I don t want any souls! he said in a feeble, apologetic way. The
matter seemed preying on his mind, and so I determined to use it--to be
cruel only to be kind. So I said:--
You like life, and you want life?
Oh yes! but that is all right; you needn t worry about that!
But, I asked, how are we to get the life without getting the soul
also? This seemed to puzzle him, so I followed it up:--
A nice time you ll have some time when you re flying out there, with
the souls of thousands of flies and spiders and birds and cats buzzing
and twittering and miauing all round you. You ve got their lives, you
know, and you must put up with their souls! Something seemed to affect
his imagination, for he put his fingers to his ears and shut his eyes,
screwing them up tightly just as a small boy does when his face is being
soaped. There was something pathetic in it that touched me; it also gave
me a lesson, for it seemed that before me was a child--only a child,
though the features were worn, and the stubble on the jaws was white. It
was evident that he was undergoing some process of mental disturbance,
and, knowing how his past moods had interpreted things seemingly foreign
to himself, I thought I would enter into his mind as well as I could and
go with him. The first step was to restore confidence, so I asked him,
speaking pretty loud so that he would hear me through his closed ears:--
Would you like some sugar to get your flies round again? He seemed to
wake up all at once, and shook his head. With a laugh he replied:--
Not much! flies are poor things, after all! After a pause he added,
But I don t want their souls buzzing round me, all the same.
Or spiders? I went on.
Blow spiders! What s the use of spiders? There isn t anything in them
to eat or --he stopped suddenly, as though reminded of a forbidden
topic.
So, so! I thought to myself, this is the second time he has suddenly
stopped at the word drink ; what does it mean? Renfield seemed himself
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