Mina Murray's journal, 26th of July. I am anxious and it soothes me to express myself here. It is like whispering to oneself and listening at the same time. And there is also something about the shorthand symbols that makes it different from writing. I am unhappy about Lucy and about Jonathan. I had not heard from Jonathan for some time and was very concerned.
But yesterday, dear Mr Hawkins, who is always so kind, sent me a letter from him. I had written asking him if he had heard, and he said the enclosed had just been received. It is only a line, dated from Castle Dracula, and says that he is just starting for home. That is not like Jonathan. I do not understand it and it makes me uneasy.
Then too, Lucy, although she is so well, has lately taken to her old habit of walking in her sleep. Her mother has spoken to me about it, and we have decided that I am to lock the door of our room every night. Mrs Westenra has got an idea that sleepwalkers always go out on roofs of houses and along the edges of cliffs and then get suddenly wakened and fall over with a despairing cry that echoes all over the place.
Poor dear, she is naturally anxious about Lucy. And she tells me that her husband, Lucy's father, had the same habit. That he would get up in the night and dress himself and go out if he were not stopped. Lucy is to be married in the autumn, and she is already planning out her dresses and how her house is to be arranged. I sympathise with her, for I do the same. Only Jonathan and I will start life in a very simple way.
and she'll have to try to make both ends meet. Mr Holmwood, he is the Honourable Arthur Holmwood, only son of Lord Godalming, is coming up here very shortly, as soon as he can leave town, for his father is not very well and... I think dear Lucy is counting the moments till he comes. She wants to take him up to the seat on the churchyard cliff and show him the beauty of Whitby. I dare say it is the waiting which disturbs her. She will be alright when he arrives.