“I pray you to pardon my writing,in that I am so far friend as that I sent to you sad news of Miss Lucy Westenra’s death. By the kindness of Lord Godalming, I am empowered to read her letters and papers, for I am deeply concerned about certain matters vitally important. In them I find some letters from you, which show how great friends you were and how you love her. Oh, Madam Mina, by that love, I implore you, help me. It is for others’ good that I ask--to redress great wrong, and to lift much and terrible troubles--that may be more great than you can know. May it be that I see you?You can trust me. I am friend of Dr.John Seward and of Lord Godalming (that was Arthur of Miss Lucy).I must keep it private for the present from all.I should come to Exeter to see you at once if you tell me I am privilege to come, and where and when. I implore your pardon, madam. I have read your letters to poor Lucy, and know how good you are and how your husband suffer; so I pray you, if it may be, enlighten him not, lest it may harm. Again your pardon, and forgive me.
“VAN HELSING.”
_Telegram, Mrs. Harker to Van Helsing._
“_25 September._--Come to-day by quarter-past ten train if you can catch it.Can see you any time you call.
“WILHELMINA HARKER.”
MINA HARKER’S JOURNAL.
_25 September._--I cannot help feeling terribly excited as the time draws near for the visit of Dr. Van Helsing, for somehow I expect that it will throw some light upon Jonathan’s sad experience; and as he attended poor dear Lucy in her last illness, he can tell me all about her. That is the reason of his coming; it is concerning Lucy and her sleep-walking, and not about Jonathan. Then I shall never know the real truth now!How silly I am. That awful journal gets hold of my imagination and tinges everything with something of its own colour. Of course it is about Lucy. That habit came back to the poor dear, and that awful night on the cliff must have made her ill. I had almost forgotten in my own affairs how ill she was afterwards. She must have told him of her sleep-walking adventure on the cliff, and that I knew all about it; and now he wants me to tell him what she knows, so that he may understand. I hope I did right in not saying anything of it to Mrs. Westenra; I should never forgive myself if any act of mine, were it even a negative one, brought harm on poor dear Lucy. I hope, too, Dr. Van Helsing will not blame me; I have had so much trouble and anxiety of late that I feel I cannot bear more just at present.
I suppose a cry does us all good at times--clears the air as other rain does.Perhaps it was reading the journal yesterday that upset me,and then Jonathan went away this morning to stay away from me a whole day and night, the first time we have been parted since our marriage. I do hope the dear fellow will take care of himself, and that nothing will occur to upset him. It is two o’clock, and the doctor will be here soon now. I shall say nothing of Jonathan’s journal unless he asks me. I am so glad I have type-written out my own journal, so that, in case he asks about Lucy, I can hand it to him; it will save much questioning.
* * * * *
_Later._--He has come and gone. Oh,what a strange meeting,and how it all makes my head whirl round!I feel like one in a dream. Can it be all possible,or even a part of it?If I had not read Jonathan’s journal first,I should never have accepted even a possibility. Poor,poor, dear Jonathan!How he must have suffered. Please the good God,all this may not upset him again.I shall try to save him from it;but it may be even a consolation and a help to him--terrible though it be and awful in its consequences--to know for certain that his eyes and ears and brain did not deceive him, and that it is all true. It may be that it is the doubt which haunts him; that when the doubt is removed, no matter which--waking or dreaming--may prove the truth, he will be more satisfied and better able to bear the shock. Dr. Van Helsing must be a good man as well as a clever one if he is Arthur’s friend and Dr. Seward’s, and if they brought him all the way from Holland to look after Lucy. I feel from having seen him that he _is_ good and kind and of a noble nature. When he comes to-morrow I shall ask him about Jonathan; and then, please God, all this sorrow and anxiety may lead to a good end. I used to think I would like to practise interviewing; Jonathan’s friend on “The Exeter News” told him that memory was everything in such work--that you must be able to put down exactly almost every word spoken, even if you had to refine some of it afterwards. Here was a rare interview; I shall try to record it _verbatim_.
It was half-past two o’clock when the knock came.I took my courage _à deux mains_ and waited.In a few minutes Mary opened the door,and announced “Dr. Van Helsing.”
I rose and bowed, and he came towards me;a man of medium weight, strongly built,with his shoulders set back over a broad,deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck.The poise of the head strikes one at once as indicative of thought and power;the head is noble, well-sized, broad,and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven,shows a hard, square chin, a large, resolute,mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight,but with quick, sensitive nostrils,that seem to broaden as the big,bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens.The forehead is broad and fine,rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart; such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man’s moods. He said to me:--
“Mrs. Harker, is it not?” I bowed assent.
“That was Miss Mina Murray?” Again I assented.
“It is Mina Murray that I came to see that was friend of that poor dear child Lucy Westenra. Madam Mina, it is on account of the dead I come.”
“Sir,” I said, “you could have no better claim on me than that you were a friend and helper of Lucy Westenra.” And I held out my hand. He took it and said tenderly:--
“Oh, Madam Mina, I knew that the friend of that poor lily girl must be good,but I had yet to learn----” He finished his speech with a courtly bow.I asked him what it was that he wanted to see me about,so he at once began:--
“I have read your letters to Miss Lucy. Forgive me,but I had to begin to inquire somewhere,and there was none to ask.I know that you were with her at Whitby.She sometimes kept a diary--you need not look surprised,Madam Mina; it was begun after you had left,and was in imitation of you--and in that diary she traces by inference certain things to a sleep-walking in which she puts down that you saved her. In great perplexity then I come to you, and ask you out of your so much kindness to tell me all of it that you can remember.”
“I can tell you, I think, Dr. Van Helsing, all about it. ”
“Ah, then you have good memory for facts, for details?It is not always so with young ladies.”
“No, doctor, but I wrote it all down at the time.I can show it to you if you like.”
“Oh, Madam Mina, I will be grateful;you will do me much favour.” I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit--I suppose it is some of the taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths--so I handed him the shorthand diary. He took it with a grateful bow, and said:--
“May I read it?”
“If you wish,” I answered as demurely as I could.He opened it, and for an instant his face fell.Then he stood up and bowed.