The horses seem to know that they are being kindly treated, for they go willingly their full stage at best speedWe have now had so many changes and find the same thing so constantly that we are encouraged to think that the journey will be an easy oneVan Helsing is laconic, he tells the farmers that he is hurrying to Bistritz, and pays them well to make the exchange of horsesWe get hot soup, or coffee, or tea, and off we goIt is a lovely countryFull of beauties of all imaginable kinds, and the people are brave, and strong, and simple, and seem full of nice qualitiesThey are very, very superstitiousIn the first house where we stopped, when the woman who served us saw the scar on my forehead, she crossed herself and put out two fingers towards me, to keep off the evil eyeI believe they went to the trouble of putting an extra amount of garlic into our food, and I can't abide garlicEver since then I have taken care not to take off my hat or veil, and so have escaped their suspicionsWe are travelling fast, and as we have no driver with us to carry tales, we go ahead of scandalBut I daresay that fear of the evil eye will follow hard behind us all the wayThe Professor seems tirelessAll day he would not take any rest, though he made me sleep for a long spellAt sunset time he hypnotized me, and he says I answered as usual, "darkness, lapping water and creaking wood So our enemy is still on the riverI am afraid to think of Jonathan, but somehow I have now no fear for him, or for myselfI write this whilst we wait in a farmhouse for the horses to be readyVan Helsing is sleepingPoor dear, he looks very tired and old and grey, but his mouth is set as firmly as a conqueror'sEven in his sleep he is intense with resolutionWhen we have well started I must make him rest whilst I driveI shall tell him that we have days before us, and he must not break down when most of all his strength will be needed? All is ready 2 November, morning-I was successful, and we took turns driving all nightNow the day is on us, bright though coldThere is a strange heaviness in the airI say heaviness for want of a better wordI mean that it oppresses us bothIt is very cold, and only our warm furs keep us comfortableAt dawn Van Helsing hypnotized meHe says I answered "darkness, creaking wood and roaring water," so the river is changing as they ascendI do hope that my darling will not run any chance of danger, more than need be, but we are in God's hands 2 November, night-All day long drivingThe country gets wilder as we go, and the great spurs of the Carpathians, which at Veresti seemed so far from us and so low on the horizon, now seem to gather round us and tower in frontWe both seem in good spiritsI think we make an effort each to cheer the other, in the doing so we cheer ourselvesVan Helsing says that by morning we shall reach the Borgo PassThe houses are very few here now, and the Professor says that the last horse we got will have to go on with us, as we may not be able to shop change

As the charter, however, requires the concurrence of two-thirds of the Fellows present, your Committee suggest, that after the choice has been determined by the plurality of votes by ballot in the above manner, the successful candidates should be again submitted to a general vote, in accordance with the enactments of the said charter In concluding this part of the subject, your Committee beg leave to remark, that by the method now proposed, the invidious act of blackballing would cease, and with it all feelings of resentment and mortification; as the result of such an open competition could only be construed by the public into a fair preference of the superior claims of the successful few, and not into a direct and disgraceful rejection of the others Your Committee are fully aware, that such a reduction in the usual admissions would materially affect the pecuniary resources of the Society; but they are at the same time convinced, that by a vigorous economy its present income might be rendered adequate to all its real wants, and the aggregate expenditure might be considerably diminished by many small but wholesome retrenchments It appears, from the accounts of last year, that although 1200L was received for compositions, in addition to the standing income, and usual contributions,

"Why do you want money now?" asked Fang angrily "It'll be several days before we reach Shanghai Ah Lix explained in a hoarse voice that MrSun and the others playing mahjong had been too noisy and had been caught by the French who had 22 23 raised cainHe had lost his job and in a little while would have to pack his bedding2~ and get off the boat Fang secretly rejoiced at this piece of good fortune, then sent Ah Lix off with a tip During breakfast those disembarking were in low spiritsSun's eyes were red and swollen and the corners seemed saturated with tears; the y were like the dew on flower petals on a summer morning, and the slightest touch of the finger would cause them to dropMiss Pao noticed there was a new waiter on duty and asked where Ah Lix had gone, but no one answered her Fang asked Miss Pao, "You have a lot of luggageWould you like me to help you off the ship?" In a distant tone of voice she answered, "Thank you There's no need for you to botherLi is coming aboard to meet me Miss Six said, "You can introduce Mr Fang wished he could have crushed every bone in Miss Six's thin body to lime powderMiss Pao ignored Miss Six and, after drinking a glass of milk, rose hurriedly, saying she still hadn't finished packing Heedless of everyone's jesting remarks, Fang put down his glass and followed herMiss Pao didn't even glance around, and when he