She stopped short,?a word of choking feelings, rising in her heart, kept her silent Cassy had always kept over Legree the kind of influence that a strong, impassioned woman can ever keep over the most brutal man; but, of late, she had grown more and more irritable and restless, under the hideous yoke of her servitude, and her irritability, at times, broke out into raving insanity; and this liability made her a sort of object of dread to Legree, who had that superstitious horror of insane persons which is common to coarse and uninstructed mindsWhen Legree brought Emmeline to the house, all the smouldering embers of womanly feeling flashed up in the worn heart of Cassy, and she took part with the girl; and a fierce quarrel ensued between her and LegreeLegree, in a fury, swore she should be put to field service, if she would not be peaceableCassy, with proud scorn, declared she would go to the fieldAnd she worked there one day, as we have described, to show how perfectly she scorned the threat Legree was secretly uneasy, all day; for Cassy had an influence over him from which he could not free himselfWhen she presented her basket at the scales, he had hoped for some concession, and addressed her in a sort of half conciliatory, half scornful tone; and she had answered with the bitterest contempt The outrageous treatment of poor Tom had roused her still more; and she had followed Legree to the house, with no particular intention, but to upbraid him for his brutality ?I wish, Cassy,? said Legree, ?you?d behave yourself decently ?You talk about behaving decently! And what have you been doing??you, who haven?t even sense enough to keep from spoiling one of your best hands, right in the most pressing season, just for your devilish temper!? ?I was a fool, it?s a fact, to let any such brangle come up,? said Legree; ?but, when the boy set up his will, he had to be broke in ?I reckon you won?t break him in!? ?Won?t I?? said Legree, rising, passionately?I?d like to know if I won?t? He?ll be the first nigger that ever came it round me! I?ll break every bone in his body, but he shall give up!? Just then the door opened, and Sambo enteredHe came forward, bowing, and holding out something in a paper ?What?s that, you dog?? said Legree ?It?s a witch thing, Mas?r!? ?A what?? ?Something that niggers gets from witchesKeeps ?em from feelin? when they ?s floggedHe had it tied round his neck, with a black string Legree, like most godless and cruel men, was superstitiousHe took the paper, and opened it uneasily There dropped out of it a silver dollar, and a long, shining curl of fair hair,?hair which, like a living thing, twined itself round Legree?s fingers ?Damnation!? he screamed, in sudden passion, stamping on the floor, and pulling furiously at the hair, as if it burned him?Where did this come from? Take it off!?burn it up!?burn it up!? he screamed, tearing it off, and throwing it into the charcoal?What did you bring it to me for?? Sambo stood, with his heavy mouth wide open, and aghast with wonder; and Cassy, who was preparing to leave the apartment, stopped, and looked at him in perfect amazement ?Don?t you bring me any more of your devilish things!? said he, shaking his fist at Sambo, who retreated hastily towards the door; and, picking up the silver dollar, he sent it smashing through the window-pane, out into the darkness Sambo was glad to make his escapeWhen he was gone, Legree seemed a little ashamed of his fit of alarmHe sat doggedly down in his chair, and began sullenly sipping his tumbler of punch Cassy prepared herself for going out, unobserved by him; and slipped away to minister to poor Tom, as we have already related And what was the matter with Legree? and what was there in a simple curl of fair hair to appall that brutal man, familiar with every form of cruelty? To answer this, we must carry the reader backward in his historyHard and reprobate as the godless man seemed now, there had been a time when he had been rocked on the bosom of a mother,?cradled with prayers and pious hymns,?his now seared brow bedewed with the waters of holy baptismIn early childhood, a fair-haired woman had led him, at the sound of Sabbath bell, to worship and to prayFar in New England that mother had trained her only son, with long, unwearied love, and patient prayersBorn of a hard-tempered sire, on whom that gentle woman had wasted a world of unvalued love, Legree had followed in the steps of his fatherBoisterous, unruly, and tyrannical, he despised all her counsel, and would none of her reproof; and, at an early age, broke from her, to seek his fortunes at seaHe never came home but once, after; and then, his mother, with the yearning of a heart that must love something, and has nothing else to love, clung to him, and sought, with passionate prayers and entreaties, to win him from a life of sin, to his soul?s eternal good That was Legree?s day of grace; then good angels called him; then he was almost persuaded, and mercy held him by the handHis heart inly relented,?there was a conflict,?but sin got the victory, and he set all the force of his rough nature against the conviction of his conscienceHe drank and swore,?was wilder and more brutal than everAnd, one night, when his mother, in the last agony of her despair, knelt at his feet, he spurned her from him,?threw her senseless on the floor, and, with brutal curses, fled to his shop ship

