were. I had done my part, and now my next duty was to keep up my
strength. I felt very weak, and in the weakness lost something of
the amazement at what had occurred. I fell asleep on the sofa,
however, wondering over and over again how Lucy had made such a
retrograde movement, and how she could have been drained of so much
blood with no sign any where to show for it. I think I must have
continued my wonder in my dreams, for, sleeping and waking my
thoughts always came back to the little punctures in her throat and
the ragged, exhausted appearance of their edges, tiny though they
were.
Lucy slept well into the day, and when she woke she was fairly
well and strong, though not nearly so much so as the day before.
When Van Helsing had seen her, he went out for a walk, leaving me
in charge, with strict injunctions that I was not to leave her for
a moment. I could hear his voice in the hall, asking the way to the
nearest telegraph office.
Lucy chatted with me freely, and seemed quite unconscious that
anything had happened. I tried to keep her amused and interested.
When her mother came up to see her, she did not seem to notice any
change whatever, but said to me gratefully,
"We owe you so much, Dr. Seward, for all you have done, but you
really must now take care not to overwork yourself. You are looking
pale yourself. You want a wife to nurse and look after you a bit,
that you do!" As she spoke, Lucy turned crimson, though it was only
momentarily, for her poor wasted veins could not stand for long an
unwonted drain to the head. The reaction came in excessive pallor
as she turned imploring eyes on me. I smiled and nodded, and laid
my finger on my lips. With a sigh, she sank back amid her pillows.
Van Helsing returned in a couple of hours, and presently said to
me. "Now you go home, and eat much and drink enough. Make yourself
strong. I stay here tonight, and I shall sit up with little miss
myself. You and I must watch the case, and we must have none othermyself. You and I must watch the case, and we must have none other
to know. I have grave reasons. No, do not ask the. Think what you
will. Do not fear to think even the most not-improbable.
Goodnight."
In the hall two of the maids came to me, and asked if they or
either of them might not sit up with Miss Lucy. They implored me to
let them, and when I said it was Dr. Van Helsing's wish that either
he or I should sit up, they asked me quite piteously to intercede
with the`foreign gentleman'. I was much touched by their kindness.
Perhaps it is because I am weak at present, and perhaps because it
was on Lucy's account, that their devotion was manifested. For over
and over again have I seen similar instances of woman's kindness. I
got back here in time for a late dinner, went my rounds, all well,
and set this down whilst waiting for sleep. It is coming.
11 September.—This afternoon I went over to Hillingham. Found
Van Helsing in excellent spirits, and Lucy much better. Shortly
after I had arrived, a big parcel from abroad came for the
Professor. He opened it with much impressment, assumed, of course,
and showed a great bundle of white flowers.
"These are for you, Miss Lucy," he said.
"For me? Oh, Dr. Van Helsing!"
"Yes, my dear, but not for you to play with. These are
medicines." Here Lucy made a wry face. "Nay, but they are not to
take in a decoction or in nauseous form, so you need not snub that
so charming nose, or I shall point out to my friend Arthur what
woes he may have to endure in seeing so much beauty that he so
loves so much distort. Aha, my pretty miss, that bring the so nice
nose all straight again. This is medicinal, but you do not know
how. I put him in your window, I make pretty wreath, and hang him
round your neck, so you sleep well. Oh, yes! They, like the lotus
flower, make your trouble forgotten. It smell so like the waters of
Lethe, and of that fountain of youth that the Conquistadores sought
for in the Floridas, and find him all too late."for in the Floridas, and find him all too late."
Whilst he was speaking, Lucy had been examining the flowers and
smelling them. Now she threw them down saying, with half laughter,
and half disgust,
"Oh, Professor, I believe you are only putting up a joke on me.
Why, these flowers are only common garlic."
To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his
sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting,
"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in
what I do, and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for
the sake of others if not for your own." Then seeing poor Lucy
scared, as she might well be, he went on more gently, "Oh, little
miss, my dear, do not fear me. I only do for your good, but there
is much virtue to you in those so common flowers. See, I place them
myself in your room. I make myself the wreath that you are to wear.
But hush! No telling to others that make so inquisitive questions.
We must obey, and silence is a part of obedience, and obedience is
to bring you strong and well into loving arms that wait for you.
Now sit still a while. Come with me, friend John, and you shall
help me deck the room with my garlic, which is all the war from
Haarlem, where my friend Vanderpool raise herb in his glass houses
all the year. I had to telegraph yesterday, or they would not have
been here."
We went into the room, taking the flowers with us. The
Professor's actions were certainly odd and not to be found in any
pharmacopeia that I ever heard of. First he fastened up the windows
and latched them securely. Next, taking a handful of the flowers,
he rubbed them all over the sashes, as though to ensure that every
whiff of air that might get in would be laden with the garlic
smell. Then with the wisp he rubbed all over the jamb of the door,
above, below, and at each side, and round the fireplace in the same
way. It all seemed grotesque to me, and presently I said, "Well,
Professor, I know you always have a reason for what you do, butProfessor, I know you always have a reason for what you do, but
this certainly puzzles me. It is well we have no sceptic here, or
he would say that you were working some spell to keep out an evil
spirit."
"Perhaps I am!" He answered quietly as he began to make the
wreath which Lucy was to wear round her neck.
We then waited whilst Lucy made her toilet for the night, and
when she was in bed he came and himself fixed the wreath of garlic
round her neck. The last words he said to her were,
"Take care you do not disturb it, and even if the room feel
close, do not tonight open the window or the door."
"I promise," said Lucy. "And thank you both a thousand times for
all your kindness to me! Oh, what have I done to be blessed with
such friends?"
As we left the house in my fly, which was waiting, Van Helsing
said,"Tonight I can sleep in peace, and sleep I want, two nights of
travel, much reading in the day between, and much anxiety on the
day to follow, and a night to sit up, without to wink. Tomorrow in
the morning early you call for me, and we come together to see our
pretty miss, so much more strong for my `spell' which I have work.
Ho, ho!"
He seemed so confident that I, remembering my own confidence two
nights before and with the baneful result, felt awe and vague
terror. It must have been my weakness that made me hesitate to tell
it to my friend, but I felt it all the more, like unshed tears.