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

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 regarding my dear new country
of England, less interesting, so that I may not forget how time
flies by us," and, with 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.

8 May.- I began to fear as I wrote in this book that I was getting
too diffuse; but now I am glad that I went into detail from 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 only living soul within
the place. Let me be prosaic so far as facts can be; it will help me
to bear up, and imagination must not run riot with me. If it does I am
lost. Let me say at once how I stand- or seem to.

I only slept a few hours when I went to bed, and feeling that I
could not sleep any more, got up. I had hung my shaving glass by the
window, and was just beginning to shave. Suddenly I felt a hand on
my shoulder, and heard the Count's voice saying to me, "Good-morning."
I started, for it amazed me that I had not seen him, since the
reflection of the glass covered the whole room behind me. In
starting I had cut myself slightly, but did not notice it at the
moment. Having answered the Count's salutation, I turned to the
glass again to see how I had been mistaken. This time there could be
no error, for the man was close to me, and I could see him over my
shoulder. But there was no reflection of him in the mirror! The
whole room behind me was displayed; but there was no sign of a man
in it, except myself. This was startling, and, coming on the top of so
many strange things, was beginning to increase that vague feeling of
uneasiness which I always have when the Count is near; but at the
instant I saw that the cut had bled a little, and the blood was
trickling over my chin. I laid down the razor, turning as I did so
half round to look for some sticking plaster. When the Count saw my
face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly
made a grab at my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the string
of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him,