"A nice time you'll have some time when you're flying out there, withthe souls of thousands of flies and spiders and birds and cats buzzingand twittering and miauing all round you. You've got their lives, youknow, and you must put up with their souls!" Something seemed to affecthis imagination, for he put his fingers to his ears and shut his eyes,screwing them up tightly just as a small boy does when his face is beingsoaped. There was something pathetic in it that touched me; it also gaveme a lesson, for it seemed that before me was a child--only a child,though the features were worn, and the stubble on the jaws was white. Itwas evident that he was undergoing some process of mental disturbance,and, knowing how his past moods had interpreted things seemingly foreignto himself, I thought I would enter into his mind as well as I could andgo with him. The first step was to restore confidence, so I asked him,speaking pretty loud so that he would hear me through his closed ears:--
"Would you like some sugar to get your flies round again!" He seemed towake up all at once, and shook his head. With a laugh he replied:--
"Not much! flies are poor things, after all!" After a pause he added,"But I don't want their souls buzzing round me, all the same."
"Or spiders," I went on.
"Blow spiders! What's the use of spiders? There isn't anything in themto eat or"--he stopped suddenly, as though reminded of a forbiddentopic.
"So, so!" I thought to myself, "this is the second time he has suddenlystopped at the word 'drink'; what does it mean?" Renfield seemed himselfaware of having made a lapse, for he hurried on, as though to distractmy attention from it:--
"I don't take any stock at all in such matters. 'Rats and mice and suchsmall deer' as Shakespeare has it; 'chicken-feed of the larder' theymight be called. I'm past all that sort of nonsense. You might as wellask a man to eat molecules with a pair of chop-sticks, as to try tointerest me about the lesser carnivora, when I know of what is beforeme."
"I see," I said. "You want big things that you can make your teeth meetin? How would you like to breakfast on elephant?"
"What ridiculous nonsense you are talking!" He was getting too wideawake, so I thought I would press him hard. "I wonder," I saidreflectively, "what an elephant's soul is like!"
The effect I desired was obtained, for he at once fell from hishigh-horse and became a child again.
"I don't want an elephant's soul, or any soul at all!" he said. For afew moments he sat despondently. Suddenly he jumped to his feet, withhis eyes blazing and all the signs of intense cerebral excitement. "Tohell with you and your souls!" he shouted. "Why do you plague me aboutsouls? Haven't I got enough to worry, and pain, and distract me already,without thinking of souls?" He looked so hostile that I thought hewas in for another homicidal fit, so I blew my whistle. The instant,however, that I did so he became calm, and said apologetically:--
"Forgive me, Doctor; I forgot myself. You do not need any help. I am soworried in my mind that I am apt to be irritable. If you only knew theproblem I have to face, and that I am working out, you would pity, andtolerate, and pardon me. Pray do not put me in a strait-waistcoat. Iwant to think and I cannot think freely when my body is
confined. I amsure you will understand!" He had evidently self-control; so when theattendants came I told them not to mind, and they withdrew. Renfieldwatched them go; when the door was closed he said, with considerabledignity and sweetness:--
"Dr. Seward, you have been very considerate towards me. Believe methat I am very very grateful to you!" I thought it well to leave him inthis mood, and so I came away. There is certainly something to ponderover in this man's state. Several points seem to make what the Americaninterviewer calls "a story," if one could only get them in proper order.Here they are:--
Will not mention "drinking."
Fears the thought of being burdened with the "soul" of anything.
Has no dread of wanting "life" in the future.
Despises the meaner forms of life altogether, though he dreads beinghaunted by their souls.
Logically all these things point one way! he has assurance of some kindthat he will acquire some higher life. He dreads the consequence--theburden of a soul. Then it is a human life he looks to!
And the assurance--?
Merciful God! the Count has been to him, and there is some new scheme ofterror afoot!
_Later._--I went after my round to Van Helsing and told him mysuspicion. He grew very grave; and, after thinking the matter over for awhile asked me to take him to Renfield. I did so. As we came to the doorwe heard the lunatic within singing gaily, as he used to do in the timewhich now seems so long ago. When we entered we saw with amazement thathe had spread out his sugar as of old; the flies, lethargic with theautumn, were beginning to buzz into the room. We tried to make him talkof the subject of our previous conversation, but he would not attend. Hewent on with his singing, just as though we had not been present. He hadgot a scrap of paper and was folding it into a note-book. We had to comeaway as ignorant as we went in.
His is a curious case indeed; we must watch him to-night.
_Letter, Mitchell, Sons and Candy to Lord Godalming_
"_1 October._
"My Lord,
"We are at all times only too happy to meet your wishes. We beg, withregard to the desire of your Lordship, expressed by Mr. Harker on yourbehalf, to supply the following information concerning the sale andpurchase of No. 347, Piccadilly. The original vendors are the executorsof the late Mr. Archibald Winter-Suffield. The purchaser is a foreignnobleman, Count de Ville, who effected the purchase himself paying thepurchase money in notes 'over the counter,' if your Lordship will pardonus using so vulgar an expression. Beyond this we know nothing whateverof him.
"We are, my Lord, "Your Lordship's humble servants, "/Mitchell, Sons & Candy./"
_Dr. Seward's Diary._
_2 October._--I placed a man in the corridor last night, and told him tomake an accurate note of any sound he might hear from Renfield's room,and gave him instructions that if there should be anything strange hewas to call me. After dinner, when we had all gathered round the fire inthe study--Mrs. Harker having gone to bed--we discussed the attempts anddiscoveries of the day. Harker was the only one who had any result, andwe are in great hopes that his clue may be an important one.