gray wolf.

Mother cried out in a fright, and struggled up into a
sitting posture, and clutched wildly at anything that would
help her. Amongst other things, she clutched the wreath of
flowers that Dr. Van Helsing insisted on my wearing round
my neck, and tore it away from me. For a second or two she
sat up, pointing at the wolf, and there was a strange and
horrible gurgling in her throat. Then she fell over, as if
struck with lightning, and her head hit my forehead and
made me dizzy for a moment or two.

The room and all round seemed to spin round. I kept my eyes
fixed on the window, but the wolf drew his head back, and a whole
myriad of little specks seems to come blowing in through the
broken window, and wheeling and circling round like the pillar of
dust that travellers describe when there is a simoon in the
desert. I tried to stir, but there was some spell upon me, and
dear Mother's poor body, which seemed to grow cold already, for
her dear heart had ceased to beat, weighed me down, and I
remembered no more for a while.

The time did not seem long, but very, very awful, till I
recovered consciousness again. Somewhere near, a passing
bell was tolling. The dogs all round the neighbourhood were
howling, and in our shrubbery, seemingly just outside, a
nightingale was singing. I was dazed and stupid with pain
and terror and weakness, but the sound of the nightingale
seemed like the voice of my dead mother come back to comfort me.
The sounds seemed to have awakened the maids, too, for I could
hear their bare feet pattering outside my door. I called to
them, and they came in, and when they saw what had happened, and
what it was that lay over me on the bed, they screamed out. The
wind rushed in through the broken window, and the door slammed
to. They lifted off the body of my dear mother, and laid her,
covered up with a sheet, on the bed after I had got up. They
were all so frightened and nervous that I directed them to go to
the dining room and each have a glass of wine. The door flew
open for an instant and closed again. The maids shrieked, and
then went in a body to the dining room, and I laid what flowers I
had on my dear mother's breast. When they were there I
remembered what Dr. Van Helsing had told me, but I didn't like to
remove them, and besides, I would have some of the servants to
sit up with me now. I was surprised that the maids did not come
back. I called them, but got no answer, so I