"Bram Stoker - Dracula" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

in a few hours. By the side of the box was its cover, pierced with holes
here and there. I thought he might have the keys on him, but when I went
to search I saw the dead eyes, and in them dead though they were, such a look
of hate, though unconscious of me or my presence, that I fled from the place,
and leaving the Count's room by the window, crawled again up the castle wall.
Regaining my room, I threw myself panting upon the bed and tried to think.


29 June.--Today is the date of my last letter, and the Count has taken
steps to prove that it was genuine, for again I saw him leave the castle by
the same window, and in my clothes. As he went down the wall, lizard fashion,
I wished I had a gun or some lethal weapon, that I might destroy him. But I
fear that no weapon wrought along by man's hand would have any effect on him.
I dared not wait to see him return, for I feared to see those weird sisters.
I came back to the library, and read there till I fell asleep.

I was awakened by the Count, who looked at me as grimly as a man could look
as he said, "Tomorrow, my friend, we must part. You return to your beautiful
England, I to some work which may have such an end that we may never meet.
Your letter home has been despatched. Tomorrow I shall not be here,
but all shall be ready for your journey. In the morning come the Szgany,
who have some labours of their own here, and also come some Slovaks.
When they have gone, my carriage shall come for you, and shall bear you
to the Borgo Pass to meet the diligence from Bukovina to Bistritz.
But I am in hopes that I shall see more of you at Castle Dracula."

I suspected him, and determined to test his sincerity. Sincerity! It seems
like a profanation of the word to write it in connection with such a monster,
so I asked him point-blank, "Why may I not go tonight?"

"Because, dear sir, my coachman and horses are away on a mission."

"But I would walk with pleasure. I want to get away at once."

He smiled, such a soft, smooth, diabolical smile that I
knew there was some trick behind his smoothness. He said,
"And your baggage?"

"I do not care about it. I can send for it some other time."

The Count stood up, and said, with a sweet courtesy which made
me rub my eyes, it seemed so real, "You English have a saying
which is close to my heart, for its spirit is that which rules
our boyars, `Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.'
Come with me, my dear young friend. Not an hour shall you wait
in my house against your will, though sad am I at your going,and
that you so suddenly desire it. Come!" With a stately gravity,
he, with the lamp, preceded me down the stairs and along the hall.
Suddenly he stopped. "Hark!"