As he finished, she suddenly threw her arms around his neck, burst into tears, and sobbed convulsively ?Eva, dear child! what is the matter?? said StClare, as the child?s small frame trembled and shook with the violence of her feelings?This child,? he added, ?ought not to hear any of this kind of thing,?she?s nervous ?No, papa, I?m not nervous,? said Eva, controlling herself, suddenly, with a strength of resolution singular in such a child?I?m not nervous, but these things sink into my heart ?What do you mean, Eva?? ?I can?t tell you, papa, I think a great many thoughtsPerhaps some day I shall tell you ?Well, think away, dear,?only don?t cry and worry your papa,? said StClare, ?Look here,?see what a beautiful peach I have got for you Eva took it and smiled, though there was still a nervous twiching about the corners of her mouth ?Come, look at the gold-fish,? said StClare, taking her hand and stepping on to the verandahA few moments, and merry laughs were heard through the silken curtains, as Eva and StClare were pelting each other with roses, and chasing each other among the alleys of the court There is danger that our humble friend Tom be neglected amid the adventures of the higher born; but, if our readers will accompany us up to a little loft over the stable, they may, perhaps, learn a little of his affairsIt was a decent room, containing a bed, a chair, and a small, rough stand, where lay Tom?s Bible and hymn-book; and where he sits, at present, with his slate before him, intent on something that seems to cost him a great deal of anxious thought The fact was, that Tom?s home-yearnings had become so strong that he had begged a sheet of writing-paper of Eva, and, mustering up all his small stock of literary attainment acquired by Mas?r George?s instructions, he conceived the bold idea of writing a letter; and he was busy now, on his slate, getting out his first draftTom was in a good deal of trouble, for the forms of some of the letters he had forgotten entirely; and of what he did remember, he did not know exactly which to useAnd while he was working, and breathing very hard, in his earnestness, Eva alighted, like a bird, on the round of his chair behind him, and peeped over his shoulder ?O, Uncle Tom! what funny things you are making, there!? ?I?m trying to write to my poor old woman, Miss Eva, and my little chil?en,? said Tom, drawing the back of his hand over his eyes; ?but, some how, I?m feard I shan?t make it out ?I wish I could help you, Tom! I?ve learnt to write some year I could make all the letters, but I?m afraid I?ve forgotten So Eva put her golden head close to his, and the two commenced a grave and anxious discussion, each one equally earnest, and about equally ignorant; and, with a deal of consulting and advising over every word, the composition began, as they both felt very sanguine, to look quite like writing ?Yes, Uncle Tom, it really begins to look beautiful,? said Eva, gazing delightedly on it?How pleased your wife?ll be, and the poor little children! O, it?s a shame you ever had to go away from them! I mean to ask papa to let you go back, some time ?Missis said that she would send down money for me, as soon as they could get it together,? said Tom?I?m ?spectin, she willYoung Mas?r George, he said he?d come for me; and he gave me this yer dollar as a sign;? and Tom drew from under his clothes the precious dollar ?O, he?ll certainly come, then!? said Eva?I?m so glad!? ?And I wanted to send a letter, you know, to let ?em know whar I was, and tell poor Chloe that I was well off,?cause she felt so drefful, poor soul!? ?I say Tom!? said StClare?s voice, coming in the door at this moment Tom and Eva both started ?What?s here?? said StClare, coming up and looking at the slate ?O, it?s Tom?s letterI?m helping him to write it,? said Eva; ?isn?t it nice?? ?I wouldn?t discourage either of you,? said StClare, ?but I rather think, Tom, you?d better get me to write your letter for youI?ll do it, when I come home from my ride ?It?s very important he should write,? said Eva, ?because his mistress is going to send down money to redeem him, you know, papa; he told me they told him shop so

"It is the man himself!" The poor dear was evidently terrified at something, very greatly terrifiedI do believe that if he had not had me to lean on and to support him he would have sunk downA man came out of the shop with a small parcel, and gave it to the lady, who then drove offThe dark man kept his eyes fixed on her, and when the carriage moved up Piccadilly he followed in the same direction, and hailed a hansomJonathan kept looking after him, and said, as if to himself, "I believe it is the Count, but he has grown youngMy God, if this be so! Oh, my God! My God! If only I knew! If only I knew!" He was distressing himself so much that I feared to keep his mind on the subject by asking him any questions, so I remained silentI drew away quietly, and he, holding my arm, came easilyWe walked a little further, and then went in and sat for a while in the Green ParkIt was a hot day for autumn, and there was a comfortable seat in a shady placeAfter a few