CHAPTER 18
DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
30 September.--I got home at five o'clock, and found that Godalming and Morris had not only arrived, but had already studied the transcript of the various diaries and letters which Harker had not yet returned from her visit to the carriers' women, of whom Dr. Hennessey had written to me. Harker gave us a cup of tea, and I can honestly say that, for the first time since I have lived in it, this old house seemed like home. When we had finished, Harker said,
'Dr. Seward, may I ask a favour? I want to see your patient, Ms. Renfield. Do let me see her. What you have said of her in your diary interests me so much!'
He looked so appealing and so pretty that I could not refuse him, and there was no possible reason why I should, so I took him with me. When I went into the room, I told the woman that a sir would like to see her, to which she simply answered, 'Why?'
'He is going through the house, and wants to see every one in it,’ I answered.
'Oh, very well,’ she said, 'let his come in, by all means, but just wait a minute till I tidy up the place.'
Her method of tidying was peculiar, she simply swallowed all the flies and spiders in the boxes before I could stop her. It was quite evident that she feared, or was jealous of, some interference. When she had got through her disgusting task, she said cheerfully, 'Let the sir come in,’ and sat down on the edge of her bed with her head down, but with her eyelids raised so that she could see his as he entered. For a moment I thought that she might have some homicidal intent. I remembered how quiet she had been just before she attacked me in my own study, and I took care to stand where I could seize her at once if she attempted to make a spring at him.
He came into the room with an easy gracefulness which would at once command the respect of any lunatic, for easiness is one of the qualities mad people most respect. He walked over to her, smiling pleasantly, and held out his hand.
'Good evening, Ms. Renfield,’ said he. 'You see, I know you, for Dr. Seward has told me of you.'She made no immediate reply, but eyed his all over intently with a set frown on her face. This look gave way to one of wonder, which merged in doubt, then to my intense astonishment she said, 'You're not the boy the doctor wanted to marry, are you? You can't be, you know, for he's dead.'
Harker smiled sweetly as he replied, 'Oh no! I have a wife of my own, to whom I was married before I ever saw Dr. Seward, or she me. I am Harker.'
'Then what are you doing here?'
'My wife and I are staying on a visit with Dr. Seward.'
'Then don't stay.'
'But why not?'
I thought that this style of conversation might not be pleasant to Harker, any more than it was to me, so I joined in, 'How did you know I wanted to marry anyone?'
Her reply was simply contemptuous, given in a pause in which she turned her eyes from Harker to me, instantly turning them back again, 'What an asinine question!'
'I don't see that at all, Ms. Renfield,’ said Harker, at once championing me.
She replied to him with as much courtesy and respect as she had shown contempt to me, 'You will, of course, understand, Harker, that when a woman is so loved and honoured as our host is, everything regarding her is of interest in our little community. Dr. Seward is loved not only by her household and her friends, but even by her patients, who, being some of them hardly in mental equilibrium, are apt to distort causes and effects. Since I myself have been an inmate of a lunatic asylum, I cannot but notice that the sophistic tendencies of some of its inmates lean towards the errors of non causa and ignoratio elenche.'
I positively opened my eyes at this new development. Here was my own pet lunatic, the most pronounced of her type that I had ever met with, talking elemental philosophy, and with the manner of a polished gentlewoman. I wonder if it was Harker's presence which had touched some chord in her memory. If this new phase was spontaneous, or in any way due to his unconscious influence, he must have some rare gift or power.
We continued to talk for some time, and seeing that she was seemingly quite reasonable, he ventured, looking at me questioningly as he began, to lead her to her favourite topic. I was again astonished, for she addressed herself to the question with the impartiality of the completest sanity. She even took herself as an example when she mentioned certain things.
