Slave Of Dracula Read Online Free PDF Page B

Ireland ever gets!) and you can

get those daily notes you write of. They do, indeed, bring the sound of the voice, the sight of the face,

before our eyes-as your notes to me have done all this week.
    Thank you, my dearest friend, for being my dearest friend. You know and I know that wherever he is,

Jonathan is just fine.
    All my love, Mina

CHAPTER FOUR
    R.M.R.’s notes
    5 June
    14 flies, 1 spider
    I knew this would happen. Seward ordered me to “get rid of” my “pets” as he calls them, though I have

explained to him-or thought I explained-the critical importance of what I do. I ob-tained three days’

grace. What can one expect, when surrounded by the pettiness of ordinary minds?
    Dr. Seward’s Journal (kept on phonograph)*
    18 June
    [Renfield] has turned his mind now to spiders, and has got sev-eral very big fellows in a box. He keeps

feeding them with his flies, and the number of the latter has become sensibly dimin-ished, although he has

used half his food in attracting more flies from outside to his room.
    1 July
    His spiders are now becoming as great a nuisance as his flies, and today I told him that he must get rid

of them. He looked very sad at this, so I said that he must clear out some of them, at all events. He

cheerfully acquiesced in this, and I gave him the same time as before for the reduction. He disgusted me

much while with him, for when a horrid blow-fly, bloated with some carrion food, buzzed into the room,

he caught it, held it exul-tantly for a few moments between his finger and thumb, and, be-fore I knew

what he was going to do, put it in his mouth and ate it. I scolded him for it, but he argued quietly that it

was very good and very wholesome; that it was life, strong life, and gave life to him …
    ***
    Letter, R. M. Renfield to his wife
    (undated-early July)
    My dearest Catherine,
    I trust that this letter finds you in the best of good health, and that you and Vixie are enjoying the

mellow beauty of this En-glish summer. It gives me daily comfort to picture your sweet faces. Though I

now realize how difficult it would be for you to visit, still I hope and pray that one day you and she may

find a way to do so without drawing undue attention to yourselves, for I miss you sorely.
    My work proceeds apace, though unbelievably hampered by the stupidity of my colleagues here.

Seward is well-meaning, but beyond imbecilic. His mania for regulations has forced me to begin on the

next stage of my efforts prematurely. I pray that no ill will come of it, knowing how much depends upon

its suc-cessful progress. His colleague, Hennessey, is not only venal, but dangerous. Only yesterday, in

Dr. Seward’s absence, he entered my room with three young gentlemen from one of the London

colleges-not medical students, but simply young rakes who paid him half-a-crown apiece “to see the

loonies,” as they put it. When I was moved to protest, he threatened me with the Swing, a most appalling

“treatment” that “calms” through nausea and dizziness. Valuable in dealing with the truly mad, of course,

but as horrifying to a normal man as the rigors of the Spanish In-quisition.
    So I am reduced to accomplishing what I can, with what I have. You know that I would do, quite

literally, anything, in or-der to assure your safety; that there are no lengths to which I would not go to

protect our beautiful daughter from harm.
    Your loving husband, forever,
    R.M.R.
    ***
    R.M.R.’s notes
    3 July
    10 flies, 2 spiders, 1 sparrow
    -7 flies ? spiders
    -5 spiders ? sparrow
    6 July
    9 flies, 2 spiders, 1 sparrow
    -6 flies ? spiders
    -4 spiders ? sparrows
    Seward in Town again today. Hennessey admitted a pair of young gentlemen who wanted to “observe”

the lunatics, in particular, they said, the women, and did any of them rip off their clothing in their fits? I

thought Langmore would object, but he said noth-ing. I have noted that Langmore frequently seems the

worse for opium, whose symptoms became