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

more marked- he looked very grave, but said nothing. He took with
him a bag in which were many instruments and drugs, "the ghastly
paraphernalia of our beneficial trade," as he once called, in one of
his lectures, the equipment of a professor of the healing craft.
When we were shown in, Mrs. Westenra met us. She was alarmed, but
not nearly so much as I expected to find her. Nature in one of her
beneficent moods has ordained that even death has some antidote to its
own terrors. Here, in a case where any shock may prove fatal,
matters are so ordered that, from some cause or other, the things
not personal- even the terrible change in her daughter to whom she
is so attached- do not seem to reach her. It is something like the way
Dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some
insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would
otherwise harm by contact. If this be an ordered selfishness, then
we should pause before we condemn any one for the vice of egoism,
for there may be deeper roots for its causes than we have knowledge
of.

I used my knowledge of this phase of spiritual pathology, and laid
down a rule that she should not be present with Lucy or think of her
illness more than was absolutely required. She assented readily, so
readily that I saw again the hand of Nature fighting for life. Van
Helsing and I were shown up to Lucy's room. If I was shocked when I
saw her yesterday, I was horrified when I saw her to-day. She was
ghastly, chalkily pale; the red seemed to have gone even from her lips
and gums, and the bones of her face stood out prominently; her
breathing was painful to see or hear. Van Helsing's face grew set as
marble, and his eyebrows converged till they almost touched over his
nose. Lucy lay motionless and did not seem to have strength to
speak, so for a while we were all silent. Then Van Helsing beckoned to
me, and we went gently out of the room. The instant we had closed
the door he stepped quickly along the passage to the next door,
which was open. Then he pulled me quickly in with him and closed the
door. "My God!" he said; "this is dreadful. There is no time to be
lost. She will die for sheer want of blood to keep the heart's
action as it should be. There must be transfusion of blood at once. Is
it you or me?"

"I am younger and stronger, Professor. It must be me."

"Then get ready at once. I will bring up my bag. I am prepared."

I went downstairs with him, and as we were going there was a knock
at the hall-door. When we reached the hall the maid had just opened
the door, and Arthur was stepping quickly in. He rushed up to me,
saying in an eager whisper:-

"Jack, I was so anxious. I read between the lines of your letter,
and have been in an agony. The dad was better, so I ran down here to
see for myself. Is not that gentleman Dr. Van Helsing? I am so