'Why, I myself am an instance of a woman who had a strange belief. Indeed, it was no wonder that my friends were alarmed, and insisted on my being put under control. I used to fancy that life was a positive and perpetual entity, and that by consuming a multitude of live things, no matter how low in the scale of creation, one might indefinitely prolong life. At times I held the belief so strongly that I actually tried to take human life. The doctor here will bear me out that on one occasion I tried to kill her for the purpose of strengthening my vital powers by the assimilation with my own body of her life through the medium of her blood, relying of course, upon the Scriptural phrase, 'For the blood is the life.' Though, indeed, the vendor of a certain nostrum has vulgarized the truism to the very point of contempt. Isn't that true, doctor?'
I nodded assent, for I was so amazed that I hardly knew what to either think or say, it was hard to imagine that I had seen her eat up her spiders and flies not five minutes before. Looking at my watch, I saw that I should go to the station to meet Van Helsing, so I told Harker that it was time to leave.
He came at once, after saying pleasantly to Ms. Renfield, 'Goodbye, and I hope I may see you often, under auspices pleasanter to yourself.'
To which, to my astonishment, she replied, 'Goodbye, my dear. I pray God I may never see your sweet face again. May She bless and keep you!'
When I went to the station to meet Van Helsing I left the girls behind me. Poor Art seemed more cheerful than she has been since Lucas first took ill, and Quincy is more like her own bright self than she has been for many a long day.
Van Helsing stepped from the carriage with the eager nimbleness of a girl. She saw me at once, and rushed up to me, saying, 'Ah, friend Joan, how goes all? Well? So! I have been busy, for I come here to stay if need be. All affairs are settled with me, and I have much to tell. Minas is with you? Yes. And his so fine wife? And Artemis and my friend Quincy, they are with you, too? Good!'
As I drove to the house I told her of what had passed, and of how my own diary had come to be of some use through Harker's suggestion, at which the Professor interrupted me.
'Ah, that wonderful Minas! He has woman's brain, a brain that a woman should have were she much gifted, and a man's heart. The good God fashioned his for a purpose, believe me, when She made that so good combination. Friend Joan, up to now fortune has made that man of help to us, after tonight he must not have to do with this so terrible affair. It is not good that he run a risk so great. We women are determined, nay, are we not pledged, to destroy this monster? But it is no part for a man. Even if he be not harmed, his heart may fail his in so much and so many horrors and hereafter he may suffer, both in waking, from his nerves, and in sleep, from his dreams. And, besides, he is young man and not so long married, there may be other things to think of some time, if not now. You tell me he has wrote all, then he must consult with us, but tomorrow he say goodbye to this work, and we go alone.'
I agreed heartily with her, and then I told her what we had found in her absence, that the house which Dracula had bought was the very next one to my own. She was amazed, and a great concern seemed to come on her.
'Oh that we had known it before!’ she said, 'for then we might have reached her in time to save poor Lucas. However, 'the milk that is spilt cries not out afterwards,' as you say. We shall not think of that, but go on our way to the end.’ Then she fell into a silence that lasted till we entered my own gateway. Before we went to prepare for dinner she said to Harker, 'I am told, Minas, by my friend Joan that you and your wife have put up in exact order all things that have been, up to this moment.'
'Not up to this moment, Professor,'he said impulsively, 'but up to this morning.'
&n
bsp; 'But why not up to now? We have seen hitherto how good light all the little things have made. We have told our secrets, and yet no one who has told is the worse for it.'
Harker began to blush, and taking a paper from his pockets, he said, 'Dr. Van Helsing, will you read this, and tell me if it must go in. It is my record of today. I too have seen the need of putting down at present everything, however trivial, but there is little in this except what is personal. Must it go in?'
The Professor read it over gravely, and handed it back, saying, 'It need not go in if you do not wish it, but I pray that it may. It can but make your wife love you the more, and all us, your friends, more honour you, as well as more esteem and love.'He took it back with another blush and a bright smile.
And so now, up to this very hour, all the records we have are complete and in order. The Professor took away one copy to study after dinner, and before our meeting, which is fixed for nine o'clock. The rest of us have already read everything, so when we meet in the study we shall all be informed as to facts, and can arrange our plan of battle with this terrible and mysterious enemy.
