Seance for a Vampire

Merivale was also determined to interview the young woman yet again. I did my best to discourage him from the effort, without seeming to try to do so.

Despite my warnings to myself, I was already beginning to take a personal interest in Sarah. Ah, was ever woman in such humor wooed? Was ever woman in such humor won?

Richard the Third. Shakespeare. Remind me to tell you a story about him some day. I mean the poet, not the king. Though our careers did somewhat overlap (he died, I think, in 1485) I never met that monarch. I hear myself beginning to babble, but never mind. I told you at the start that certain aspects of this tale of seances tend to make me nervous–and we are getting closer to them.

Ah, that Edwardian summer! The delights of young love–no, of course I hardly qualified as young myself–but all the more delightful to my aging bones was the experience of youth, the gift of Sarah’s warm young skin, and later her blood, and our shared laughter. Yes, during the following nights and days, I did that much for Sarah Kirkaldy; taught her how to begin to laugh again, gave her strong armament with which to face the fear and murder of the world.

I think it was a vintage year in many ways.

In 1903, motorcars were becoming commonplace in britain–where there were already more than eight thousand such machines–and in much of the United States, where that very summer, the Ford Motor Company was being organized and the Wright brothers were hard at work preparing for their first successful flight, eventually to take place on 17 December.

In Switzerland, twenty-four-year-old Albert Einstein, no doubt enjoying a feeling of security by reason of his newly attained degree in physics and his steady job at the Swiss patent office, was in the process of marrying a young lady he had met at the university in Zurich. And in all quarters of the globe, the ?ther was being frequently disturbed by experiments with wireless telegraphy, carried out by researchers of several nations.

While waiting in one of our rooms at the inn for Cousin Sherlock and Martin Armstrong to join us, so we could pay our nocturnal visit to the cemetery, Watson and I relaxed with separate newspapers. I had taken up a recent edition of The Times of London and pondered some of the articles. I think I even read a few of them aloud to Watson.

I reflected upon how much my understanding of the british had– as I thought–improved since my first visit to the islands some twelve years earlier (see The Dracula Tape) and yet how much I still found in their ways to marvel at.

The pages of today’s edition alone offered much food for contemplation:

EGYPTIAN HALL–England’s HOME OF MYSTERY.

Established 30 years. Manager Mr. J.N. Maskelyne...

I read no further under that heading, being already confronted with quite enough mystery.

CAUTION–A.S. LLOYD’S EUXESIS–

for shaving without soap, water, or brush...

PERRY & CO.—ELECTRIC LIGHT FITTINGS...

Money Spent on Education is the best of Investments...

LATEST INTELLIGENCE–

THE SOMALILAND OPERATIONS.

Prisoners and deserters state that a british force is at Galadi and that Mullah has moved from bur to Gumburro with his footmen...

With regard to the above item, the modern reader may note that the more things change, et cetera...

At Bangor petty sessions yesterday Mr. Horace Plunkett was summoned for furiously driving a motorcar along Holyhead Road. Evidence was given by two solicitors that the motorcar passed them at great speed and nearly upset their vehicle. They estimated its speed at 50 mph. A fine of ?5, with costs, was imposed.

The legal speed limit in britain, I remembered, had recently been increased to 20 miles per hour.

THE AMERICA CUP TRIALS...

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES: SIR–I fear the 60 hours rain which we enjoyed on June 13, 14, 15 has utterly destroyed the prospects of partridge shooting for this year, at least in the southern Midlands...

BUER’S PILES CURE–gives instant relief...

CRYSTAL PALACE–MASSED BANDS–GREAT CONCERT...

WEATHER–Generally fair to fine and warm, for the next three days...

TWENTY-FIVE POUNDS REWARD FOR EVIDENCE which will lead to the Conviction of Driver or Owner of MOTORCAR which, between 4 and 5 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, ran into and knocked down two polo ponies...

A BEAUTIFUL HOME, 45 minutes from London amidst delightful scenery on the Kent and Surrey borders, to be SOLD, comprising a choice family mansion and heavily timbered park and woodlands of 300 to 700 acres as desired...

I had always found the prospect tempting, of being able to enjoy such an estate in rural England. Alas, my previous attempt along that line, some twelve years earlier (again, see The Dracula Tape), had taught me that such dreams were only folly for Prince Dracula–or Mr. Prince.

COAL–LOWEST SUMMER PRICES...

EXEMPTION of DOGS from VIVISECTION

Petitions to Parliament for the above are now being issued post-free...

EMPLOYMENT-OF-CHILDREN BILL...

NERVOUS BREAKDOWNS, Neuritis, Neuralgia, Sciatica, Lumbago, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Rheumatism, Gout and Malaria speedily cured by the highly recommended Ultra Violet Electric Light Lamp and combined Double Light baths and Currents of High Frequency and Ozone... LIGHT CURE INSTITUTE. HOME TREATMENT if required, Distance no Object...

At WORSHIP-STREET, the two men charged with attempting to defraud Frederick Wensley of ?2,225 by means of a trick–the sale of brass filings as gold dust–were brought up on remand...

SERIOUS ILLNESS OF THE POPE–A sudden change in the condition of Leo XIII caused great anxiety...

THE UNITED STATES (from our own correspondent)– The President celebrated the Fourth of July by announcing at Huntington, “There is not a cloud of a handbreadth in the sky. We are on good terms with all the peoples of the world.”

THE ASSASSINATION OF A RUSSIAN GOVERNOR...

Why Don’t You Try BISHOP’S VARALETTES for 25 days for 5s?

They work wonders in all uric acid troubles...

A MEDICINE OF IMPERIAL REPUTE

WOODWARD’S

“GRIPE WATER”...

SEQUEL TO THE TSAR’S RECENT MANIFESTO–The optimistic hopes of many of the Russian Liberals that the Tsar’s recent manifesto heralded a large extension of local autonomy will hardly be upheld by the publication of the reprint of the conference held at Tsarskoe Selo on May 16... “One seems to encounter the Muscovites everywhere these days,” I remarked.

Watson, lapsing into the comfortable manner of one London clubman communicating with another, grunted from the opposite chair some comradely agreement. Since I had played so important a role in the rescue of Cousin Sherlock, he evidently was content at least to tolerate me. For the time being. Currently his boots were off and his stocking feet elevated on an ottoman, his upper half invisible behind his newspaper. I suspected that he was half asleep.

Need I say that my feelings toward that most unimaginative man were–and still are–mixed? but I had responded to his summons as quickly as I could, and with a sense of urgency, confident that the invocation had not been made frivolously.

I read on.

CRICKET

GENTLEMEN vs PLAYERS

The second day’s play in the Gentlemen vs Players match at Lord’s yesterday presented in every way, except the weather, a great contrast to the first...

CHURCH OF ENGLAND HOMES FOR WAIFS AND STRAYS...