 have anything to help to pass the
time. Harker is out, following up clues; and so are Lord Godalming and Quincey.
Van Helsing sits in my study poring over the record prepared by the Harkers; he
seems to think that by accurate knowledge of all details he will light upon some
clue. He does not wish to be disturbed in the work, without cause. I would have
taken him with me to see the patient, only I thought that after his last repulse
he might not care to go again. There was also another reason: Renfield might not
speak so freely before a third person as when he and I were alone.
    I found him sitting out in the middle of the floor on his stool, a pose
which is generally indicative of some mental energy on his part. When I came in,
he said at once, as though the question had been waiting on his lips: -
    »What about souls?« It was evident then that my surmise had been correct.
Unconscious cerebration was doing its work, even with the lunatic. I determined
to have the matter out. »What about them yourself?« I asked. He did not reply
for a moment but looked all round him, and up and down, as though he expected to
find some inspiration for an answer.
    »I don't want any souls!« he said in a feeble, apologetic way. The matter
seemed preying on his mind, and so I determined to use it - to »be cruel only to
be kind.« So I said: -
    »You like life, and you want life?«
    »Oh yes! but that is all right; you needn't worry about that!«
    »But,« I asked, »how are we to get the life without getting the soul also?«
This seemed to puzzle him, so I followed it up: -
    »A nice time you'll have some time when you're flying out there, with the
souls of thousands of flies and spiders and birds and cats buzzing and
twittering and miauing all round you. You've got their lives, you know, and you
must put up with their souls!« Something seemed to affect his imagination, for
he put his fingers to his ears and shut his eyes, screwing them up tightly just
as a small boy does when his face is being soaped. There was something pathetic
in it that touched me; it also gave me a lesson, for it seemed that before me
was a child - only a child, though the features were worn
