It will be a painful task for you, I know, old friend, but it is for her sake, and I must not hesitate to ask, or you to actYou are to come to lunch at Hillingham tomorrow, two o'clock, so as not to arouse any suspicion in MrsWestenra, and after lunch Lucy will take an opportunity of being alone with youI am filled with anxiety, and want to consult with you alone as soon as I can after you have seen herDo not fail! "Arthur TELEGRAM, ARTHUR HOLMWOOD TO SEWARD 1 September "Am summoned to see my father, who is worseWrite me fully by tonight's post to Ring LETTER FROM DRSEWARD TO ARTHUR HOLMWOOD 2 September "My dear old fellow, "With regard to Miss Westenra's health I hasten to let you know at once that in my opinion there is not any functional disturbance or any malady that I know ofAt the same time, I am not by any means satisfied with her appearanceShe is woefully different from what she was when I saw her lastOf course you must bear in mind that I did not have full opportunity of examination such as I should wishOur very friendship makes a little difficulty which not even medical science or custom can bridge overI had better tell you exactly what happened, leaving you to draw, in a measure, your own conclusionsI shall then say what I have done and propose doing "I found Miss Westenra in seemingly gay spiritsHer mother was present, and in a few seconds I made up my mind that she was trying all she knew to mislead her mother and prevent her from being anxiousI have no doubt she guesses, if she does not know, what need of caution there is "We lunched alone, and as we all exerted ourselves to be cheerful, we got, as some kind of reward for our labours, some real cheerfulness amongst usWestenra went to lie down, and Lucy was left with meWe went into her boudoir, and till we got there her gaiety remained, for the servants were coming and going "As soon as the door was closed, however, the mask fell from her face, and she sank down into a chair with a great sigh, and hid her eyes with her handWhen I saw that her high spirits had failed, I at once took advantage of her reaction to make a diagnosis "She said to me very sweetly, 'I cannot tell you how I loathe talking about myself' I reminded her that a doctor's confidence was sacred, but that you were grievously anxious about herShe caught on to my meaning at once, and settled that matter in a word'Tell Arthur everything you chooseI do not care for myself, but for him!' So I am quite free "I could easily see that she was somewhat bloodless, but I could not see the usual anemic signs, and by the chance, I was able to test the actual quality of her blood, for in opening a window which was stiff a cord gave way, and she cut her hand slightly with broken glassIt was a slight matter in itself, but it gave me an evident chance, and I secured a few drops of the blood and have analysed them "The qualitative analysis give a quite normal condition, and shows, I should infer, in itself a vigorous state of healthIn other physical matters I was quite satisfied that there is no need for anxiety, but as there must be a cause somewhere, I have come to the conclusion that it must be something mental "She complains of difficulty breathing satisfactorily at times, and of heavy, lethargic sleep, with dreams that frighten her, but regarding which she can remember nothingShe says that as a child, she used to walk in her sleep, and that when in Whitby the habit came back, and that once she walked out in the night and went to East Cliff, where Miss Murray found herBut she assures me that of late the habit has not returned "I am in doubt, and so have done the best thing I know ofI have written to my old friend and master, Professor Van Helsing, of Amsterdam, who knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the worldI have asked him to come over, and as you told me that all things were to be at your charge, I have mentioned to him who you are and your relations to Miss WestenraThis, my dear fellow, is in obedience to your wishes, for I am only too proud and happy to do anything I can for her "Van Helsing would, I know, do anything for me for a personal reason, so no matter on what ground he comes, we must accept his shop wishes

So he reasons, because, as I said, he is born an aristocrat;?so I don?t believe, because I was born a democrat ?How in the world can the two things be compared?? said Miss Ophelia?The English laborer is not sold, traded, parted from his family, whipped ?He is as much at the will of his employer as if he were sold to himThe slave-owner can whip his refractory slave to death,?the capitalist can starve him to deathAs to family security, it is hard to say which is the worst,?to have one?s children sold, or see them starve to death at home ?But it?s no kind of apology for slavery, to prove that it isn?t worse than some other bad thing ?I didn?t give it for one,?nay, I?ll say, besides, that ours is the more bold and palpable infringement of human rights; actually buying a man up, like a horse,?looking at his teeth, cracking his joints, and trying his paces and then paying down for him,?having speculators, breeders, traders, and brokers in human bodies and souls,?sets the thing before the eyes of the civilized world in a more tangible form, though the thing done be, after all, in its nature, the same; that is, appropriating one set of human beings to the use and improvement of another without any regard to their own ?I never thought of the