minutes' staring at nothing, Jonathan's eyes closed, and he went quickly into a sleep, with his head on my shoulderI thought it was the best thing for him, so did not disturb himIn about twenty minutes he woke up, and said to me quite cheerfully, "Why, Mina, have I been asleep! Oh, do forgive me for being so rudeCome, and we'll have a cup of tea somewhere He had evidently forgotten all about the dark stranger, as in his illness he had forgotten all that this episode had reminded him ofI don't like this lapsing into forgetfulnessIt may make or continue some injury to the brainI must not ask him, for fear I shall do more harm than good, but I must somehow learn the facts of his journey abroadThe time is come, I fear, when I must open the parcel, and know what is writtenOh, Jonathan, you will, I know, forgive me if I do wrong, but it is for your own dear sake-A sad homecoming in every way, the house empty of the dear soul who was so good to usJonathan still pale and dizzy under a slight relapse of his malady, and now a telegram from Van Helsing, whoever he may be"You will be grieved to hear that MrsWestenra died five days ago, and that Lucy died the day before yesterdayThey were both buried today Oh, what a wealth of sorrow in a few words! Poor MrsWestenra! Poor Lucy! Gone, gone, never to return to us! And poor, poor Arthur, to have lost such a sweetness out of his life! God help us all to bear our troublesArthur has gone back to Ring, and has taken Quincey Morris with himWhat a fine fellow is Quincey! I believe in my heart of hearts that he suffered as much about Lucy's death as any of us, but he bore himself through it like a moral VikingIf America can go on breeding men like that, she will be a power in the world indeedVan Helsing is lying down, having a rest preparatory to his journeyHe goes to Amsterdam tonight, but says he returns tomorrow night, that he only wants to make some arrangements which can only be made personallyHe is to stop with me then, if he canHe says he has work to do in London which may take him some timePoor old fellow! I fear that the strain of the past week has broken down even his iron strengthAll the time of the burial he was, I could see, putting some terrible restraint on himselfWhen it was all over, we were standing beside Arthur, who, poor fellow, was speaking of his part in the operation where his blood had been transfused to his Lucy's veinsI could see Van Helsing's face grow white and purple by turnsArthur was saying that he felt since then as if they two had been really married, and that she was his wife in the sight of GodNone of us said a word of the other operations, and none of us ever shallArthur and Quincey went away together to the station, and Van Helsing and I came on shop here

OF THE SECRETARISHIPS Whether the present Secretaries are the best qualified to aid in reforming the Society, is a question I shall not discuss With regard to the senior Secretary, the time of his holding office is perhaps more unfortunate than the circumstance If I might be permitted to allude for a moment to his personal character, I should say that the mild excellencies of his heart have prevented the Royal Society from deriving the whole of that advantage from his varied knowledge and liberal sentiments which some might perhaps have anticipated; and many will agree with me in regretting that his judgment has not directed a larger portion of the past deeds of the Councils of the Royal Society Of the junior Secretary I shall only observe, that whilst I admit his industry, his perseverance, and his talents, I regret to see such valuable qualities exerted at a disadvantage, and that I sincerely wish them all the success they merit in situations more adapted for their developement There are, however, some general principles which it may be important to investigate, which relate to the future as well as to the past state of the office of Secretary of the Royal Society Inconvenience has already arisen from having had at a former period one of our Secretaries the conductor of a scientific journal; and this is one of the points in which I can agree with those who now manage the affairs of the Society [These observations were written previous to the late appointment, to which I now devote Section 6 Experience seems to be lost on the Council of the Royal Society Perhaps it might be advantageous to extend the same understanding to the other officers of the Society at least, if not to the members of its Council Another circumstance worthy of the attention of the Society is, to consider whether it is desirable, except in special cases, to have military persons appointed to any of its offices There are several peculiarities in the military character, which, though they do not absolutely unfit their possessors for the individual prosecution of science, may in some degree disqualify such persons from holding offices in scientific institutions The habits both of obedience and command, which are essential in military life, are little fitted for that perfect freedom which should reign in the councils of science If a military chief commit an