Arthur was so taken aback that he did not for a moment know what to do or
say, and before any impulse of violence could seize him he realized the place
and the occasion, and stood silent, waiting.
I kept my eyes fixed on Lucy, as did Van Helsing, and we saw a spasm as of
rage flit like a shadow over her face. The sharp teeth clamped together. Then
her eyes closed, and she breathed heavily.
Very shortly after she opened her eyes in all their softness, and putting
out her poor, pale, thin hand, took Van Helsing's great brown one, drawing it
close to her, she kissed it. "My true friend," she said, in a faint
voice, but with untellable pathos, "My true friend, and his! Oh, guard
him, and give me peace!"
"I swear it!" he said solemnly, kneeling beside her and holding up
his hand, as one who registers an oath. Then he turned to Arthur, and said to
him, "Come, my child, take her hand in yours, and kiss her on the
forehead, and only once."
Their eyes met instead of their lips, and so they parted. Lucy's eyes
closed, and Van Helsing, who had been watching closely, took Arthur's arm, and
drew him away.
And then Lucy's breathing became stertorous again, and all at once it
ceased.
"It is all over," said Van Helsing. "She is dead!"
I took Arthur by the arm, and led him away to the drawing room, where he sat
down, and covered his face with his hands, sobbing in a way that nearly broke
me down to see.
I went back to the room, and found Van Helsing looking at poor Lucy, and his
face was sterner than eve. Some change had come over her body. Death had given
back part of her beauty, for her brow and cheeks had recovered some of their
flowing lines. Even the lips had lost their deadly pallor. It was as if the
blood, no longer needed for the working of the heart, had gone to make the
harshness of death as little rude as might be.
"We thought her dying whilst she slept, And sleeping when she
died."
I stood beside Van Helsing, and said, "Ah well, poor girl, there is
peace for her at last. It is the end!"
He turned to me, and said with grave solemnity,"Not so, alas! Not so.
It is only the beginning!"
When I asked him what he meant, he only shook his head and answered,
"We can do nothing as yet. Wait and see."
