Text IV
When we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of lhe joyousness of early summer.
Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbruck (the maitred'hotel of the QuatreSaisons, where I was staying) came down bareheaded to the carriage and, after wishing me a pleasant drive, said to the coachman, still holding his hand on the handle of the carriage door, "Remember you are back by nightfall. The sky looks bright but there is a shiver in the north wind that says there may be a sudden storm. But I am sure you will not be late." Here he smiled and added, "for you know what night it is."
Johann answered with an emphatic, "Ja, mein Herr," and, touching his hat, drove off quickly. When we had cleared the town, I said, after signalling to him to stop: "Tell me, Johann, what is tonight?" He crossed himself, as he answered laconically: "Walpurgis nacht."
(...) "Well, Johann, I want to go down this road. I shall not ask you to come unless you like; but tell me why you do not like to go", 1 asked. For answer, he seemed to throw himself off the box, so quickly did he reach the ground. Then he stretched out his hands appealingly to me, and implored me not to go. There was just enough of English mixed with the German for me to understand the drift of his talk. He seemed always just about to tell me something the very idea of which evidently frightened him; but, each time, he pulled himself up, saying, as he crossed himself: "Walpurgis nacht!"
Excerpt from "Dracula's Guest", a short story by Bram Stoker
(1847-1912) first published in the collection "Dracula's Guest and
Other Weird Stories': two years after lhe author's death. lt is
believed to have been intended as the first chapter for Stoker's
1897 novel "Dracula", but was deleted prior to publication by the
original publishers who felt it was superfluous to the story.