matter in this light,? said Miss Ophelia ?Well, I?ve travelled in England some, and I?ve looked over a good many documents as to the state of their lower classes; and I really think there is no denying Alfred, when he says that his slaves are better off than a large class of the population of EnglandYou see, you must not infer, from what I have told you, that Alfred is what is called a hard master; for he isn?tHe is despotic, and unmerciful to insubordination; he would shoot a fellow down with as little remorse as he would shoot a buck, if he opposed himBut, in general, he takes a sort of pride in having his slaves comfortably fed and accommodated ?When I was with him, I insisted that he should do something for their instruction; and, to please me, he did get a chaplain, and used to have them catechized Sunday, though, I believe, in his heart, that he thought it would do about as much good to set a chaplain over his dogs and horsesAnd the fact is, that a mind stupefied and animalized by every bad influence from the hour of birth, spending the whole of every week-day in unreflecting toil, cannot be done much with by a few hours on SundayThe teachers of Sunday-schools among the manufacturing population of England, and among plantation-hands in our country, could perhaps testify to the same result, there and hereYet some striking exceptions there are among us, from the fact that the negro is naturally more impressible to religious sentiment than the white ?Well,? said Miss Ophelia, ?how came you to give up your plantation life?? ?Well, we jogged on together some time, till Alfred saw plainly that I was no planterHe thought it absurd, after he had reformed, and altered, and improved everywhere, to suit my notions, that I still remained unsatisfiedThe fact was, it was, after all, the THING that I hated?the using these men and women, the perpetuation of all this ignorance, brutality and vice,?just to make money for me! ?Besides, I was always interfering in the detailsBeing myself one of the laziest of mortals, I had altogether too much fellow-feeling for the lazy; and when poor, shiftless dogs put stones at the bottom of their cotton-baskets to make them weigh heavier, or filled their sacks with dirt, with cotton at the top, it seemed so exactly like what I should do if I were they, I couldn?t and wouldn?t have them flogged for itWell, of course, there was an end of plantation discipline; and Alf and I came to about the same point that I and my respected father did, years beforeSo he told me that I was a womanish sentimentalist, and would never do for business life; and advised me to take the bank-stock and the New Orleans family mansion, and go to writing poetry, and let him manage the plantationSo we parted, and I came here ?But why didn?t you free your slaves?? ?Well, I wasn?t up to thatTo hold them as tools for money-making, I could not;?have them to help spend money, you know, didn?t look quite so ugly to meSome of them were old house-servants, to whom I was much attached; and the younger ones were children to the oldAll were well satisfied to be as they were He paused, and walked reflectively up and down the room ?There was,? said StClare, ?a time in my life when I had plans and hopes of doing something in this world, more than to float and driftI had vague, indistinct yearnings to be a sort of emancipator,?to free my native land from this spot and stainAll young men have had such fever-fits, I suppose, some time,?but then?? ?Why didn?t you?? said Miss Ophelia;??you ought not to put your hand to the plough, and look back ?O, well, things didn?t go with me as I expected, and I got the despair of living that Solomon didI suppose it was a necessary incident to wisdom in us both; but, some how or other, instead of being actor and regenerator in society, I became a piece of driftwood, and have been floating and eddying about, ever sinceAlfred scolds me, every time we meet; and he has the better of me, I grant,?for he really does something; his life is a logical result of his opinions and mine is a contemptible non sequitur ?My dear cousin, can you be satisfied with such a way of spending your probation?? ?Satisfied! Was I not just telling you I despised it? But, then, to come back to this point,?we were on this liberation businessI don?t think my feelings about slavery are peculiarI find many men who, in their hearts, think of it just as I doThe land groans under it; and, bad as it is for the slave, it is worse, if anything, for the shop master

I can show it to you if you like "Oh, Madam Mina, I well be gratefulYou will do me much favour I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit, I suppose it is some taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths, so I handed him the shorthand diaryHe took it with a grateful bow, and said, "May I read it?" "If you wish," I answered as demurely as I couldHe opened it, and for an instant his face fellThen he stood up and bowed "Oh, you so clever woman!" he saidJonathan was a man of much thankfulness, but see, his wife have all the good thingsAnd will you not so much honour me and so help me as to read it for me? Alas! I know not the shorthand By this time my little joke was over, and I was almost ashamedSo I took the typewritten copy from my work basket and handed it to him "Forgive me," I said"I could not help it, but I had been thinking that it was of dear Lucy that you wished to ask, and so that you might not have time to wait, not