MINAS HARKER'S JOURNAL
30 September.--When we met in Dr. Seward's study two hours after dinner, which had been at six o'clock, we unconsciously formed a sort of board or committee. Professor Van Helsing took the head of the table, to which Dr. Seward motioned her as she came into the room. She made me sit next to her on her right, and asked me to act as secretary. Joanna sat next to me. Opposite us were Lady Godalming, Dr. Seward, and Ms. Morris, Lady Godalming being next the Professor, and Dr. Seward in the centre.
The Professor said, 'I may, I suppose, take it that we are all acquainted with the facts that are in these papers.'We all expressed assent, and she went on, 'Then it were, I think, good that I tell you something of the kind of enemy with which we have to deal. I shall then make known to you something of the history of this woman, which has been ascertained for me. So we then can discuss how we shall act, and can take our measure according.
'There are such beings as vampires, some of us have evidence that they exist. Even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience, the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples. I admit that at the first I was sceptic. Were it not that through long years I have trained myself to keep an open mind, I could not have believed until such time as that fact thunder on my ear. 'See! See! I prove, I prove.' Alas! Had I known at first what now I know, nay, had I even guess at her, one so precious life had been spared to many of us who did love him. But that is gone, and we must so work, that other poor souls perish not, whilst we can save. The nosferatu do not die like the bee when she sting once. She is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is amongst us is of herself so strong in person as twenty women, she is of cunning more than mortal, for her cunning be the growth of ages, she have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as her etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that she can come nigh to are for her at command; she is brute, and more than brute; she is devil in callous, and the heart of her is not; she can, within her range, direct the elements, the storm, the fog, the thunder; she can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf, she can grow and become small; and she can at times vanish and come unknown. How then are we to begin our strike to destroy her? How shall we find her where, and having found it, how can we destroy? My friends, this is much, it is a terrible task that we undertake, and there may be consequence to make the brave shudder. For if we fail in this our fight she must surely win, and then where end we? Life is nothings, I heed her not. But to fail here, is not mere life or death. It is that we become as her, that we henceforward become foul things of the night like her, without heart or conscience, preying on the bodies and the souls of those we love best. To us forever are the gates of heaven shut, for who shall open them to us again? We go on for all time abhorred by all, a blot on the face of God's sunshine, an arrow in the side of Him who died for woman. But we are face to face with duty, and in such case must we shrink? For me, I say no, but then I am old, and life, with her sunshine, her fair places, her song of birds, her music and her love, lie far behind. You others are young. Some have seen sorrow, but there are fair days yet in store. What say you?'
Whilst she was speaking, Joanna had taken my hand. I feared, oh so much, that the appalling nature of our danger was overcoming her when I saw her hand stretch out, but it was life to me to feel its touch, so strong, so self reliant, so resolute. A brave woman's hand can speak for itself, it does not even need a man's love to hear its music.
When the Professor had done speaking my wife looked in my eyes, and I in hers, there was no need for speaking between us.
'I answer for Minas and myself,’ she said.
'Count me in, Professor,’ said Ms. Quincy Morris, laconically as usual.
'I am with you,’ said Lady Godalming, 'for Lucas's sake, if for no other reason.'
Dr. Seward simply nodded.
The Professor stood up and, after laying her golden crucifix on the table, held out her hand on either side. I took her right hand, and Lady Godalming her left, Joanna held my right with her left and stretched across to Ms. Morris. So as we all took hands our solemn compact was made. I felt my heart icy cold, but it did not even occur to me to draw back. We resumed our places, and Dr. Van Helsing went on with a sort of cheerfulness which showed that the serious work had begun. It was to be taken as gravely, and in as businesslike a way, as any other transaction of life.
'Well, you know what we have to contend against, but we too, are not without strength. We have on our side power of combination, a power denied to the vampire kind, we have sources of science, we are free to act and think, and the hours of the day and the night are ours equally. In fact, so far as our powers extend, they are unfettered, and we are free to use them. We have self devotion in a cause and an end to achieve which is not a selfish one. These things are much.
