Dracula - Bram Stoker

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to Mr. Hawkins, he began to ask me how I

      had come across so suitable a place. I read to him the notes which

      I had made at the time, and which I inscribe here :

      «At Purfleet, on a by-road, I came across just such a place as

      seemed to be required, and where was displayed a dilapidated

      notice that the place was for sale. It is surrounded by a high wall,

      of ancient structure, built of heavy stones, and has not been

      repaired for a large number of years. The closed gates are of

      heavy old oak and iron, all eaten with rust.

      «The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old

      Quatre Face, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the car-

      dinal points of the compass. It contains in all some twenty acres,

      quite surrounded by the solid stone wall above mentioned.

      There are many trees on it, which make it in places gloomy, and

      there is a deep, dark-looking pond or small lake, evidently fed

      t> y some springs, as the water is clear and flows away in a fair-

      sized stream. The house is very large and of all periods back, I

      should say, to mediaeval times, for one part is of stone im-

      mensely thick, with only a few windows high up and heavily

      barred with iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an old

      chapel or church. I could not enter it, as I had not the key of the

      door leading to it from the house, but I have taken with my kodak

      views of it from various points. The house has been added to,

      but in a very straggling way, and I can only guess at the amount

      of ground it covers, which must be very great. There are but few

      houses close at hand, one being a very large house only recently

      added to and formed into a private lunatic asylum. It is not,

      however, visible from the grounds.»

      When I had finished, he said:

      «I am glad that it is old and big. I myself am of an old family,

      and to live in a new house would kill me. A house cannot be made

      habitable in a day; and, after all, how few days go to make up

      a century. I rejoice also that there is a chapel of old times. We

      Transylvanian nobles love not to think that our bones may lie

      amongst the common dead. I» seek not gaiety nor mirth, not

      the bright voluptuousness of much sunshine and sparkling

      waters which please the young and gay. I am no longer young;

      and my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead,

      is not attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my castle are

      broken; the shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold

      through the broken battlements and casements. I love the

      Jonathan Marker’s Journal 23

      shade and the shadow, and would be alone with my thoughts

      when I may.» Somehow his words and his look did not seem to

      accord, or else it was that his cast of face made his smile look

      malignant and saturnine.

      Presently, with an excuse, he left me, asidng me to put all my

      papers together. He was some little time away, and I began to

      look at some of the books around me. One was an atlas, which

      I found opened naturally at England, as if that map had been

      much used. On looking at it I found in certain places little rings

      marked, and on examining these I noticed that one was near

      London on the east side, manifestly where his new estate was

      situated; the other two were Exeter, and Whitby on the York-

      shire coast.

      It was the better part of an hour when the Count returned.

      «Aha!» he said; «still at your books? Good! But you must not

      work always. Come; I am informed that your supper is ready.»

      He took my arm, and we went into the next room, where I found

      an excellent supper ready on the table. The Count again excused

      himself, as he had dined out on his being away from home. But

      he sat as on the previous night, and chatted whilst I ate. After

      supper I smoked, as on the last evening, and the Count stayed

      with me, chatting and asking questions on every conceivable

      subject, hour after hour. I felt that it was getting very late in-

      deed, but I did not say anything, for I felt under obligation to

      meet my host’s wishes in every way. I was not sleepy, as the

      long sleep yesterday had fortified me; but I could not help ex-

      periencing that chill which comes over one at the coming of the

      dawn, which is like, in its way, the turn of the tide. They say

      that people who are near death die generally at the change to

      the dawn or at the turn of the tide; any one who has when tired,

      and tied as it were to his post, experienced this change in the

      atmosphere can well believe it. All at once we heard the crow

      of a cock coming up with preternatural shrillness through the

      clear morning air; Count Dracula, jumping to his feet, said:

      «Why, there is the morning again! How remiss I am to let

      you stay up so long. You must make your conversation regard-

      ing my dear new country of England less interesting, so that I

      may not forget how time flies by us,» and, with a courtly bow,

      he quickly left me.

      I went into my own room and drew the curtains, but there was

      little to notice; my window opened into the courtyard, all I

      could see was the warm grey of quickening sky. So I pulled the

      curtains again, and have written of this day.

      24 Dracula

      8 May. I began to fear as I wrote in this book that I was get-

      ting too diffuse; but now I am glad that I went into detail from

      s the first, for there is something so strange about this place and

      all in it that I cannot but feel uneasy. I wish I were safe out of

      it, or that I had never come. It may be that this strange night-

      existence is telling on me; but would that that were all! If there

      were any one to talk to I could bear it, but there is no one. I

      have only the Count to speak with, and he! I fear I am myself

      the

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