_29 September._--After dinner I came with Dr. Seward to his study. He
brought back the phonograph from my room, and I took my typewriter. He
placed me in a comfortable chair, and arranged the phonograph so that I
could touch it without getting up, and showed me how to stop it in case
I should want to pause. Then he very thoughtfully took a chair, with his
back to me, so that I might be as free as possible, and began to read. I
put the forked metal to my ears and listened.
When the terrible story of Lucy s death, and--and all that followed, was
done, I lay back in my chair powerless. Fortunately I am not of a
fainting disposition. When Dr. Seward saw me he jumped up with a
horrified exclamation, and hurriedly taking a case-bottle from a
cupboard, gave me some brandy, which in a few minutes somewhat restored
me. My brain was all in a whirl, and only that there came through all
the multitude of horrors, the holy ray of light that my dear, dear Lucy
was at last at peace, I do not think I could have borne it without
making a scene. It is all so wild, and mysterious, and strange that if I
had not known Jonathan s experience in Transylvania I could not have
believed. As it was, I didn t know what to believe, and so got out of my
difficulty by attending to something else. I took the cover off my
typewriter, and said to Dr. Seward:--
Let me write this all out now. We must be ready for Dr. Van Helsing
when he comes. I have sent a telegram to Jonathan to come on here when
he arrives in London from Whitby. In this matter dates are everything,
and I think that if we get all our material ready, and have every item
put in chronological order, we shall have done much. You tell me that
Lord Godalming and Mr. Morris are coming too. Let us be able to tell him
when they come. He accordingly set the phonograph at a slow pace, and I
began to typewrite from the beginning of the seventh cylinder. I used
manifold, and so took three copies of the diary, just as I had done with
all the rest. It was late when I got through, but Dr. Seward went about
his work of going his round of the patients; when he had finished he
came back and sat near me, reading, so that I did not feel too lonely
whilst I worked. How good and thoughtful he is; the world seems full of
good men--even if there _are_ monsters in it. Before I left him I
remembered what Jonathan put in his diary of the Professor s
perturbation at reading something in an evening paper at the station at
Exeter; so, seeing that Dr. Seward keeps his newspapers, I borrowed the
files of The Westminster Gazette and The Pall Mall Gazette, and took
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