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

not go mad, if, indeed, I be not mad already. If I be sane, then
surely it is maddening to think that of all the foul things that
lurk in this hateful place the Count is the least dreadful to me; that
to him alone I can look for safety, even though this be only whilst
I can serve his purpose. Great God! merciful God! Let me be calm,
for out of that way lies madness indeed. I begin to get new lights
on certain things which have puzzled me. Up to now I never quite
knew what Shakespeare meant when he made Hamlet say:-

"My tablets! quick, my tablets!

'Tis meet that I put it down," etc.,

for now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as if the
shock had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to my diary for
repose. The habit of entering accurately must help to soothe me.

The Count's mysterious warning frightened me at the time; it
frightens me more now, when I think of it, for in future he has a
fearful hold upon me. I shall fear to doubt what he may say!

When I had written in my diary and had fortunately replaced the book
and pen in my pocket I felt sleepy. The Count's warning came into my
mind, but I took a pleasure in disobeying it. The sense of sleep was
upon me, and with it the obstinacy which sleep brings as outrider. The
soft moonlight soothed, and the wide expanse without gave a sense of
freedom which refreshed me. I determined not to return to-night to the
gloom-haunted rooms, but to sleep here, where of old ladies had sat
and sung and lived sweet lives whilst their gentle breasts were sad
for their menfolk away in the midst of remorseless wars. I drew a
great couch out of its place near the corner, so that, as I lay, I
could look at the lovely view to east and south, and unthinking of and
uncaring for the dust, composed myself for sleep. I suppose I must
have fallen asleep; I hope so, but I fear, for all that followed was
startlingly real- so real that now sitting here in the broad, full
sunlight of the morning, I cannot in the least believe that it was all
sleep.

I was not alone. The room was the same, unchanged in any way since I
came into it; I could see along the floor, in the brilliant moonlight,
my own footsteps marked where I had disturbed the long accumulation of
dust. In the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by
their dress and manner. I thought at the time that I must be
dreaming when I saw them, for, though the moonlight was behind them,
they threw no shadow on the floor. They came close to me and looked at
me for some time, and then whispered together. Two were dark, and
had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing
eyes, that seemed to be almost red when contrasted with the pale
yellow moon. The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great wavy
masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires. I seemed somehow