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When we came into Lucy's room I could see that Van Helsing had, with |
his usual forethought, been putting matters straight and making |
everything look as pleasing as possible. He had even brushed Lucy's |
hair, so that it lay on the pillow in its usual sunny ripples. When we |
came into the room she opened her eyes, and seeing him, whispered |
softly:-- |
"Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come!" He was stooping to |
kiss her, when Van Helsing motioned him back. "No," he whispered, "not |
yet! Hold her hand; it will comfort her more." |
So Arthur took her hand and knelt beside her, and she looked her best, |
with all the soft lines matching the angelic beauty of her eyes. Then |
gradually her eyes closed, and she sank to sleep. For a little bit her |
breast heaved softly, and her breath came and went like a tired child's. |
And then insensibly there came the strange change which I had noticed in |
the night. Her breathing grew stertorous, the mouth opened, and the pale |
gums, drawn back, made the teeth look longer and sharper than ever. In a |
sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which |
were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous voice, |
such as I had never heard from her lips:-- |
"Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me!" Arthur bent |
eagerly over to kiss her; but at that instant Van Helsing, who, like me, |
had been startled by her voice, swooped upon him, and catching him by |
the neck with both hands, dragged him back with a fury of strength which |
I never thought he could have possessed, and actually hurled him almost |
across the room. |
"Not for your life!" he said; "not for your living soul and hers!" And |
he stood between them like a lion at bay. |
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 realised |
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 champed |
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 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 ever. 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." |
CHAPTER XIII |
DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--_continued_. |
The funeral was arranged for the next succeeding day, so that Lucy and |
her mother might be buried together. I attended to all the ghastly |
formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff were |
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