called her name, she said impatiently, "I'm busyI don't have time to talk with you He did not quite know how to show his angerJust at that moment Ah Lix appeared like a ghost and asked Miss Pao for a tipMiss Pao's eyes ex ploded with sparks as she said, "I tipped you yesterday for waiting on the tableWhat other tip do you want? You don't take care of my cabin Ah Lix silently reached his hand into his pocket and after a long time pulled out a hairpinIt was one of those Miss Pao had flung away the other dayWhile sweeping the floor he had found only one of the three At first Fang wanted to scold Ah Lix, but seeing how seriously Ah Lix had pulled out this magical object, he couldn't help laughing "You think it's funny?" Miss Pao snapped"If you think it's so funny, you give him some moneyI don't have a cent!" And with that she turned and strode off Afraid that a disgruntled Ah Lix might run his mouth off to DrLi, Fang gave Ah Liu some more money, charging it up to his bad luckFang then went on deck by himself and watched disconsolately as the ship drew up to the Kowloon wharfOther disembarking passengers, both Chinese and non- Chinese, also came upHe hid himself in a corner, not wishing to see Miss PaoOn the wharf, policemen, porters, and hotel agents who had come to greet passengers were clamoring noisily; a group of people were waving handkerchiefs at the ship or gesticulatingLi was among them and wanted a closer look at himFinally, the gangplank was lowered, and after the immigration procedures were completed, friends of departing passengers swarmed aboardMiss Pao rushed into the arms of a balding, dark, 24 pudgy man in big glassesSo this was the fiance he was supposed to resemble! He looked like that? Well, of all the insults! Now he understood shop everything

?How in the world can the two things be compared?? said Miss Ophelia?The English laborer is not sold, traded, parted from his family, whipped ?He is as much at the will of his employer as if he were sold to himThe slave-owner can whip his refractory slave to death,?the capitalist can starve him to deathAs to family security, it is hard to say which is the worst,?to have one?s children sold, or see them starve to death at home ?But it?s no kind of apology for slavery, to prove that it isn?t worse than some other bad thing ?I didn?t give it for one,?nay, I?ll say, besides, that ours is the more bold and palpable infringement of human rights; actually buying a man up, like a horse,?looking at his teeth, cracking his joints, and trying his paces and then paying down for him,?having speculators, breeders, traders, and brokers in human bodies and souls,?sets the thing before the eyes of the civilized world in a more tangible form, though the thing done be, after all, in its nature, the same; that is, appropriating one set of human beings to the use and improvement of another without any regard to their own ?I never thought of the matter in this light,? said Miss Ophelia ?Well, I?ve travelled in England some, and I?ve looked over a good many documents as to the state of their lower classes; and I really think there is no denying Alfred, when he says that his slaves are better off than a large class of the population of EnglandYou see, you must not infer, from what I have told you, that Alfred is what is called a hard master; for he isn?tHe is despotic, and unmerciful to insubordination; he would shoot a fellow down with as little remorse as he would shoot a buck, if he opposed himBut, in general, he takes a sort of pride in having his slaves comfortably fed and accommodated ?When I was with him, I insisted that he should do something for their instruction; and, to please me, he did get a chaplain, and used to have them catechized Sunday, though, I believe, in his heart, that he thought it would do about as much good to set a chaplain over his dogs and horsesAnd the fact is, that a mind stupefied and animalized by every bad influence from the hour of birth, spending the whole of every week-day in unreflecting toil, cannot be done much with by a few hours on SundayThe teachers of Sunday-schools among the manufacturing population of England, and among plantation-hands in our country, could perhaps testify to the same result, there and hereYet some striking exceptions there are among us, from the fact that the negro is naturally more impressible to religious sentiment than the white ?Well,? said Miss Ophelia, ?how came you to give up your plantation life?? ?Well, we jogged on together some time, till Alfred saw plainly that I was no planterHe thought it absurd, after he had reformed, and altered, and improved everywhere, to suit my notions, that I still remained unsatisfiedThe fact was, it was, after all, the THING that I hated?the using these men and women, the perpetuation of all this ignorance, brutality and vice,?just to make money for me! ?Besides, I was always interfering in the detailsBeing myself one of the laziest of mortals, I had altogether too much fellow-feeling for the lazy; and when poor, shiftless dogs put stones at the bottom of their cotton-baskets to make them weigh heavier, or filled their sacks with dirt, with cotton at the top, it seemed so exactly like what I should do if I were they, I couldn?t and wouldn?t have them flogged for itWell, of course, there was an end of plantation discipline; and Alf and I came to about the same point that I and my respected father did, years beforeSo he told me that I was a womanish sentimentalist, and would never do for business life; and advised me to take the bank-stock and the New Orleans family mansion, and go to writing poetry, and let him manage the plantationSo