But by this time the Professor had gained his feet, and was holding towards him the envelope which contained the Sacred WaferThe Count suddenly stopped, just as poor Lucy had done outside the tomb, and cowered backFurther and further back he cowered, as we, lifting our crucifixes, advancedThe moonlight suddenly failed, as a great black cloud sailed across the skyAnd when the gaslight sprang up under Quincey's match, we saw nothing but a faint vapourThis, as we looked, trailed under the door, which with the recoil from its bursting open, had swung back to its old positionVan Helsing, Art, and I moved forward to MrsHarker, who by this time had drawn her breath and with it had given a scream so wild, so ear-piercing, so despairing that it seems to me now that it will ring in my ears till my dying dayFor a few seconds she lay in her helpless attitude and disarrayHer face was ghastly, with a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chinFrom her throat trickled a thin stream of bloodHer eyes were mad with terrorThen she put before her face her poor crushed hands, which bore on their whiteness the red mark of the Count's terrible grip, and from behind them came a low desolate wail which made the terrible scream seem only the quick expression of an endless griefVan Helsing stepped forward and drew the coverlet gently over her body, whilst Art, after looking at her face for an instant despairingly, ran out of the room Van Helsing whispered to me, "Jonathan is in a stupor such as we know the Vampire can produceWe can do nothing with poor Madam Mina for a few moments till she recovers herselfI must wake him!" He dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began to flick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face between her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart breaking to hearI raised the blind, and looked out of the windowThere was much moonshine, and as I looked I could see Quincey Morris run across the lawn and hide himself in the shadow of a great yew treeIt puzzled me to think why he was doing thisBut at the instant I heard Harker's quick exclamation as he woke to partial consciousness, and turned to the bedOn his face, as there might well be, was a look of wild amazementHe seemed dazed for a few seconds, and then full consciousness seemed to burst upon him all at once, and he started up His wife was aroused by the quick movement, and turned to him with her arms stretched out, as though to embrace himInstantly, however, she drew them in again, and putting her elbows together, held her hands before her face, and shuddered till the bed beneath her shook "In God's name what does this mean?" Harker cried outVan Helsing, what is it? What has happened? What is wrong? Mina, dear what is it? What does that blood mean? My God, my God! Has it come to this!" And, raising himself to his knees, he beat his hands wildly together"Good God help us! Help her! Oh, help her!" With a quick movement he jumped from bed, and began to pull on his clothes, all the man in him awake at the need for instant exertion"What has happened? Tell me all about it!" he cried without pausingVan Helsing, you love Mina, I knowOh, do something to save herIt cannot have gone too far yetGuard her while I look for him!" His wife, through her terror and horror and distress, saw some sure danger to himInstantly forgetting her own grief, she seized hold of him and cried out "No! No! Jonathan, you must not leave meI have suffered enough tonight, God knows, without the dread of his harming youYou must stay with meStay with these friends who will watch over you!" Her expression became frantic as she spokeAnd, he yielding to her, she pulled him down sitting on the bedside, and clung to him fiercely Van Helsing and I tried to calm them shop both