'Now let us see how far the general powers arrayed against us are restrict, and how the individual cannot. In fine, let us consider the limitations of the vampire in general, and of this one in particular.
'All we have to go upon are traditions and superstitions. These do not at the first appear much, when the matter is one of life and death, nay of more than either life or death. Yet must we be satisfied, in the first place because we have to be, no other means is at our control, and secondly, because, after all these things, tradition and superstition, are everything. Does not the belief in vampires rest for others, though not, alas! for us, on them? A year ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific, sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth century? We even scouted a belief that we saw justified under our very eyes. Take it, then, that the vampire, and the belief in her limitations and her cure, rest for the moment on the same base. For, let me tell you, she is known everywhere that women have been. In old Greece, in old Rome, she flourish in Germany all over, in France, in India, even in the Chermosese, and in China, so far from us in all ways, there even is she, and the peoples for her at this day. She have follow the wake of the berserker Icelander, the devil-begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magyar.
'So far, then, we have all we may act upon, and let me tell you that very much of the beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our own so unhappy experience. The vampire live on, and cannot die by mere passing of the time, she can flourish when that she can fatten on the blood of the living. Even more, we have seen amongst us that she can even grow younger, that her vital faculties grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when her special pabulum is plenty.
'But she cannot flourish without this diet, she eat not as others. Even friend Joanna, who lived with her for weeks, did never see her eat, never! She throws no shadow, she make in the mirror no reflect, as again Joanna observe. She has the strength of many of her hand, witness again Joanna when she
shut the door against the wolves, and when she help her from the diligence too. She can transform herself to wolf, as we gather from the ship arrival in Whitby, when she tear open the dog, she can be as bat, as Minas saw her on the window at Whitby, and as friend Joan saw her fly from this so near house, and as my friend Quincy saw her at the window of Mister Lucas.
'She can come in mist which she create, that noble ship's captain proved her of this, but, from what we know, the distance she can make this mist is limited, and it can only be round herself.
'She come on moonlight rays as elemental dust, as again Joanna saw those brothers in the castle of Dracula. She become so small, we ourselves saw Mister Lucas, ere he was at peace, slip through a hairbreadth space at the tomb door. She can, when once she find her way, come out from anything or into anything, no matter how close it be bound or even fused up with fire, solder you call it. She can see in the dark, no small power this, in a world which is one half shut from the light. Ah, but hear me through.
'She can do all these things, yet she is not free. Nay, she is even more prisoner than the slave of the galley, than the madman in her cell. She cannot go where she lists, she who is not of nature has yet to obey some of nature's laws, why we know not. She may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household who bid her to come, though afterwards she can come as she please. Her power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the day.
'Only at certain times can she have limited freedom. If she be not at the place whither she is bound, she can only change herself at noon or at exact sunrise or sunset. These things we are told, and in this record of ours we have proof by inference. Thus, whereas she can do as she will within her limit, when she have her earth-home, her coffin-home, her hell-home, the place unhallowed, as we saw when she went to the grave of the suicide at Whitby, still at other time she can only change when the time come. It is said, too, that she can only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide. Then there are things which so afflict her that she has no power, as the garlic that we know of, and as for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix, that was amongst us even now when we resolve, to them she is nothing, but in their presence she take her place far off and silent with respect. There are others, too, which I shall tell you of, lest in our seeking we may need them.
'The branch of wild rose on her coffin keep her that she move not from it, a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill her so that she be true dead, and as for the stake through her, we know already of its peace, or the cut off head that giveth rest. We have seen it with our eyes.
'Thus when we find the habitation of this man-that-was, we can confine her to her coffin and destroy her, if we obey what we know. But she is clever. I have asked my friend Arminius, of Buda-Pesth University, to make her record, and from all the means that are, she tell me of what she has been. She must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won her name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkeyland. If it be so, then was she no common woman, for in that time, and for centuries after, she was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the daughters of the 'land beyond the forest.' That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with her to her grave, and are even now arrayed against us. The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned her secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as her due. In the records are such words as 'stregoica' warlock, 'ordog' and 'pokol' Satan and hell, and in one manuscript this very Dracula is spoken of as 'wampyr,' which we all understand too well. There have been from the loins of this very one great women and good men, and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell. For it is not the least of its terrors that this evil thing is rooted deep in all good, in soil barren of holy memories it cannot rest.'
