"Well, my dear, could I say? I could only tell him that I was the
happiest woman in all the wide world, and that I had nothing to give him except
myself, my life, and my trust, and that with these went my love and duty for
all the days of my life. And, my dear, when he kissed me, and drew me to him
with his poor weak hands, it was like a solemn pledge between us.
"Lucy dear, do you know why I tell you all this? It is not only because
it is all sweet to me, but because you have been, and are, very dear to me. It
was my privilege to be your friend and guide when you came from the schoolroom
to prepare for the world of life. I want you to see now, and with the eyes of a
very happy wife, whither duty has led me, so that in your own married life you
too may be all happy, as I am. My dear, please Almighty God, your life may be
all it promises, a long day of sunshine, with no harsh wind, no forgetting
duty, no distrust. I must not wish you no pain, for that can never be, but I do
hope you will be always as happy as I am now. Goodbye, my dear. I shall post
this at once, and perhaps, write you very soon again. I must stop, for Jonathan
is waking. I must attend my husband! "Your ever-loving "Mina
Harker."
LETTER, LUCY WESTENRA TO MINA HARKER.
Whitby, 30
August.
"My dearest Mina,
"Oceans of love and millions of kisses, and may you soon be in your own
home with your husband. I wish you were coming home soon enough to stay with us
here. The strong air would soon restore Jonathan. It has quite restored me. I
have an appetite like a cormorant, am full of life, and sleep well. You will be
glad to know that I have quite given up walking in my sleep. I think I have not
stirred out of my bed for a week, that is when I once got into it at night. Arthur
says I am getting fat. By the way, I forgot to tell you that Arthur is here. We
have such walks and drives, and rides, and rowing, and tennis, and fishing
together, and I love him more than ever.
He tells me that he loves me more, but I doubt that, for at first he told me
that he couldn't love me more than he did then. But this is nonsense. There he
is, calling to me. So no more just at present from your loving, "Lucy.
"P. S.--Mother sends her love. She seems better, poor dear.
"P. P.S.--We are to be married on 28 September."
DR. SEWARDS DIARY
20 August.--The case of Renfield grows even more interesting. He has now so
far quieted that there are spells of cessation from his passion. For the first
week after his attack he was perpetually violent. Then one night, just as the
moon rose, he grew quiet, and kept murmuring to himself. "Now I can wait.
Now I can wait."
The attendant came to tell me, so I ran down at once to have a look at him.
He was still in the strait waistcoat and in the padded room, but the suffused
look had gone from his face, and his eyes had something of their old pleading.
I might almost say, cringing, softness. I was satisfied with his present
condition, and directed him to be relieved. The attendants hesitated, but
finally carried out my wishes without protest.
It was a strange thing that the patient had humour enough to see their
distrust, for, coming close to me, he said in a whisper, all the while looking
furtively at them, "They think I could hurt you! Fancy me hurting you! The
fools!"
It was soothing, somehow, to the feelings to find myself
disassociated even in the mind of this poor madman from the others, but all the
same I do not follow his thought. Am I to take it that I have anything in
common with him, so that we are, as it were, to stand together. Or has he to
gain from me some good so stupendous that my well being is needful to