

I went to the dining room and waked him.  He was dazed for a moment,
but when he saw the sunlight streaming in through the edges of the
shutters he thought he was late, and expressed his fear.  I assured
him that Lucy was still asleep, but told him as gently as I could that
both Van Helsing and I feared that the end was near.  He covered his
face with his hands, and slid down on his knees by the sofa, where he
remained, perhaps a minute, with his head buried, praying, whilst his
shoulders shook with grief.  I took him by the hand and raised him up.
"Come," I said, "my dear old fellow, summon all your fortitude.  It
will be best and easiest for her."

When we came into Lucy's room I could see that Van Helsing had, with
his usual forethought, been putting matters straight and making
everything look as pleasing as possible.  He had even brushed Lucy's
hair, so that it lay on the pillow in its usual sunny ripples.  When
we came into the room she opened her eyes, and seeing him, whispered
softly, "Arthur!  Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come!"

He was stooping to kiss her, when Van Helsing motioned him back.
"No," he whispered, "not yet!  Hold her hand, it will comfort her
more."

So Arthur took her hand and knelt beside her, and she looked her best,
with all the soft lines matching the angelic beauty of her eyes.  Then
gradually her eyes closed, and she sank to sleep.  For a little bit
her breast heaved softly, and her breath came and went like a tired
child's.

And then insensibly there came the strange change which I had noticed
in the night.  Her breathing grew stertorous, the mouth opened, and
the pale gums, drawn back, made the teeth look longer and sharper than
ever.  In a sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened
her eyes, which were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft,
voluptuous voice, such as I had never heard from her lips, "Arthur!
Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come!  Kiss me!"

Arthur bent eagerly over to kiss her, but at that instant Van Helsing,
who, like me, had been startled by her voice, swooped upon him, and
catching him by the neck with both hands, dragged him back with a fury
of strength which I never thought he could have possessed, and
actually hurled him almost across the room.

"Not on your life!" he said, "not for your living soul and hers!"  And
he stood between them like a lion at bay.

Arthur was so taken aback that he did not for a moment know what to do
or say, and before any impulse of violence could seize him he realized
the place and the occasion, and stood silent, waiting.

I kept my eyes fixed on Lucy, as did Van Helsing, and we saw a spasm
as of rage flit like a shadow over her face.  The sharp teeth clamped
together.  Then her eyes closed, and she breathed heavily.

Very shortly after she opened her eyes in all their softness, and
putting out her poor, pale, thin hand, took Van Helsing's great brown
one, drawing it close to her, she kissed it.  "My true friend," she
said, in a faint voice, but with untellable pathos, "My true friend,
and his!  Oh, guard him, and give me peace!"

"I swear it!" he said solemnly, kneeling beside her and holding up his
hand, as one who registers an oath.  Then he turned to Arthur, and
said to him, "Come, my child, take her hand in yours, and kiss her on

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early, and it have its root in faith still.  Then, when we get the
opportunity that we seek, when none are near to see, we shall open the
box, and . . . and all will be well."

"I shall not wait for any opportunity," said Morris.  "When I see the
box I shall open it and destroy the monster, though there were a
thousand men looking on, and if I am to be wiped out for it the next
moment!"  I grasped his hand instinctively and found it as firm as a
piece of steel.  I think he understood my look.  I hope he did.

"Good boy," said Dr. Van Helsing.  "Brave boy.  Quincey is all man.
God bless him for it.  My child, believe me none of us shall lag
behind or pause from any fear.  I do but say what we may do . . . what
we must do.  But, indeed, indeed we cannot say what we may do.  There
are so many things which may happen, and their ways and their ends are
so various that until the moment we may not say.  We shall all be
armed, in all ways.  And when the time for the end has come, our
effort shall not be lack.  Now let us today put all our affairs in
order.  Let all things which touch on others dear to us, and who on us
depend, be complete.  For none of us can tell what, or when, or how,
the end may be.  As for me, my own affairs are regulate, and as I have
nothing else to do, I shall go make arrangements for the travel.  I
shall have all tickets and so forth for our journey."

There was nothing further to be said, and we parted.  I shall now
settle up all my affairs of earth, and be ready for whatever may come.