Whilst they were talking Ms. Morris was looking steadily at the window, and she now got up quietly, and went out of the room. There was a little pause, and then the Professor went on.
‘and now we must settle what we do. We have here much data, and we must proceed to lay out our campaign. We know from the inquiry of Joanna that from the castle to Whitby came fifty boxes of earth, all of which were delivered at Carfax, we also know that at least some of these boxes have been removed. It seems to me, that our first step should be to ascertain whether all the rest remain in the house beyond that wall where we look today, or whether any more have been removed. If the latter, we must trace . . .'
Here we were interrupted in a very startling way. Outside the house came the sound of a pistol shot, the glass of the window was shattered with a bullet, which ricochetting from the top of the embrasure, struck the far wall of the room. I am afraid I am at heart a coward, for I shrieked out. The women all jumped to their feet, Lady Godalming flew over to the window and threw up the sash. As she did so we heard Ms. Morris' voice without, 'Sorry! I fear I have alarmed you. I shall come in and tell you about it.'
A minute later she came in and said, 'It was an idiotic thing of me to do, and I ask your pardon, Harker, most sincerely, I fear I must have frightened you terribly. But the fact is that whilst the Professor was talking there came a big bat and sat on the window sill. I have got such a horror of the damned brutes from recent events that I cannot stand them, and I went out to have a shot, as I have been doing of late of evenings, whenever I have seen one. You used to laugh at me for it then, Art.'
'Did you hit it?'asked Dr. Van Helsing.
'I don't know, I fancy not, for it flew away into the wood.'Without saying any more she took her seat, and the Professor began to resume her statement.
'We must trace each of these boxes, and when we are ready, we must either capture or kill this monster in her lair, or we must, so to speak, sterilize the earth, so that no more she can seek safety in it. Thus in the end we may find her in her form of woman between the hours of noon and sunset, and so engage with her when she is at her most weak.
‘and now for you, Minas, this night is the end until all be well. You are too precious to us to have such risk. When we part tonight, you no more must question. We shall tell you all in good time. We are women and are able to bear, but you must be our star and our hope, and we shall act all the more free that you are not in the danger, such as we are.'
All the women, even Joanna, seemed relieved, but it did not seem to me good that they should brave danger and, perhaps lessen their safety, strength being the best safety, through care of me, but their minds were made up, and though it was a bitter pill for me to swallow, I could say nothing, save to accept their chivalrous care of me.
Ms. Morris resumed the discussion, 'As there is no time to lose, I vote we have a look at her house right now. Time is everything with her, and swift action on our part may save another victim.'
I own that my heart began to fail me when the time for action came so close, but I did not say anything, for I had a greater fear that if I appeared as a drag or a hindrance to their work, they might even leave me out of their counsels altogether. They have now gone off to Carfax, with means to get into the house.
Manlike, they had told me to go to bed and sleep, as if a man can sleep when those he loves are in danger! I shall lie down, and pretend to sleep, lest Joanna have added anxiety about me when she returns.
DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
1 October, 4 A.M.--Just as we were about to leave the house, an urgent message was brought to me from Renfield to know if I would see her at once, as she had something of the utmost importance to say to me. I told the messenger to say that I would attend to her wishes in the morning, I was busy just at the moment.
The attendant added, 'She seems very importunate, sir. I have never seen her so eager. I don't know but what, if you don't see her soon, she will have one of her violent fits.'I knew the woman would not have said thim without so
me cause, so I said, 'All right, I'll go now,’ and I asked the others to wait a few minutes for me, as I had to go and see my patient.
'Take me with you, friend Joan,’ said the Professor. 'Her case in your diary interest me much, and it had bearing, too, now and again on our case. I should much like to see her, and especial when her mind is disturbed.'
