The White Devil

Dracula -5

LETTER FROM MISS MINA MURRAY TO MISS LUCY
WESTENRA
9 May.
My dearest Lucy,
Forgive my long delay in writing, but I have been simply
overwhelmed with work. The life of an assistant schoolmis-
tress is sometimes trying. I am longing to be with you, and
by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our
castles in the air. I have been working very hard lately, be-
cause I want to keep up with Jonathan’s studies, and I have
been practicing shorthand very assiduously. When we are
married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan, and if I can
stenograph well enough I can take down what he wants to
say in this way and write it out for him on the typewriter, at
which also I am practicing very hard.
He and I sometimes write letters in shorthand, and he is
keeping a stenographic journal of his travels abroad. When
I am with you I shall keep a diary in the same way. I don’t
mean one of those two-pages-to-the-week-with-Sunday-
squeezed-in-a-corner diaries, but a sort of journal which I
can write in whenever I feel inclined.
I do not suppose there will be much of interest to oth-
er people, but it is not intended for them. I may show it to
Jonathan some day if there is in it anything worth sharing,

but it is really an exercise book. I shall try to do what I see
lady journalists do, interviewing and writing descriptions
and trying to remember conversations. I am told that, with
a little practice, one can remember all that goes on or that
one hears said during a day.
However, we shall see. I will tell you of my little plans
when we meet. I have just had a few hurried lines from Jona-
than from Transylvania. He is well, and will be returning in
about a week. I am longing to hear all his news. It must be
nice to see strange countries. I wonder if we, I mean Jona-
than and I, shall ever see them together. There is the ten
o’clock bell ringing. Goodbye.
Your loving
Mina
Tell me all the news when you write. You have not told
me anything for a long time. I hear rumours, and especially
of a tall, handsome, curly-haired man???
LETTER, LUCY WESTENRA TO MINA MURRAY
17, Chatham Street
Wednesday
My dearest Mina,
I must say you tax me very unfairly with being a bad cor-
respondent. I wrote you twice since we parted, and your last
letter was only your second. Besides, I have nothing to tell
you. There is really nothing to interest you.
Town is very pleasant just now, and we go a great deal
to picture-galleries and for walks and rides in the park. As
to the tall, curly-haired man, I suppose it was the one who
was with me at the last Pop. Someone has evidently been

telling tales.
That was Mr. Holmwood. He often comes to see us, and
he and Mamma get on very well together, they have so many
things to talk about in common.
We met some time ago a man that would just do for you,
if you were not already engaged to Jonathan. He is an excel-
lent parti, being handsome, well off, and of good birth. He
is a doctor and really clever. Just fancy! He is only nine-and
twenty, and he has an immense lunatic asylum all under
his own care. Mr. Holmwood introduced him to me, and
he called here to see us, and often comes now. I think he is
one of the most resolute men I ever saw, and yet the most
calm. He seems absolutely imperturbable. I can fancy what
a wonderful power he must have over his patients. He has a
curious habit of looking one straight in the face, as if trying
to read one’s thoughts. He tries this on very much with me,
but I flatter myself he has got a tough nut to crack. I know
that from my glass.
Do you ever try to read your own face? I do, and I can tell
you it is not a bad study, and gives you more trouble than
you can well fancy if you have never tried it.
He says that I afford him a curious psychological study,
and I humbly think I do. I do not, as you know, take suffi-
cient interest in dress to be able to describe the new fashions.
Dress is a bore. That is slang again, but never mind. Arthur
says that every day.
There, it is all out, Mina, we have told all our secrets to
each other since we were children. We have slept togeth-
er and eaten together, and laughed and cried together, and