Later.--It is done.  My will is made, and all complete.  Mina if she
survive is my sole heir.  If it should not be so, then the others who
have been so good to us shall have remainder.

It is now drawing towards the sunset.  Mina's uneasiness calls my
attention to it.  I am sure that there is something on her mind which
the time of exact sunset will reveal.  These occasions are becoming
harrowing times for us all.  For each sunrise and sunset opens up some
new danger, some new pain, which however, may in God's will be means
to a good end.  I write all these things in the diary since my darling
must not hear them now.  But if it may be that she can see them again,
they shall be ready.  She is calling to me.




CHAPTER 25


DR SEWARD'S DIARY

11 October, Evening.--Jonathan Harker has asked me to note this, as he
says he is hardly equal to the task, and he wants an exact record
kept.

I think that none of us were surprised when we were asked to see Mrs.
Harker a little before the time of sunset.  We have of late come to
understand that sunrise and sunset are to her times of peculiar
freedom.  When her old self can be manifest without any controlling
force subduing or restraining her, or inciting her to action.  This
mood or condition begins some half hour or more before actual sunrise
or sunset, and lasts till either the sun is high, or whilst the clouds
are still aglow with the rays streaming above the horizon.  At first
there is a sort of negative condition, as if some tie were loosened,
and then the absolute freedom quickly follows.  When, however, the
freedom ceases the change back or relapse comes quickly, preceded
only by a spell of warning silence.

Tonight, when we met, she was somewhat constrained, and bore all the
signs of an internal struggle.  I put it down myself to her making a
violent effort at the earliest instant she could do so.

A very few minutes, however, gave her complete control of herself.
Then, motioning her husband to sit beside her on the sofa where she
was half reclining, she made the rest of us bring chairs up close.

Taking her husband's hand in hers, she began, "We are all here
together in freedom, for perhaps the last time!  I know that you will
always be with me to the end."  This was to her husband whose hand had,
as we could see, tightened upon her.  "In the morning we go out upon
our task, and God alone knows what may be in store for any of us.  You
are going to be so good to me to take me with you.  I know that all
that brave earnest men can do for a poor weak woman, whose soul
perhaps is lost, no, no, not yet, but is at any rate at stake, you
will do.  But you must remember that I am not as you are.  There is a
poison in my blood, in my soul, which may destroy me, which must
destroy me, unless some relief comes to us.  Oh, my friends, you know
as well as I do, that my soul is at stake.  And though I know there is
one way out for me, you must not and I must not take it!"  She looked
appealingly to us all in turn, beginning and ending with her husband.

"What is that way?" asked Van Helsing in a hoarse voice.  "What is
that way, which we must not, may not, take?"

"That I may die now, either by my own hand or that of another, before
the greater evil is entirely wrought.  I know, and you know, that were
I once dead you could and would set free my immortal spirit, even as
you did my poor Lucy's.  Were death, or the fear of death, the only
thing that stood in the way I would not shrink to die here now, amidst
the friends who love me.  But death is not all.  I cannot believe that
to die in such a case, when there is hope before us and a bitter task
to be done, is God's will.  Therefore, I on my part, give up here the
certainty of eternal rest, and go out into the dark where may be the
blackest things that the world or the nether world holds!"

We were all silent, for we knew instinctively that this was only a
prelude.  The faces of the others were set, and Harker's grew ashen
grey.  Perhaps, he guessed better than any of us what was coming.

She continued, "This is what I can give into the hotch-pot."  I could
not but note the quaint legal phrase which she used in such a place,
and with all seriousness.  "What will each of you give?  Your lives I
know," she went on quickly, "that is easy for brave men.  Your lives
are God's, and you can give them back to Him, but what will you give
to me?"  She looked again questioningly, but this time avoided her
husband's face.  Quincey seemed to understand, he nodded, and her face
lit up.  "Then I shall tell you plainly what I want, for there must be
no doubtful matter in this connection between us now.  You must
promise me, one and all, even you, my beloved husband, that should the
time come, you will kill me."

"What is that time?"  The voice was Quincey's, but it was low and
strained.