“Dr. Van Helsing, what I have to tell you is
so queer that you must not laugh at me or at my husband.
I have been since yesterday in a sort of fever of
doubt. You must be kind to me, and not think
me foolish that I have even half believed some very
strange things.”
He reassured me by his manner as well as his words
when he said, “Oh, my dear, if you only know
how strange is the matter regarding which I am here,
it is you who would laugh. I have learned not
to think little of any one’s belief, no matter
how strange it may be. I have tried to keep
an open mind, and it is not the ordinary things of
life that could close it, but the strange things,
the extraordinary things, the things that make one
doubt if they be mad or sane.”
“Thank you, thank you a thousand times!
You have taken a weight off my mind. If you
will let me, I shall give you a paper to read.
It is long, but I have typewritten it out.
It will tell you my trouble and Jonathan’s.
It is the copy of his journal when abroad, and all
that happened. I dare not say anything of it.
You will read for yourself and judge. And then
when I see you, perhaps, you will be very kind and
tell me what you think.”
“I promise,” he said as I gave him the
papers. “I shall in the morning, as soon
as I can, come to see you and your husband, if I may.”
“Jonathan will be here at half-past eleven,
and you must come to lunch with us and see him then.
You could catch the quick 3:34 train, which will
leave you at Paddington before eight.”
He was surprised at my knowledge of the trains offhand,
but he does not know that I have made up all the trains
to and from Exeter, so that I may help Jonathan in
case he is in a hurry.
So he took the papers with him and went away, and
I sit here thinking, thinking I don’t know what.
25 September, 6 o’clock
“Dear Madam Mina,
“I have read your husband’s so wonderful
diary. You may sleep without doubt. Strange
and terrible as it is, it is true! I will pledge
my life on it. It may be worse for others, but
for him and you there is no dread. He is a noble
fellow, and let me tell you from experience of men,
that one who would do as he did in going down that
wall and to that room, aye, and going a second time,
is not one to be injured in permanence by a shock.
His brain and his heart are all right, this I swear,
before I have even seen him, so be at rest.
I shall have much to ask him of other things.
I am blessed that today I come to see you, for I
have learn all at once so much that again I am dazzled,
dazzled more than ever, and I must think.
“Yours the most faithful,
“Abraham Van Helsing.”
25 September, 6:30 P.M.