oversight or an error, it is necessary, in order to retain the confidence of those he commands, to conceal or mask it as much as possible If an experimentalist make a mistake, his only course to win the confidence of his fellow-labourers in science, and to render his future observations of any use, is to acknowledge it in the most full and explicit manner The very qualifications which contribute to the professional excellence of the soldier, constitute his defects when he enters the paths of science; and it is only in those rare cases where the force of genius is able to control and surmount these habits, that his admission to the offices of science can be attended with any advantage to it Another objection deserving notice, although not applying exclusively to the military profession, is, that persons not imbued with the feelings of men of science, when they have published their observations, are too apt to view every criticism upon them as a personal question, and to consider that it is as offensive to doubt the accuracy of their observations as it is to doubt their word Nothing can be more injurious to science than that such an opinion should be tolerated The most unreserved criticism is necessary for truth; and those suspicions respecting his own accuracy, which every philosophical experimenter will entertain concerning his own researches, ought never to be considered as a reproach, when they are kept in view in examining the experiments of others The minute circumstances and apparently trivial causes which lend their influence towards error, even in persons of the most candid judgment, are amongst the most curious phenomena of the human mind The importance of affording every aid to enable others to try the merits of observations, has been so well expressed by Mayer, that I shall conclude these remarks with an extract from the Preface to his Observations: "Officii enim cujusque observatoris ease reor, de habitu instrumenti sui, de cura ac precautione, qua usus est, ad illud recte tractandum, deque mediis in errores ejus inquirendi rationem reddere publice, ut aliis quoque copia sit judicandi, quanta fides habenda conclusionibus ex nostris observationibus deductis aut deducendis Hoc cum minus fecissent precedentis saeculi astronomi, praxin nimis secure, nimisque theoretice tractantes, factum inde potissimum est, ut illorum observationes tot vigiliis tantoque labore comparatae tam cito obsoleverint There are certain duties which the Royal Society owes to its own character as well as to the public, which, having been on some occasions apparently neglected, it may be here the proper place to mention, since it is reasonable to suppose that attention to them is within the province of its Secretaries The first to which I shall allude is the singular circumstances attending the fact of the Royal Society having printed a volume of Astronomical Observations which were made at the Observatory of Paramatta (New South Wales), bearing the title of "The Third Part of the Philosophical Transactions for the Year 1829 Now this Observatory was founded at the private expense of a British officer; the instruments were paid for out of his purse; two observers were brought from Europe, to be employed in making use of those instruments, at salaries defrayed by him A considerable portion of the observations so printed were made by these astronomers during their employment in his service, and some of them are personally his own Yet has the Royal Society, in adopting them as part of its Transactions, omitted all mention, either in their title-page, preface, or in any part of the volume, of the FACT that the world owed these valuable observations to the enlightened munificence of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Brisbane; whose ardent zeal in the pursuit of science induced him to found, at his own private expense, an establishment which it has been creditable to the British Government to continue as a national institution Had any kindred feelings existed in the Council, instead of endeavouring to shift the responsibility, they would have hastened to rectify an omission, less unjust to the individual than it was injurious to English science Another topic, which concerns most vitally the character and integrity of the Royal Society, I hardly know how to approach It has been publicly stated that confidence cannot be placed in the written minutes of the Society; and an instance has been adduced, in which an entry has been asserted to have been made, which could not have been the true statement of what actually passed at the Council The facts on which the specific instance rests are not difficult to verify by members of the Royal Society I have examined them, and shall state them before I enter on the reasoning which may be founded upon them In the minutes of the Council, 26th November, 1829, we find-- "Resolved, that the following gentlemen be recommended to be put upon the Council for the ensuing year [Here follows a list of persons, amongst whom the name of Sir John Franklin occurs [Sir John Franklin was absent from London, and altogether unacquainted