Dracula: The Professor's Visit

Mina read Jonathan’s Transylvanian journal from beginning to end, and she wondered whether all of it could be true or only a fever dream.Soon afterward she received a letter from Dr. Van Helsing, who had been Lucy’s doctor and wanted to meet her.He hoped that Lucy’s letters to Mina might explain something about her strange illness.

When he arrived, Mina showed him her own diary from Whitby, which described Lucy’s sleepwalking and the night on the cliff.The professor read it with great care, and then took her hands and thanked her warmly.Encouraged by his kindness, Mina gave him Jonathan’s journal too and asked him to tell her honestly whether her husband was mad.

The next morning Van Helsing sent her a note: “Your husband’s story is true — every word of it.”When Jonathan heard this, it was as if a heavy weight had been lifted from him.He had not been afraid of the Count so much as afraid that he had lost his mind, and now he felt strong again.

He told the professor that he had seen the Count in London, looking young, and Van Helsing’s face turned grave.Back at Seward’s hospital, Van Helsing threw a newspaper onto the table and pointed to the story of the Hampstead children.“The wounds on their throats are just like the ones on poor Lucy’s,” he said. “What do you think made them?”

Seward guessed that some animal was to blame, but the professor only shook his head.He spoke of things that science could not yet explain, and asked Seward to open his mind.Then he said the words Seward could hardly believe: “Those holes were made by Miss Lucy herself!”