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

"God bless me!" he said. "If there ain't old Bersicker come back
by 'isself!"

He went to the door and opened it; a most unnecessary proceeding
it seemed to me. I have always thought that a wild animal never
looks so well as when some obstacle of pronounced durability is
between us; a personal experience has intensified rather than
diminished that idea.

After all, however, there is nothing like custom, for neither Bilder
nor his wife thought any more of the wolf than I should of a dog.
The animal itself was as peaceful and well-behaved as that father of
all picture-wolves- Red Riding Hood's quondam friend, whilst moving
her confidence in masquerade.

The whole scene was an unutterable mixture of comedy and pathos. The
wicked wolf that for half a day had paralysed London and set all the
children in the town shivering in their shoes, was there in a sort
of penitent mood, and was received and petted like a sort of vulpine
prodigal son. Old Bilder examined him all over with most tender
solicitude, and when he had finished with his penitent said:-

"There, I knew the poor old chap would get into some kind of
trouble; didn't I say it all along? Here's his head all cut and full
of broken glass. 'E's been a-gettin' over some bloomin' wall or other.
It's a shyme that people are allowed to top their walls with broken
bottles. This 'ere's what comes of it. Come along, Bersicker."

He took the wolf and locked him up in a cage, with a piece of meat
that satisfied, in quantity at any rate, the elementary conditions
of the fatted calf, and went off to report.

I came off, too, to report the only exclusive information that is
given to-day regarding the strange escapade at the Zoo.

Dr. Seward's Diary.

17 September.- I was engaged after dinner in my study posting up
my books, which, through press of other work and the many visits to
Lucy, had fallen sadly into arrear. Suddenly the door was burst
open, and in rushed my patient, with his face distorted with
passion. I was thunder-struck, for such a thing as a patient getting
of his own accord into the Superintendent's study is almost unknown.
Without an instant's pause he made straight at me. He had a
dinner-knife in his hand, and, as I saw he was dangerous, I tried to
keep the table between us. He was too quick and too strong for me,
however; for before I could get my balance he had struck at me and cut
my left wrist rather severely. Before he could strike again,
however, I got in my right, and he was sprawling on his back on the