But by this time the Professor had gained his feet, and was holding towards him the envelope which contained the Sacred WaferThe Count suddenly stopped, just as poor Lucy had done outside the tomb, and cowered backFurther and further back he cowered, as we, lifting our crucifixes, advancedThe moonlight suddenly failed, as a great black cloud sailed across the skyAnd when the gaslight sprang up under Quincey's match, we saw nothing but a faint vapourThis, as we looked, trailed under the door, which with the recoil from its bursting open, had swung back to its old positionVan Helsing, Art, and I moved forward to MrsHarker, who by this time had drawn her breath and with it had given a scream so wild, so ear-piercing, so despairing that it seems to me now that it will ring in my ears till my dying dayFor a few seconds she lay in her helpless attitude and disarrayHer face was ghastly, with a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chinFrom her throat trickled a thin stream of bloodHer eyes were mad with terrorThen she put before her face her poor crushed hands, which bore on their whiteness the red mark of the Count's terrible grip, and from behind them came a low desolate wail which made the terrible scream seem only the quick expression of an endless griefVan Helsing stepped forward and drew the coverlet gently over her body, whilst Art, after looking at her face for an instant despairingly, ran out of the room Van Helsing whispered to me, "Jonathan is in a stupor such as we know the Vampire can produceWe can do nothing with poor Madam Mina for a few moments till she recovers herselfI must wake him!" He dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began to flick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face between her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart breaking to hearI raised the blind, and looked out of the windowThere was much moonshine, and as I looked I could see Quincey Morris run across the lawn and hide himself in the shadow of a great yew treeIt puzzled me to think why he was doing thisBut at the instant I heard Harker's quick exclamation as he woke to partial consciousness, and turned to the bedOn his face, as there might well be, was a look of wild amazementHe seemed dazed for a few seconds, and then full consciousness seemed to burst upon him all at once, and he started up His wife was aroused by the quick movement, and turned to him with her arms stretched out, as though to embrace himInstantly, however, she drew them in again, and putting her elbows together, held her hands before her face, and shuddered till the bed beneath her shook "In God's name what does this mean?" Harker cried outVan Helsing, what is it? What has happened? What is wrong? Mina, dear what is it? What does that blood mean? My God, my God! Has it come to this!" And, raising himself to his knees, he beat his hands wildly together"Good God help us! Help her! Oh, help her!" With a quick movement he jumped from bed, and began to pull on his clothes, all the man in him awake at the need for instant exertion"What has happened? Tell me all about it!" he cried without pausingVan Helsing, you love Mina, I knowOh, do something to save herIt cannot have gone too far yetGuard her while I look for him!" His wife, through her terror and horror and distress, saw some sure danger to himInstantly forgetting her own grief, she seized hold of him and cried out "No! No! Jonathan, you must not leave meI have suffered enough tonight, God knows, without the dread of his harming youYou must stay with meStay with these friends who will watch over you!" Her expression became frantic as she spokeAnd, he yielding to her, she pulled him down sitting on the bedside, and clung to him fiercely Van Helsing and I tried to calm them shop both

And, he yielding to her, she pulled him down sitting on the bedside, and clung to him fiercely Van Helsing and I tried to calm them bothThe Professor held up his golden crucifix, and said with wonderful calmness, "Do not fear, my dearWe are here, and whilst this is close to you no foul thing can approachYou are safe for tonight, and we must be calm and take counsel together She shuddered and was silent, holding down her head on her husband's breastWhen she raised it, his white nightrobe was stained with blood where her lips had touched, and where the thin open wound in the neck had sent forth dropsThe instant she saw it she drew back, with a low wail, and whispered, amidst choking sobs "Unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no moreOh, that it should be that it is I who am now his worst enemy, and whom he may have most cause to fear To this he spoke out resolutely, "Nonsense, MinaIt is a shame to me to hear such a wordI would not hear it of youAnd I shall not hear it from youMay God judge me by my deserts, and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!" He put out his arms and folded her to his breastAnd for a while she lay there sobbingHe looked at us over her bowed head, with eyes that blinked damply above his quivering nostrilsHis mouth was set as steel After a while her sobs became less frequent and more faint, and then he said to me, speaking with a studied calmness which I felt tried his nervous power to the utmostSeward, tell me all about itToo well I know the broad factTell me all that has been I told him exactly what had happened and he listened with seeming impassiveness, but his nostrils twitched and his eyes blazed as I told how the ruthless hands of the Count had held his wife in that terrible and horrid position, with her mouth to the open wound in his breastIt interested me, even at