Boisterous, unruly, and tyrannical, he despised all her counsel, and would none of her reproof; and, at an early age, broke from her, to seek his fortunes at seaHe never came home but once, after; and then, his mother, with the yearning of a heart that must love something, and has nothing else to love, clung to him, and sought, with passionate prayers and entreaties, to win him from a life of sin, to his soul?s eternal good That was Legree?s day of grace; then good angels called him; then he was almost persuaded, and mercy held him by the handHis heart inly relented,?there was a conflict,?but sin got the victory, and he set all the force of his rough nature against the conviction of his conscienceHe drank and swore,?was wilder and more brutal than everAnd, one night, when his mother, in the last agony of her despair, knelt at his feet, he spurned her from him,?threw her senseless on the floor, and, with brutal curses, fled to his shipThe next Legree heard of his mother was, when, one night, as he was carousing among drunken companions, a letter was put into his handHe opened it, and a lock of long, curling hair fell from it, and twined about his fingersThe letter told him his mother was dead, and that, dying, she blest and forgave him There is a dread, unhallowed necromancy of evil, that turns things sweetest and holiest to phantoms of horror and affrightThat pale, loving mother,?her dying prayers, her forgiving love,?wrought in that demoniac heart of sin only as a damning sentence, bringing with it a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignationLegree burned the hair, and burned the letter; and when he saw them hissing and crackling in the flame, inly shuddered as he thought of everlasting firesHe tried to drink, and revel, and swear away the memory; but often, in the deep night, whose solemn stillness arraigns the bad soul in forced communion with herself, he had seen that pale mother rising by his bedside, and felt the soft twining of that hair around his fingers, till the cold sweat would roll down his face, and he would spring from his bed in horrorYe who have wondered to hear, in the same evangel, that God is love, and that God is a consuming fire, see ye not how, to the soul resolved in evil, perfect love is the most fearful torture, the seal and sentence of the direst despair? ?Blast it!? said Legree to himself, as he sipped his liquor; ?where did he get that? If it didn?t look just like?whoo! I thought I?d forgot thatCurse me, if I think there?s any such thing as forgetting anything, any how,?hang it! I?m lonesome! I mean to call EmShe hates me?the monkey! I don?t care,?I?ll make her come!? Legree stepped out into a large entry, which went up stairs, by what had formerly been a superb winding staircase; but the passage-way was dirty and dreary, encumbered with boxes and unsightly litterThe stairs, uncarpeted, seemed winding up, in the gloom, to nobody knew where! The pale moonlight streamed through a shattered fanlight over the door; the air was unwholesome and chilly, like that of a vault Legree stopped at the foot of the stairs, and heard a voice singingIt seemed strange and ghostlike in that dreary old house, perhaps because of the already tremulous state of his nervesHark! what is it? A wild, pathetic voice, chants a hymn common among the slaves: ?O there?ll be mourning, mourning, mourning, O there?ll be mourning, at the judgment-seat of Christ!? ?Blast the girl!? said LegreeEm! Em!? he called, harshly; but only a mocking echo from the walls answered himThe sweet voice still sung on: ?Parents and children there shall part! Parents and children there shall part! Shall part to meet no more!? And clear and loud swelled through the empty halls the refrain, ?O there?ll be mourning, mourning, mourning, O there?ll be mourning, at the judgment-seat of Christ!? Legree stoppedHe would have been ashamed to tell of it, but large drops of sweat stood on his forehead, his heart beat heavy and thick with fear; he even thought he saw something white rising and glimmering in the gloom before him, and shuddered to think what if the form of his dead mother should suddenly appear to him ?I know one thing,? he said to himself, as he stumbled back in the sitting-room, and sat down; ?I?ll let that fellow alone, after this! What did I want of his cussed paper? I b?lieve I am bewitched, sure enough! I?ve been shivering and sweating, ever since! Where did he get that hair? It couldn?t have been that! I burnt that up, I know I did! It would be a joke, if hair could rise from the dead!? Ah, Legree! that golden tress was charmed; each hair had in it a spell of terror and remorse for thee, and was used by a mightier power to bind thy cruel hands from inflicting uttermost evil on the helpless! ?I say,? said Legree, stamping and whistling to the dogs, ?wake up, some of you, and keep me company!? but the dogs only opened one eye at him, sleepily, and