on my account, but because I know your time must be precious, I have written it out on the typewriter for you He took it and his eyes glistened"You are so good," he said"And may I read it now? I may want to ask you some things when I have read "By all means," I said, "read it over whilst I order lunch, and then you can ask me questions whilst we eat He bowed and settled himself in a chair with his back to the light, and became so absorbed in the papers, whilst I went to see after lunch chiefly in order that he might not be disturbedWhen I came back, I found him walking hurriedly up and down the room, his face all ablaze with excitementHe rushed up to me and took me by both hands "Oh, Madam Mina," he said, "how can I say what I owe to you? This paper is as sunshineIt opens the gate to meI am dazed, I am dazzled, with so much light, and yet clouds roll in behind the light every timeBut that you do not, cannot comprehendOh, but I am grateful to you, you so clever womanMadame," he said this very solemnly, "if ever Abraham Van Helsing can do anything for you or yours, I trust you will let me knowIt will be pleasure and delight if I may serve you as a friend, as a friend, but all I have ever learned, all I can ever do, shall be for you and those you loveThere are darknesses in life, and there are lightsYou are one of the lightsYou will have a happy life and a good life, and your husband will be blessed in you "But, doctor, you praise me too much, and you do not know me "Not know you, I, who am old, and who have studied all my life men and women, I who have made my specialty the brain and all that belongs to him and all that follow from him! And I have read your diary that you have so goodly written for me, and which breathes out truth in every lineI, who have read your so sweet letter to poor Lucy of your marriage and your trust, not know you! Oh, Madam Mina, good women tell all their lives, and by day and by hour and by minute, such things that angels can readAnd we men who wish to know have in us something of angels' eyesYour husband is noble nature, and you are noble too, for you trust, and trust cannot be where there is mean natureAnd your husband, tell me of himIs he quite well? Is all that fever gone, and is he strong and hearty?" I saw here an opening to ask him about Jonathan, so I said, "He was almost recovered, but he has been greatly upset by Mr He interrupted, "Oh, yesI have read your last two shop letters

And when the time for the end has come, our effort shall not be lackNow let us today put all our affairs in orderLet all things which touch on others dear to us, and who on us depend, be completeFor none of us can tell what, or when, or how, the end may beAs for me, my own affairs are regulate, and as I have nothing else to do, I shall go make arrangements for the travelI shall have all tickets and so forth for our journey There was nothing further to be said, and we partedI shall now settle up all my affairs of earth, and be ready for whatever may comeMy will is made, and all completeMina if she survive is my sole heirIf it should not be so, then the others who have been so good to us shall have remainder It is now drawing towards the sunsetMina's uneasiness calls my attention to itI am sure that there is something on her mind which the time of exact sunset will revealThese occasions are becoming harrowing times for us allFor each sunrise and sunset opens up some new danger, some new pain, which however, may in God's will be means to a good endI write all these things in the diary since my darling must not hear them nowBut if it may be that she can see them again, they shall be ready CHAPTER 25 DRSEWARD'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 MrsHarker a little before the time of sunsetWe have of late come to understand that sunrise and sunset are to her times of peculiar freedomWhen her old self can be manifest without any controlling force subduing or restraining her, or inciting her to actionThis 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 horizonAt first there is a sort of negative condition, as if some tie were loosened, and then the absolute freedom quickly followsWhen, 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 struggleI 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 herselfThen, 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 usYou are going to be so good to me to take me with youI 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 doBut you must remember that I am not as you areThere is a poison in my blood, in my soul, which may destroy me, which must destroy me, unless some relief comes to usOh, my friends, you know as well as I do, that my soul is at shop stake