with this transaction, until he saw it stated in the newspapers some months after it had taken place That his name was the one substituted for that of Captain Beaufort I know, from other evidence which need not be produced here, as the omission of the latter name is the charge that has been made, and that of Captain Beaufort is not found [Any gentleman may satisfy himself that this is not a mistake of the Assistant Secretary's, in copying, by consulting the rough minutes of that meeting of the Council, which it might perhaps be as well to write in a rough minute-book, instead of upon loose sheets of paper; nor can it be attributed to any error arising from accidentally mislaying the real minutes, for in that case the error would have been rectified immediately it was detected; and this has remained uncorrected, although publicly spoken of for months As there is no erasure in the list, one is reluctantly compelled to conjecture that the real minutes of that meeting have been destroyed] Now this could not be the list actually recommended by the Council on the morning of the 26th of November, because the President himself, on the evening of that day, informed Capt Beaufort that he was placed on the house list; and that officer, with the characteristic openness of his profession, wrote on the next or the following day to the President, declining that situation, and stating his reasons for the shop step

These circumstances are in themselves of trifling importance, but they illustrate the character of the proceedings: and it is not becoming the dignity of science or of the Society that its officers should be so circumstanced as to have an apparent and direct interest in supporting the existing President, in order to retain their own places; and if such a system is once discovered, doubt immediately arises as to the frequency of such arrangements OF THE SECRETARISHIPS Whether the present Secretaries are the best qualified to aid in reforming the Society, is a question I shall not discuss With regard to the senior Secretary, the time of his holding office is perhaps more unfortunate than the circumstance If I might be permitted to allude for a moment to his personal character, I should say that the mild excellencies of his heart have prevented the Royal Society from deriving the whole of that advantage from his varied knowledge and liberal sentiments which some might perhaps have anticipated; and many will agree with me in regretting that his judgment has not directed a larger portion of the past deeds of the Councils of the Royal Society Of the junior Secretary I shall only observe, that whilst I admit his industry, his perseverance, and his talents, I regret to see such valuable qualities exerted at a disadvantage, and that I sincerely wish them all the success they merit in situations more adapted for their developement There are, however, some general principles which it may be important to investigate, which relate to the future as well as to the past state of the office of Secretary of the Royal Society Inconvenience has already arisen from having had at a former period one of our Secretaries the conductor of a scientific journal; and this is one of the points in which I can agree with those who now manage the affairs of the Society [These observations were written previous to the late appointment, to which I now devote Section 6 Experience seems to be lost on the Council of the Royal Society Perhaps it might be advantageous to extend the same understanding to the other officers of the Society at least, if not to the members of its Council Another circumstance worthy of the attention of the Society is, to consider whether it is desirable, except in special cases, to have military persons appointed to any of its offices There are several peculiarities in the military character, which, though they do not absolutely unfit their possessors for the individual prosecution of science, may in some degree disqualify such persons from holding offices in scientific institutions The habits both of obedience and command, which are essential in military life, are little fitted for that perfect freedom which should reign in the councils of science If a military chief commit an oversight or an error, it is necessary, in order to retain the confidence of those he commands, to conceal or mask it as much as possible If an experimentalist make a mistake, his only course to win the confidence of his fellow-labourers in science, and to render his future observations of any use, is to acknowledge it in the most full and explicit manner The very qualifications which contribute to the professional excellence of the soldier, constitute his defects when he enters the paths of science; and it is only in those rare cases where the force of genius is able to control and surmount these habits, that his admission to the offices of science can be attended with any advantage to it Another objection deserving notice, although not applying exclusively to the military profession, is, that persons not imbued with the feelings of men of science, when they have published their