“Nonsense, Mina.
It is a shame to me to hear such a word.
I would not hear it of you; and I shall not hear it from you.
May God judge me by my deserts, and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!”
He put out his arms and folded her to his breast; and for a while she lay there sobbing.
He looked at us over her bowed head, with eyes that blinked damply above his quivering nostrils; his mouth was set as steel.
After a while her sobs became less frequent and more faint, and then he said to me, speaking with a studied calmness which I felt tried his nervous power to the utmost:—
“And now, Dr. Seward, tell me all about it.
Too well I know the broad fact; tell me all that has been.”
I told him exactly what had happened, and he listened with seeming impassiveness; but his nostrils twitched and his eyes blazed as I told how the ruthless hands of the Count had held his wife in that terrible and horrid position, with her mouth to the open wound in his breast.
It interested me, even at that moment, to see, that, whilst the face of white set passion worked convulsively over the bowed head, the hands tenderly and lovingly stroked the ruffled hair.
Just as I had finished, Quincey and Godalming knocked at the door. They entered in obedience to our summons.
Van Helsing looked at me questioningly.
I understood him to mean if we were to take advantage of their coming to divert if possible the thoughts of the unhappy husband and wife from each other and from themselves; so on nodding acquiescence to him he asked them what they had seen or done.
To which Lord Godalming answered:—
“I could not see him anywhere in the passage, or in any of our rooms.
I looked in the study but, though he had been there, he had gone.
He had, however——” He stopped suddenly, looking at the poor drooping figure on the bed.
Van Helsing said gravely:—
“Go on, friend Arthur.
We want here no more concealments.
Our hope now is in knowing all.
Tell freely!”
So Art went on:—
“He had been there, and though it could only have been for a few seconds, he made rare hay of the place.
All the manuscript had been burned, and the blue flames were flickering amongst the white ashes; the cylinders of your phonograph too were thrown on the fire, and the wax had helped the flames.”
Here I interrupted.
“Thank God there is the other copy in the safe!”
His face lit for a moment, but fell again as he went on:
“I ran downstairs then, but could see no sign of him.
I looked into Renfield’s room; but there was no trace there except——!”
Again he paused.
“Go on,” said Harker hoarsely; so he bowed his head and moistening his lips with his tongue, added: “except that the poor fellow is dead.”
Mrs. Harker raised her head, looking from one to the other of us she said solemnly:—
“God’s will be done!”
I could not but feel that Art was keeping back something; but, as I took it that it was with a purpose, I said nothing.
Van Helsing turned to Morris and asked:—
“And you, friend Quincey, have you any to tell?”
“A little,” he answered. “It may be much eventually, but at present I can’t say.
I thought it well to know if possible where the Count would go when he left the house.
I did not see him; but I saw a bat rise from Renfield’s window, and flap westward.
I expected to see him in some shape go back to Carfax; but he evidently sought some other lair.
He will not be back to-night; for the sky is reddening in the east, and the dawn is close.
We must work to-morrow!”
He said the latter words through his shut teeth.
For a space of perhaps a couple of minutes there was silence, and I could fancy that I could hear the sound of our hearts beating; then Van Helsing said, placing his hand very tenderly on Mrs. Harker’s head:—
“And now, Madam Mina—poor, dear, dear Madam Mina—tell us exactly what happened.
God knows that I do not want that you be pained; but it is need that we know all.
For now more than ever has all work to be done quick and sharp, and in deadly earnest.
The day is close to us that must end all, if it may be so; and now is the chance that we may live and learn.”