When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this time swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross and pointed two fingers towards me With some difficulty, I got a fellow passenger to tell me what they meantHe would not answer at first, but on learning that I was English, he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil eye This was not very pleasant for me, just starting for an unknown place to meet an unknown manBut everyone seemed so kind-hearted, and so sorrowful, and so sympathetic that I could not but be touched I shall never forget the last glimpse which I had of the inn yard and its crowd of picturesque figures, all crossing themselves, as they stood round the wide archway, with its background of rich foliage of oleander and orange trees in green tubs clustered in the centre of the yard Then our driver, whose wide linen drawers covered the whole front of the boxseat,--"gotza" they call them--cracked his big whip over his four small horses, which ran abreast, and we set off on our journey I soon lost sight and recollection of ghostly fears in the beauty of the scene as we drove along, although had I known the language, or rather languages, which my fellow-passengers were speaking, I might not have been able to throw them off so easilyBefore us lay a green sloping land full of forests and woods, with here and there steep hills, crowned with clumps of trees or with farmhouses, the blank gable end to the roadThere was everywhere a bewildering mass of fruit blossom--apple, plum, pear, cherryAnd as we drove by I could see the green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen petalsIn and out amongst these green hills of what they call here the "Mittel Land" ran the road, losing itself as it swept round the grassy curve, or was shut out by the straggling ends of pine woods, which here and there ran down the hillsides like tongues of flameThe road was rugged, but still we seemed to fly over it with a feverish hasteI could not understand then what the haste meant, but the driver was evidently bent on losing no time in reaching Borgo PrundI was told that this road is in summertime excellent, but that it had not yet been put in order after the winter snowsIn this respect it is different from the general run of roads in the Carpathians, for it is an old tradition that they are not to be kept in too good orderOf old the Hospadars would not repair them, lest the Turk should think that they were preparing to bring in foreign troops, and so hasten the war which was always really at loading point Beyond the green swelling hills of the Mittel Land rose mighty slopes of forest up to the lofty steeps of the Carpathians themselvesRight and left of us they towered, with the afternoon sun falling full upon them and bringing out all the glorious colours of this beautiful range, deep blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks, green and brown where grass and rock mingled, and an endless perspective of jagged rock and pointed crags, till these were themselves lost in the distance, where the snowy peaks rose grandlyHere and there seemed mighty rifts in the mountains, through which, as the sun began to sink, we saw now and again the white gleam of falling waterOne of my companions touched my arm as we swept round the base of a hill and opened up the lofty, snow-covered peak of a mountain, which seemed, as we wound on our serpentine way, to be right before us "Look! Isten szek!"--"God's seat!"--and he crossed himself reverently As we wound on our endless way, and the sun sank lower and lower behind us, the shadows of the evening began to creep round usThis was emphasized by the fact that the snowy mountain-top still held the sunset, and seemed to glow out with a delicate cool pinkHere and there we passed Cszeks and slovaks, all in picturesque attire, but I noticed that goitre was painfully prevalentBy the roadside were many crosses, and as we swept by, my companions all crossed themselvesHere and there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine, who did not even turn round as we approached, but seemed in the self-surrender of devotion to have neither eyes nor ears for the outer worldThere were many things new to meFor instance, hay-ricks in the trees, and here and there very beautiful masses of weeping birch, their white stems shining like silver through the delicate green of the leaves Now and again we passed a leiter-wagon--the ordinary peasants's cart--with its long, snakelike vertebra, calculated to suit the inequalities of the roadOn this were sure to be seated quite a group of homecoming peasants, the Cszeks with their white, and the Slovaks with their coloured sheepskins, the latter carrying lance-fashion their long staves, with axe at endAs the evening fell it began to get very cold, and the growing twilight seemed to merge into one dark mistiness the gloom of the trees, oak, beech, and pine, though in the valleys which ran deep between the spurs of the hills, as we ascended through the Pass, the dark firs stood out here and there against the background of late-lying snowSometimes, as the road was cut through the pine woods that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us, great masses of greyness which here and there bestrewed the trees, produced a peculiarly weird and solemn effect, which carried on the thoughts and grim fancies engendered earlier in the evening, when the falling sunset threw into strange relief the ghost-like clouds which amongst the Carpathians seem to wind ceaselessly through the valleysSometimes the hills were so steep that, despite our driver's haste, the horses could only go slowlyI wished to get down and walk up them, as we do at home, but the driver would not hear of it"You must not walk hereThe dogs are too fierce And then he added, with what he evidently meant for grim pleasantry--for he looked round to catch the approving smile of the rest--"And you may have enough of such matters before you go to sleep The only stop he would make was a moment's pause to light his lamps When it grew dark there seemed to be some excitement amongst the passengers, and they kept speaking to him, one after the other, as though urging him to further shop speed