, Night.--I write this and leave it to be seen,
so that no one may by any chance get into trouble through
me. This is an exact record of what took place tonight. I
feel I am dying of weakness, and have barely strength to
write, but it must be done if I die in the doing.

I went to bed as usual, taking care that the flowers were
placed as Dr. Van Helsing directed, and soon fell asleep.

I was waked by the flapping at the window, which had begun after
that sleep-walking on the cliff at Whitby when Mina saved me, and
which now I know so well. I was not afraid, but I did wish that
Dr. Seward was in the next room, as Dr. Van Helsing said he would
be, so that I might have called him. I tried to sleep, but I
could not. Then there came to me the old fear of sleep, and I
determined to keep awake. Perversely sleep would try to come then
when I did not want it. So, as I feared to be alone, I opened my
door and called out, "Is there anybody there?" There was no
answer. I was afraid to wake mother, and so closed my door
again. Then outside in the shrubbery I heard a sort of howl like
a dog's, but more fierce and deeper. I went to the window and
looked out, but could see nothing, except a big bat, which had
evidently been buffeting its wings against the window. So I went
back to bed again, but determined not to go to sleep. Presently
the door opened, and mother looked in. Seeing by my moving that
I was not asleep, she came in and sat by me. She said to me even
more sweetly and softly than her wont,

"I was uneasy about you, darling, and came in to see that
you were all right."

I feared she might catch cold sitting there, and asked her
to come in and sleep with me, so she came into bed, and lay
down beside me. She did not take off her dressing gown,
for she said she would only stay a while and then go back
to her own bed. As she lay there in my arms, and I in hers
the flapping and buffeting came to the window again. She
was startled and a little frightened, and cried out, "What
is that?"

I tried to pacify her, and at last succeeded, and she lay
quiet. But I could hear her poor dear heart still beating
terribly. After a while there was the howl again out in
the shrubbery, and shortly after there was a crash at the
window, and a lot of broken glass was hurled on the floor.
The window blind blew back with the wind that rushed in,
and in the aperture of the broken panes there was the head
of a great, gaunt