that moment, to see that whilst the face of white set passion worked convulsively over the bowed head, the hands tenderly and lovingly stroked the ruffled hairJust as I had finished, Quincey and Godalming knocked at the doorThey entered in obedience to our summonsVan Helsing looked at me questioninglyI understood him to mean if we were to take advantage of their coming to divert if possible the thoughts of the unhappy husband and wife from each other and from themselvesSo on nodding acquiescence to him he asked them what they had seen or doneTo which Lord Godalming answered "I could not see him anywhere in the passage, or in any of our roomsI looked in the study but, though he had been there, he had goneHe had, however?" He stopped suddenly, looking at the poor drooping figure on the bed Van Helsing said gravely, "Go on, friend ArthurWe want here no more concealmentsOur hope now is in knowing allTell freely!" So Art went on, "He had been there, and though it could only have been for a few seconds, he made rare hay of the placeAll the manuscript had been burned, and the blue flames were flickering amongst the white ashesThe cylinders of your phonograph too were thrown on the fire, and the wax had helped the flames Here I shop interrupted

There may be things which would frighten her to hear, and yet to conceal them from her might be worse than to tell her if once she suspected that there was any concealmentHenceforth our work is to be a sealed book to her, till at least such time as we can tell her that all is finished, and the earth free from a monster of the nether worldI daresay it will be difficult to begin to keep silence after such confidence as ours, but I must be resolute, and tomorrow I shall keep dark over tonight's doings, and shall refuse to speak of anything that has happenedI rest on the sofa, so as not to disturb her 1 October, later-I suppose it was natural that we should have all overslept ourselves, for the day was a busy one, and the night had no rest at allEven Mina must have felt its exhaustion, for though I slept till the sun was high, I was awake before her, and had to call two or three times before she awokeIndeed, she was so sound asleep that for a few seconds she did not recognize me, but looked at me with a sort of blank terror, as one looks who has been waked out of a bad dreamShe complained a little of being tired, and I let her rest till later in the dayWe now know of twenty-one boxes having been removed, and if it be that several were taken in any of these removals we may be able to trace them allSuch will, of course, immensely simplify our labor, and the sooner the matter is attended to the betterI shall look up Thomas Snelling todaySEWARD'S DIARY 1 October-It was towards noon when I was awakened by the Professor walking into my roomHe was more jolly and cheerful than usual, and it is quite evident that last night's work has helped to take some of the brooding weight off his mind After going over the adventure of the night he suddenly said, "Your patient interests me muchMay it be that with you I visit him this morning? Or if that you are too occupy, I can go alone if it may beIt is a new experience to me to find a lunatic who talk philosophy, and reason so sound I had some work to do which pressed, so I told him that if he would go alone I would be glad, as then I should not have to keep him waiting, so I called an attendant and gave him the necessary instructionsBefore the Professor left the room I cautioned him against getting any false impression from my patient "But," he answered, "I want him to talk of himself and of his delusion as to consuming live thingsHe said to Madam Mina, as I see in your diary of yesterday, that he had once had such a beliefWhy do you smile, friend John?" "Excuse me," I said, "but the answer is here I laid my hand on the typewritten matter"When our sane and learned lunatic made that very statement of how he used to consume life, his mouth was actually nauseous with the flies and spiders which he had eaten just before MrsHarker entered the room Van Helsing smiled in turn"Your memory is true, friend JohnI should have rememberedAnd yet it is this very obliquity of thought and memory which makes mental disease such a fascinating studyPerhaps I may gain more knowledge out of the folly of this madman than I shall from the teaching of the most wiseWho knows?" I went on with my work, and before long was through that in handIt seemed that the time had been very short indeed, but there was Van Helsing back in the study "Do I interrupt?" he asked politely as he stood at the door "Not at all," I answeredMy work is finished, and I am freeI can go with you now, if you like "It is needless, I have seen him!" "Well?" "I fear that he does not appraise me at muchOur interview was shortWhen I entered his room he was sitting on a stool in the centre, with his elbows on his knees, and his face was the picture of sullen shop discontent