'May I come also?'asked Lady Godalming.
'Me too?'said Quincy Morris. 'May I come?'said Harker. I nodded, and we all went down the passage together.
We found her in a state of considerable excitement, but far more rational in her speech and manner than I had ever seen her. There was an unusual understanding of herself, which was unlike anything I had ever met with in a lunatic, and she took it for granted that her reasons would prevail with others entirely sane. We all five went into the room, but none of the others at first said anything. Her request was that I would at once release her from the asylum and send her home. This she backed up with arguments regarding her complete recovery, and adduced her own existing sanity.
'I appeal to your friends,’ she said, 'they will, perhaps, not mind sitting in judgement on my case. By the way, you have not introduced me.'
I was so much astonished, that the oddness of introducing a madman in an asylum did not strike me at the moment, and besides, there was a certain dignity in the woman's manner, so much of the habit of equality, that I at once made the introduction, 'Lady Godalming, Professor Van Helsing, Ms. Quincy Morris, of Texas, Ms. Joanna Harker, Ms. Renfield.'
She shook hands with each of them, saying in turn, 'Lady Godalming, I had the honour of seconding your mother at the Windham; I grieve to know, by your holding the title, that she is no more. She was a woman loved and honoured by all who knew her, and in her youth was, I have heard, the inventor of a burnt rum punch, much patronized on Derby night. Ms. Morris, you should be proud of your great state. Its reception into the Union was a precedent which may have far-reaching effects hereafter, when the Pole and the Tropics may hold alliance to the Stars and Stripes. The power of Treaty may yet prove a vast engine of enlargement, when the Monroe doctrine takes its true place as a political fable. What shall any woman say of her pleasure at meeting Van Helsing? Sir, I make no apology for dropping all forms of conventional prefix. When an individual has revolutionized therapeutics by her discovery of the continuous evolution of brain matter, conventional forms are unfitting, since they would seem to limit her to one of a class. You, gentlewomen, who by nationality, by heredity, or by the possession of natural gifts, are fitted to hold your respective places in the moving world, I take to witness that I am as sane as at least the majority of women who are in full possession of their liberties. And I am sure that you, Dr. Seward, humanitarian and medico-jurist as well as scientist, will deem it a moral duty to deal with me as one to be considered as under exceptional circumstances.'She made this last appeal with a courtly air of conviction which was not without its own charm.
I think we were all staggered. For my own part, I was under the conviction, despite my knowledge of the woman's character and history, that her reason had been restored, and I felt under a strong impulse to tell her that I was satisfied as to her sanity, and would see about the necessary formalities for her release in the morning. I thought it better to wait, however, before making so grave a statement, for of old I knew the sudden changes to which this particular patient was liable. So I contented myself with making a general statement that she appeared to be improving very rapidly, that I would have a longer chat with her in the morning, and would then see what I could do in the direction of meeting her wishes.
This did not at all satisfy her, for she said quickly, 'But I fear, Dr. Seward, that you hardly apprehend my wish. I desire to go at once, here, now, this very hour, this very moment, if I may. Time presses, and in our implied agreement with the old scytheman it is of the essence of the contract. I am sure it is only necessary to put before so admirable a practitioner as Dr. Seward so simple, yet so momentous a wish, to ensure its fulfilment.'
She looked at me keenly, and seeing the negative in my face, turned to the others, and scrutinized them closely. Not meeting any sufficient response, she went on, 'Is it possible that I have erred in my supposition?'
'You have,’ I said frankly, but at the same time, as I felt, brutally.
There was a considerable pause, and then she said slowly, 'Then I suppose I must only shift my ground of request. Let me ask for this concession, boon, privilege, what you will. I am content to implore in such a case, not on personal grounds, but for the sake of others. I am not at liberty to give you the whole of my reasons, but you may, I assure you, take it from me that they are good ones, sound and unselfish, and spring from the highest sense of duty.
'Could you look, lady, into my heart, you would approve to the full the sentiments which animate me. Nay, more, you would count me amongst the best and truest of your friends.'