closed it again ?I?ll have Sambo and Quimbo up here, to sing and dance one of their hell dances, and keep off these horrid notions,? said Legree; and, putting on his hat, he went on to the verandah, and blew a horn, with which he commonly summoned his two sable drivers Legree was often wont, when in a gracious humor, to get these two worthies into his sitting-room, and, after warming them up with whiskey, amuse himself by setting them to singing, dancing or fighting, as the humor took him It was between one and two o?clock at night, as Cassy was returning from her ministrations to poor Tom, that she heard the sound of wild shrieking, whooping, halloing, and singing, from the sitting-room, mingled with the barking of dogs, and other symptoms of general uproar She came up on the verandah steps, and looked inLegree and both the drivers, in a state of furious intoxication, were singing, whooping, upsetting chairs, and making all manner of ludicrous and horrid grimaces at each other She rested her small, slender hand on the window-blind, and looked fixedly at them;?there was a world of anguish, scorn, and fierce bitterness, in her black eyes, as she did so?Would it be a sin to rid the world of such a wretch?? she said to herself She turned hurriedly away, and, passing round to a back door, glided up stairs, and tapped at Emmeline?s door Chapter 36 Emmeline and Cassy Cassy entered the room, and found Emmeline sitting, pale with fear, in the furthest corner of itAs she came in, the girl started up nervously; but, on seeing who it was, rushed forward, and catching her arm, said, ?O Cassy, is it you? I?m so glad you?ve come! I was afraid it was?O, you don?t know what a horrid noise there has been, down stairs, all this evening!? ?I ought to know,? said Cassy, dryly?I?ve heard it often enough ?O Cassy! do tell me,?couldn?t we get away from this place? I don?t care where,?into the swamp among the snakes,?anywhere! Couldn?t we get somewhere away from here?? ?Nowhere, but into our graves,? said Cassy ?Did you ever try?? ?I?ve seen enough of trying and what comes of it,? said Cassy ?I?d be willing to live in the swamps, and gnaw the bark from treesI an?t afraid of snakes! I?d rather have one near me than him,? said Emmeline, shop eagerly

You are safe for tonight, and we must be calm and take counsel together She shuddered and was silent, holding down her head on her husband's breastWhen she raised it, his white nightrobe was stained with blood where her lips had touched, and where the thin open wound in the neck had sent forth dropsThe instant she saw it she drew back, with a low wail, and whispered, amidst choking sobs "Unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no moreOh, that it should be that it is I who am now his worst enemy, and whom he may have most cause to fear To this he spoke out resolutely, "Nonsense, MinaIt is a shame to me to hear such a wordI would not hear it of youAnd I shall not hear it from youMay 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 breastAnd for a while she lay there sobbingHe looked at us over her bowed head, with eyes that blinked damply above his quivering nostrilsHis 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 utmostSeward, tell me all about itToo well I know the broad factTell 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 breastIt 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 hairJust as I had finished, Quincey and Godalming knocked at the doorThey entered in obedience to our summonsVan Helsing looked at me questioninglyI 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 themselvesSo on nodding acquiescence to him he asked them what they had seen or doneTo which Lord Godalming answered "I could not see him anywhere in the passage, or in any of our roomsI looked in the study but, though he had been there, he had goneHe had, however?" He stopped suddenly, looking at the poor drooping figure on the bed Van Helsing said gravely, "Go on, friend ArthurWe want here no more concealmentsOur hope now is in knowing allTell 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 placeAll the manuscript had been burned, and the blue flames were flickering amongst the white ashesThe 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 himI looked into Renfield's room, but there was no trace there except?" Again he paused "Go on," said Harker shop hoarsely

