"stoker-dracula-168" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

give hypodermic injection of morphia." He proceeded then, swiftly
and deftly, to carry out his intent. The effect on Lucy was not bad,
for the faint seemed to merge subtly into the narcotic sleep. It was
with a feeling of personal pride that I could see a faint tinge of
colour steal back into the pallid cheeks and lips. No man knows till
he experiences it, what it is to feel his own life-blood drawn away
into the veins of the woman he loves.

The Professor watched me critically. "That will do," he said.
"Already?" I remonstrated. "You took a great deal more from Art." To
which he smiled a sad sort of smile as he replied:-

"He is her lover, her fiance. You have work, much work, to do for
her and for others; and the present will suffice."

When we stopped the operation, he attended to Lucy, whilst I applied
digital pressure to my own incision. I laid down, whilst I waited
his leisure to attend to me, for I felt faint and a little sick.
By-and-by he bound up my wound, and sent me downstairs to get a
glass of wine for myself. As I was leaving the room, he came after me,
and half whispered:-

"Mind, nothing must be said of this. If our young lover should
turn up unexpected, as before, no word to him. It would at once
frighten him and enjealous him, too. There must be none. So!"

When I came back he looked at me carefully, and then said:-

"You are not much the worse. Go into the room, and lie on your sofa,
and rest awhile; then have much breakfast, and come here to me."

I followed out his orders, for I knew how right and wise they
were. I had done my part, and now my next duty was to keep up my
strength. I felt very weak, and in the weakness lost something of
the amazement at what had occurred. I fell asleep on the sofa,
however, wondering over and over again how Lucy had made such a
retrograde movement, and how she could have been drained of so much
blood with no sign anywhere to show for it. I think I must have
continued my wonder in my dreams, for, sleeping and waking, my
thoughts always came back to the little punctures in her throat and
the ragged, exhausted appearance of their edges- tiny though they
were.

Lucy slept well into the day and when she woke she was fairly well
and strong, though not nearly so much so as the day before. When Van
Helsing had seen her, he went out for a walk, leaving me in charge,
with strict injunctions that I was not to leave her for a moment. I
could hear his voice in the hall, asking the way to the nearest
telegraph office.