never seen him so eager. I don't know but what, if you don't see
him soon, he will have one of his violent fits." I knew the man
would not have said this without some 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 John," said the Professor."His case in
your diary interest me much, and it had bearing, too, now and again
on our case. I should much like to see him, and especial when his
mind is disturbed."
"May I come also?" asked Lord Godalming.
"Me too?" said Quincey Morris. "May I come?" said Harker. I
nodded, and we all went down the passage together.
We found him in a state of considerable excitement, but far more
rational in his speech and manner than I had ever seen him. There
was an unusual understanding of himself, which was unlike anything
I had ever met with in a lunatic, and he took it for granted that
his reasons would prevail with others entirely sane. We all five
went into the room, but none of the others at first said anything.
His request was that I would at once release him from the asylum
and send him home. This he backed up with arguments regarding his
complete recovery, and adduced his own existing sanity.
"I appeal to your friends,"he 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 man's manner, so much of the
habit of equality, that I at once made the introduction, "Lord
Godalming, Professor Van Helsing, Mr. Quincey Morris, of Texas, Mr.
Jonathan Harker, Mr. Renfield."
He shook hands with each of them, saying in turn, "Lord
Godalming, I had the honor of seconding your father at the Windham,
I grieve to know, by your holding the title, that he is no more. He
was a man loved and honored by all who knew him, and in his youthwas a man loved and honored by all who knew him, and in his youth
was, I have heard, the inventor of a burnt rum punch, much
patronized on Derby night. Mr. Morris, you should be proud of your
great state. Its reception into the Union was a precedent which may
have farreaching 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 man say
of his pleasure at meeting Van Helsing? Sir, I make no apology for
dropping all forms of conventional prefix. When an individual has
revolutionized therapeutics by his discovery of the continuous
evolution of brain matter, conventional forms are unfitting, since
they would seem to limit him to one of a class. You, gentlemen, 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 men
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."He 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 man's character and
history, that his reason had been restored, and I felt under a
strong impulse to tell him that I was satisfied as to his sanity,
and would see about the necessary formalities for his 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 he appeared to be improving very
rapidly, that I would have a longer chat with him in the morning,rapidly, that I would have a longer chat with him in the morning,
and would then see what I could do in the direction of meeting his
wishes.
This did not at all satisfy him, for he 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."
He looked at me keenly, and seeing the negative in my face,
turned to the others, and scrutinized them closely. Not meeting any
sufficient response, he 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 he 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, sir, 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 he looked at us all keenly. I had a growing conviction
that this sudden change of his entire intellectual method was but
yet another phase of his madness, and so determined to let him go
on a little longer, knowing from experience that he would, like all
lunatics, give himself away in the end. Van Helsing was gazing at
him with a look of utmost intensity, his bushy eyebrows almost
meeting with the fixed concentration of his look. He said to
Renfield in a tone which did not surprise me at the time, but only