I don't like this lapsing into forgetfulnessIt may make or continue some injury to the brainI must not ask him, for fear I shall do more harm than good, but I must somehow learn the facts of his journey abroadThe time is come, I fear, when I must open the parcel, and know what is writtenOh, Jonathan, you will, I know, forgive me if I do wrong, but it is for your own dear sake-A sad homecoming in every way, the house empty of the dear soul who was so good to usJonathan still pale and dizzy under a slight relapse of his malady, and now a telegram from Van Helsing, whoever he may be"You will be grieved to hear that MrsWestenra died five days ago, and that Lucy died the day before yesterdayThey were both buried today Oh, what a wealth of sorrow in a few words! Poor MrsWestenra! Poor Lucy! Gone, gone, never to return to us! And poor, poor Arthur, to have lost such a sweetness out of his life! God help us all to bear our troublesArthur has gone back to Ring, and has taken Quincey Morris with himWhat a fine fellow is Quincey! I believe in my heart of hearts that he suffered as much about Lucy's death as any of us, but he bore himself through it like a moral VikingIf America can go on breeding men like that, she will be a power in the world indeedVan Helsing is lying down, having a rest preparatory to his journeyHe goes to Amsterdam tonight, but says he returns tomorrow night, that he only wants to make some arrangements which can only be made personallyHe is to stop with me then, if he canHe says he has work to do in London which may take him some timePoor old fellow! I fear that the strain of the past week has broken down even his iron strengthAll the time of the burial he was, I could see, putting some terrible restraint on himselfWhen it was all over, we were standing beside Arthur, who, poor fellow, was speaking of his part in the operation where his blood had been transfused to his Lucy's veinsI could see Van Helsing's face grow white and purple by turnsArthur was saying that he felt since then as if they two had been really married, and that she was his wife in the sight of GodNone of us said a word of the other operations, and none of us ever shallArthur and Quincey went away together to the station, and Van Helsing and I came on hereThe moment we were alone in the carriage he gave way to a regular fit of hystericsHe has denied to me since that it was hysterics, and insisted that it was only his sense of humor asserting itself under very terrible conditionsHe laughed till he cried, and I had to draw down the blinds lest any one should see us and misjudgeAnd then he cried, till he laughed again, and laughed and cried together, just as a woman doesI tried to be stern with him, as one is to a woman under the circumstances, but it had no effectMen and women are so different in manifestations of nervous strength or weakness! Then when his face grew grave and stern again I asked him why his mirth, and why at such a timeHis reply was in a way characteristic of him, for it was logical and forceful and mysteriousHe said, "Ah, you don't comprehend, friend JohnDo not think that I am not sad, though I laughSee, I have cried even when the laugh did choke meBut no more think that I am all sorry when I cry, for the laugh he come just the sameKeep it always with you that laughter who knock at your door and say, 'May I come in?' is not true laughterNo! He is a king, and he come when and how he likeHe ask no person, he choose no time of shop suitability

"I guess Art is the cause He handed me a telegram-'Have not heard from Seward for three days, and am terribly anxiousFather still in same conditionSend me word how Lucy is' "I think I came just in the nick of timeYou know you have only to tell me what to do Van Helsing strode forward, and took his hand, looking him straight in the eyes as he said, "A brave man's blood is the best thing on this earth when a woman is in troubleYou're a man and no mistakeWell, the devil may work against us for all he's worth, but God sends us men when we want them Once again we went through that ghastly operationI have not the heart to go through with the detailsLucy had got a terrible shock and it told on her more than before, for though plenty of blood went into her veins, her body did not respond to the treatment as well as on the other occasionsHer struggle back into life was something frightful to see and hearHowever, the action of both heart and lungs improved, and Van Helsing made a sub-cutaneous injection of morphia, as before, and with good effectHer faint became a profound slumberThe Professor watched whilst I went downstairs with Quincey Morris, and sent one of the maids to pay off one of the cabmen who were waiting I left Quincey lying down after having a glass of wine, and told the cook to get ready a good breakfastThen a thought struck me, and I went back to the room where Lucy now wasWhen I came softly in, I found Van Helsing with a sheet or two of note paper in his handHe had evidently read it, and was thinking it over as he sat with his hand to his browThere was a look of grim satisfaction in his face, as of one who has had a doubt solvedHe handed me the paper saying only, "It dropped from Lucy's breast when we carried her to the bath When I had read it, I stood looking at the Professor, and after a pause asked him, "In God's name, what does it all mean? Was she, or is she, mad, or what sort of horrible danger is it?" I was so