him what I think, if you can guess it, if you will. Nay, I am
not jesting. This is no jest, but life and death, perhaps more.' I
asked what he meant by that, for he was very serious. This was when
we had come back to town, and he was having a cup of tea before
starting on his return to Amsterdam. He would not give me any
further clue. You must not be angry with me, Art, because his very
reticence means that all his brains are working for her good. He
will speak plainly enough when the time comes, be sure. So I told
him I would simply write an account of our visit, just as if I were
doing a descriptive special article for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH. He
seemed not to notice, but remarked that the smuts of London were not
quite so bad as they used to be when he was a student here. I am to
get his report tomorrow if he can possibly make it. In any case I
am to have a letter.

"Well, as to the visit, Lucy was more cheerful than on the day I
first saw her, and certainly looked better. She had lost something
of the ghastly look that so upset you, and her breathing was normal.
She was very sweet to the Professor (as she always is), and tried to
make him feel at ease, though I could see the poor girl was making a
hard struggle for it.

"I believe Van Helsing saw it, too, for I saw the quick look
under his bushy brows that I knew of old. Then he began to
chat of all things except ourselves and diseases and with
such an infinite geniality that I could see poor Lucy's
pretense of animation merge into reality. Then, without
any seeming change, he brought the conversation gently round
to his visit, and suavely said,

"'My dear young miss, I have the so great pleasure because you are
so much beloved. That is much, my dear, even were there that which
I do not see. They told me you were down in the spirit, and that
you were of a ghastly pale. To them I say "Pouf!"' And he snapped
his fingers at me and went on. 'But you and I shall show them how
wrong they are. How can he,' and he pointed at me with the same
look and gesture as that with which he pointed me out in his class,
on, or rather after, a particular occasion which he never fails to
remind me of, 'know anything of a young ladies? He has his madmen
to play with, and to bring them back to happiness, and to those that
love them. It is much to do, and, oh, but there are rewards in that
we can bestow such happiness. But the young ladies! He has no wife
nor daug