Dracula

gently to wake her. At first
she did not respond; but gradually she became more and more uneasy
in her sleep, moaning and sighing occasionally. At last, as time was
passing fast, and, for many other reasons, I wished to get her home at
once, I shook her more forcibly, till finally she opened her eyes
and awoke. She did not seem surprised to see me, as, of course, she
did not realise all at once where she was. Lucy always wakes prettily,
and even at such a time, when her body must have been chilled with
cold, and her mind somewhat appalled at waking unclad in a
churchyard at night, she did not lose her grace. She trembled a
little, and clung to me; when I told her to come at once with me
home she rose without a word, with the obedience of a child. As we
passed along, the gravel hurt my feet, and Lucy noticed me wince.
She stopped and wanted to insist upon my taking my shoes; but I
would not. However, when we got to the pathway outside the churchyard,
where there was a puddle of water remaining from the storm, I daubed
my feet with mud, using each foot in turn on the other, so that as
we went home no one, in case we should meet any one, should notice
my bare feet.
{CH08 ^paragraph 5}
Fortune favoured us, and we got home without meeting a soul. Once we
saw a man, who seemed not quite sober, passing along a street in front
of us; but we hid in a door till he had disappeared up an opening such
as there are here, steep little closes, or "wynds," as they call
them in Scotland. My heart beat so loud all the time that sometimes
I thought I should faint. I was filled with anxiety about Lucy, not
only for her health, lest she should suffer from the exposure, but for
her reputation in case the story should get wind. When we got in,
and had washed our feet, and had said a prayer of thankfulness
together, I tucked her into bed. Before falling asleep she asked- even
implored- me not to say a word to any one, even her mother, about
her sleep-walking adventure. I hesitated at first to promise; but on
thinking of the state of her mother's health, and how the knowledge of
such a thing would fret her, and thinking, too, of how such a story
might become distorted- may, infallibly would- in case it should
leak out, I thought it wiser to do so. I hope I did right. I have
locked the door, and the key is tied to my wrist, so perhaps I shall
not be again disturbed. Lucy is sleeping soundly; the reflex of the
dawn is high and far over the sea...
-
Same day, noon.- All goes well. Lucy slept till I woke her, and
seemed not to have even changed her side.