bewildered that I did not know what to say moreVan Helsing put out his hand and took the paper, saying, "Do not trouble about it nowForget it for the presentYou shall know and understand it all in good time, but it will be laterAnd now what is it that you came to me to say?" This brought me back to fact, and I was all myself again "I came to speak about the certificate of deathIf we do not act properly and wisely, there may be an inquest, and that paper would have to be producedI am in hopes that we need have no inquest, for if we had it would surely kill poor Lucy, if nothing else didI know, and you know, and the other doctor who attended her knows, that MrsWestenra had disease of the heart, and we can certify that she died of itLet us fill up the certificate at once, and I shall take it myself to the registrar and go on to the undertaker "Good, oh my friend John! Well thought of! Truly Miss Lucy, if she be sad in the foes that beset her, is at least happy in the friends that love herOne, two, three, all open their veins for her, besides one old manAh, yes, I know, friend JohnI am not blind! I love you all the more for it! Now go In the hall I met Quincey Morris, with a telegram for Arthur telling him that MrsWestenra was dead, that Lucy also had been ill, but was now going on better, and that Van Helsing and I were with shop her

"Again I swear!" came the Professor's resonant voiceHarker smiled, positively smiled, as with a sigh of relief she leaned back and said, "And now one word of warning, a warning which you must never forgetThis time, if it ever come, may come quickly and unexpectedly, and in such case you must lose no time in using your opportunityAt such a time I myself might be? nay! If the time ever come, shall be, leagued with your enemy against you "One more request," she became very solemn as she said this, "it is not vital and necessary like the other, but I want you to do one thing for me, if you will We all acquiesced, but no one spokeThere was no need to speak "I want you to read the Burial Service She was interrupted by a deep groan from her husbandTaking his hand in hers, she held it over her heart, and continued"You must read it over me some dayWhatever may be the issue of all this fearful state of things, it will be a sweet thought to all or some of usYou, my dearest, will I hope read it, for then it will be in your voice in my memory forever, come what may!" "But oh, my dear one," he pleaded, "death is afar off from you "Nay," she said, holding up a warning hand"I am deeper in death at this moment than if the weight of an earthly grave lay heavy upon me!" "Oh, my wife, must I read it?" he said, before he began "It would comfort me, my husband!" was all she said, and he began to read when she had got the book ready How can I, how could anyone, tell of that strange scene, its solemnity, its gloom, its sadness, its horror, and withal, its sweetnessEven a sceptic, who can see nothing but a travesty of bitter truth in anything holy or emotional, would have been melted to the heart had he seen that little group of loving and devoted friends kneeling round that stricken and sorrowing lady; or heard the tender passion of her husband's voice, as in tones so broken and emotional that often he had to pause, he read the simple and beautiful service from the Burial of the DeadI cannot go on? words? and v-voices? f-fail m-me! She was right in her instinctStrange as it was, bizarre as it may hereafter seem even to us who felt its potent influence at the time, it comforted us muchAnd the silence, which showed MrsHarker's coming relapse from her freedom of soul, did not seem so full of despair to any of us as we had dreaded JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL 15 October, Varna-We left Charing Cross on the morning of the 12th, got to Paris the same night, and took the places secured for us in the Orient ExpressWe traveled night and day, arriving here at about five o'clockLord Godalming went to the Consulate to see if any telegram had arrived for him, whilst the rest of us came on to this hotel, "the Odessus The journey may have had incidentsI was, however, too eager to get on, to care for themUntil the Czarina Catherine comes into port there will be no interest for me in anything in the wide worldThank God! Mina is well, and looks to be getting strongerHer colour is coming backShe sleeps a great dealThroughout the journey she slept nearly all the timeBefore sunrise and sunset, however, she is very wakeful and alertAnd it has become a habit for Van Helsing to hypnotize her at such timesAt first, some effort was needed, and he had to make many passesBut now, she seems to yield at once, as if by habit, and scarcely any action is neededHe seems to have power at these particular moments to simply will, and her thoughts obey himHe always asks her what she can see and hear She answers to the first, "Nothing, all is shop dark