we parted, and I came here ?But why didn?t you free your slaves?? ?Well, I wasn?t up to thatTo hold them as tools for money-making, I could not;?have them to help spend money, you know, didn?t look quite so ugly to meSome of them were old house-servants, to whom I was much attached; and the younger ones were children to the oldAll were well satisfied to be as they were He paused, and walked reflectively up and down the room ?There was,? said StClare, ?a time in my life when I had plans and hopes of doing something in this world, more than to float and driftI had vague, indistinct yearnings to be a sort of emancipator,?to free my native land from this spot and stainAll young men have had such fever-fits, I suppose, some time,?but then?? ?Why didn?t you?? said Miss Ophelia;??you ought not to put your hand to the plough, and look back ?O, well, things didn?t go with me as I expected, and I got the despair of living that Solomon didI suppose it was a necessary incident to wisdom in us both; but, some how or other, instead of being actor and regenerator in society, I became a piece of driftwood, and have been floating and eddying about, ever sinceAlfred scolds me, every time we meet; and he has the better of me, I grant,?for he really does something; his life is a logical result of his opinions and mine is a contemptible non sequitur ?My dear cousin, can you be satisfied with such a way of spending your probation?? ?Satisfied! Was I not just telling you I despised it? But, then, to come back to this point,?we were on this liberation businessI don?t think my feelings about slavery are peculiarI find many men who, in their hearts, think of it just as I doThe land groans under it; and, bad as it is for the slave, it is worse, if anything, for the masterIt takes no spectacles to see that a great class of vicious, improvident, degraded people, among us, are an evil to us, as well as to shop themselves

As he spoke he took from his bag a screwdriver and a wrench, and very soon the top of one of the cases was thrown openThe earth smelled musty and close, but we did not somehow seem to mind, for our attention was concentrated on the ProfessorTaking from his box a piece of the Sacred Wafer he laid it reverently on the earth, and then shutting down the lid began to screw it home, we aiding him as he worked One by one we treated in the same way each of the great boxes, and left them as we had found them to all appearanceBut in each was a portion of the HostWhen we closed the door behind us, the Professor said solemnly, "So much is already doneIt may be that with all the others we can be so successful, then the sunset of this evening may shine of Madam Mina's forehead all white as ivory and with no stain!" As we passed across the lawn on our way to the station to catch our train we could see the front of the asylumI looked eagerly, and in the window of my own room saw MinaI waved my hand to her, and nodded to tell that our work there was successfully accomplishedShe nodded in reply to show that she understoodThe last I saw, she was waving her hand in farewellIt was with a heavy heart that we sought the station and just caught the train, which was steaming in as we reached the platformI have written this in the train Piccadilly, 12:30 o'clock-Just before we reached Fenchurch Street Lord Godalming said to me, "Quincey and I will find a locksmithYou had better not come with us in case there should be any difficultyFor under the circumstances it wouldn't seem so bad for us to break into an empty houseBut you are a solicitor and the Incorporated Law Society might tell you that you should have known better I demurred as to my not sharing any danger even of odium, but he went on, "Besides, it will attract less attention if there are not too many of usMy title will make it all right with the locksmith, and with any policeman that may come alongYou had better go with Jack and the Professor and stay in the Green ParkSomewhere in sight of the house, and when you see the door opened and the smith has gone away, do you all come acrossWe shall be on the lookout for you, and shall let you in "The advice is good!" said Van Helsing, so we said no moreGodalming and Morris hurried off in a cab, we following in anotherAt the corner of Arlington Street our contingent got out and strolled into the Green ParkMy heart beat as I saw the house on which so much of our hope was centred, looming up grim and silent in its deserted condition amongst its more lively and spruce-looking neighboursWe sat down on a bench within good view, and began to smoke cigars so as to attract as little attention as possibleThe minutes seemed to pass with leaden feet as we waited for the coming of the others At length we saw a four-wheeler drive upOut of it, in leisurely fashion, got Lord Godalming and MorrisAnd down from the box descended a thick-set working man with his rush-woven basket of toolsMorris paid the cabman, who touched his hat and drove awayTogether the two ascended the steps, and Lord Godalming pointed out what he wanted doneThe workman took off his coat leisurely and hung it on one of the spikes of the rail, saying something to a policeman who just then sauntered alongThe policeman nodded acquiescence, and the man kneeling down placed his bag beside himAfter searching through it, he took out a selection of tools which he proceeded to lay beside him in orderly fashionThen he stood up, looked in the keyhole, blew into it, and turning to his employers, made some remarkLord Godalming smiled, and the man lifted a good sized bunch of keysSelecting one of them, he began to probe the lock, as if feeling his way with shop it