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

Dr. Seward's Diary.

20 August.- The case of Renfield grows even more interesting. He has
now so far quieted that there are spells or cessation from his
passion. For the first week after his attack he was perpetually
violent. Then one night, just as the moon rose, he grew quiet, and
kept murmuring to himself- "Now I can wait; now I can wait." The
attendant came to tell me, so I ran down at once to have a look at
him. He was still in the strait-waistcoat and in the padded room,
but the suffused look had gone from his face, and his eyes had
something of their old pleading- I might almost say, "cringing"-
softness, I was satisfied with his present condition, and directed him
to be relieved. The attendants hesitated, but finally carried out my
wishes without protest. It was a strange thing that the patient had
humour enough to see their distrust, for, coming close to me, he
said in a whisper, all the while looking furtively at them:-

"They think I could hurt you! Fancy me hurting you! The fools!"

It was soothing, somehow, to the feelings to find myself dissociated
even in the mind of this poor madman from the others; but all the same
I do not follow his thought. Am I to take it that I have anything in
common with him, so that we are, as it were, to stand together; or has
he to gain from me some good so stupendous that my well-being is
needful to him? I must find out later on. To-night he will not
speak. Even the offer of a kitten or even a full-grown cat will not
tempt him. He will only say: "I don't take any stock in cats. I have
more to think of now, and I can wait; I can wait."

After a while I left him. The attendant tells me that he was quiet
until just before dawn, and that then he began to get uneasy, and at
length violent, until at last he fell into a paroxysm which
exhausted him so that he swooned into a sort of coma.

...Three nights has the same thing happened- violent all day then
quiet from moonrise to sunrise. I wish I could get some clue to the
cause. It would almost seem as if there was some influence which
came and went. Happy thought! We shall to-night play sane wits against
mad ones. He escaped before without our help; to-night he shall escape
with it. We shall give him a chance, and have the men ready to
follow in case they are required...

23 August.- "The unexpected always happens." How well Disraeli
knew life. Our bird when he found the cage open would not fly, so
all our subtle arrangements were for nought. At any rate, we have
proved one thing; that the spells of quietness last a reasonable time.
We shall in future be able to ease his bonds for a few hours each day.
I have given orders to the night attendant merely to shut him in the
padded room, when once he is quiet, until an hour before sunrise.