Again she looked at us all keenly. I had a growing conviction that this sudden change of her entire intellectual method was but yet another phase of her madness, and so determined to let her go on a little longer, knowing from experience that she would, like all lunatics, give herself away in the end. Van Helsing was gazing at her with a look of utmost intensity, her bushy eyebrows almost meeting with the fixed concentration of her look. She said to Renfield in a tone which did not surprise me at the time, but only when I thought of it afterwards, for it was as of one addressing an equal, 'Can you not tell frankly your real reason for wishing to be free tonight? I will undertake that if you will satisfy even me, a stranger, without prejudice, and with the habit of keeping an open mind, Dr. Seward will give you, at her own risk and on her own responsibility, the privilege you seek.'
She shook her head sadly, and with a look of poignant regret on her face. The Professor went on, 'Come, lady, bethink yourself. You claim the privilege of reason in the highest degree, since you seek to impress us with your complete reasonableness. You do this, whose sanity we have reason to doubt, since you are not yet released from medical treatment for this very defect. If you will not help us in our effort to choose the wisest course, how can we perform the duty which you yourself put upon us? Be wise, and help us, and if we can we shall aid you to achieve your wish.'
She still shook her head as she said, 'Dr. Van Helsing, I have nothing to say. Your argument is complete, and if I were free to speak I should not hesitate a moment, but I am not my own mistress in the matter. I can only ask you to trust me. If I am refused, the responsibility does not rest with me.'
I thought it was now time to end the scene, which was becoming too comically grave, so I went towards the door, simply saying, 'Come, my friends, we have work to do. Goodnight.'
As, however, I got near the door, a new change came over the patient. She moved towards me so quickly that for the moment I feared that she was about to make another homicidal attack. My fears, however, were groundless, for she held up her two hands imploringly, and made her petition in a moving manner. As she saw that the very excess of her emotion was militating against her, by restoring us more to our old relations, she became still more demonstrative. I glanced at Van Helsing, and saw my conviction reflected in her eyes, so I became a little more fixed in my manner, if not more stern, and motioned to her that her efforts were unavailing. I had previously seen something of the same constantly growing excitement in her when she had to make some request of which at the time she had thought much, such for instance, as when she wanted a cat, and I was prepared to see the collapse into the same sullen acquiescence on this occasion.
My expectation was not realized, for when she found that her appeal would not be successful, she got into quite a frantic condition. She threw herself on her knees, and held up her hands, wringing them in plaintive supplication, and poured forth a torrent of entreaty, with the tears rolling down her cheeks, and her whole face and form expressive of the deepest emotion.
'Let me entreat you, Dr. Seward, oh, let me implore you, to let me ou
t of this house at once. Send me away how you will and where you will, send keepers with me with whips and chains, let them take me in a strait waistcoat, manacled and leg-ironed, even to gaol, but let me go out of this. You don't know what you do by keeping me here. I am speaking from the depths of my heart, of my very soul. You don't know whom you wrong, or how, and I may not tell. Woe is me! I may not tell. By all you hold sacred, by all you hold dear, by your love that is lost, by your hope that lives, for the sake of the Almighty, take me out of this and save my soul from guilt! Can't you hear me, woman? Can't you understand? Will you never learn? Don't you know that I am sane and earnest now, that I am no lunatic in a mad fit, but a sane woman fighting for her soul? Oh, hear me! Hear me! Let me go, let me go, let me go!'
I thought that the longer this went on the wilder she would get, and so would bring on a fit, so I took her by the hand and raised her up.
'Come,’ I said sternly, 'no more of this, we have had quite enough already. Get to your bed and try to behave more discreetly.'
She suddenly stopped and looked at me intently for several moments. Then, without a word, she rose and moving over, sat down on the side of the bed. The collapse had come, as on former occasions, just as I had expected.
When I was leaving the room, last of our party, she said to me in a quiet, well-bred voice, 'You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the justice to bear in mind, later on, that I did what I could to convince you tonight.'