observations, are too apt to view every criticism upon them as a personal question, and to consider that it is as offensive to doubt the accuracy of their observations as it is to doubt their word Nothing can be more injurious to science than that such an opinion should be tolerated The most unreserved criticism is necessary for truth; and those suspicions respecting his own accuracy, which every philosophical experimenter will entertain concerning his own researches, ought never to be considered as a reproach, when they are kept in view in examining the experiments of others The minute circumstances and apparently trivial causes which lend their influence towards error, even in persons of the most candid judgment, are amongst the most curious phenomena of the human mind The importance of affording every aid to enable others to try the merits of observations, has been so well expressed by Mayer, that I shall conclude these remarks with an extract from the Preface to his Observations: "Officii enim cujusque observatoris ease reor, de habitu instrumenti sui, de cura ac precautione, qua usus est, ad illud recte tractandum, deque mediis in errores ejus inquirendi rationem reddere publice, ut aliis quoque copia sit judicandi, quanta fides habenda conclusionibus ex nostris observationibus deductis aut deducendis Hoc cum minus fecissent precedentis saeculi astronomi, praxin nimis secure, nimisque theoretice tractantes, factum inde potissimum est, ut illorum observationes tot vigiliis tantoque labore comparatae tam cito obsoleverint There are certain duties which the Royal Society owes to its own character as well as to the public, which, having been on some occasions apparently neglected, it may be here the proper place to mention, since it is reasonable to suppose that attention to them is within the province of its Secretaries The first to which I shall allude is the singular circumstances attending the fact of the Royal Society having printed a volume of Astronomical Observations which were made at the Observatory of Paramatta (New South Wales), bearing the title of "The Third Part of the Philosophical Transactions for the Year 1829 Now this Observatory was founded at the private expense of a British officer; the instruments were paid for out of his purse; two observers were brought from Europe, to be employed in making use of those instruments, at salaries defrayed by him A considerable portion of the observations so printed were made by these astronomers during their employment in his service, and some of them are personally his own Yet has the Royal Society, in adopting them as part of its Transactions, omitted all mention, either in their title-page, preface, or in any part of the volume, of the FACT that the world owed these valuable observations to the enlightened munificence of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Brisbane; whose ardent zeal in the pursuit of science induced him to found, at his own private expense, an establishment which it has been creditable to the British Government to continue as a national institution Had any kindred feelings existed in the Council, instead of endeavouring to shift the responsibility, they would have hastened to rectify an omission, less unjust to the individual than it was injurious to English science Another topic, which concerns most vitally the character and integrity of the Royal Society, I hardly know how to approach It has been publicly stated that confidence cannot be placed in the written minutes of the Society; and an instance has been adduced, in which an entry has been asserted to have been made, which could not have been the true statement of what actually passed at the Council The facts on which the specific instance rests are not difficult to verify by members of the Royal Society I have examined them, and shall state them before I enter on the reasoning which may be founded upon them In the minutes of the Council, 26th November, 1829, we find-- "Resolved, that the following gentlemen be recommended to be put upon the Council for the ensuing year [Here follows a list of persons, amongst whom the name of Sir John Franklin occurs [Sir John Franklin was absent from London, and altogether unacquainted with this transaction, until he saw it stated in the newspapers some months after it had taken place That his name was the one substituted for that of Captain Beaufort I know, from other evidence which need not be produced here, as the omission of the latter name is the charge that has been made, and that of Captain Beaufort is not found [Any gentleman may satisfy himself that this is not a mistake of the Assistant Secretary's, in copying, by consulting the rough minutes of that meeting of the Council, which it might perhaps be as well to write in a rough minute-book, instead of upon loose sheets of paper; nor can it be attributed to any error arising from accidentally mislaying the real minutes, for in that case the error would have been rectified immediately it was detected; and this has remained uncorrected, although publicly spoken of for months As there is no erasure in the list, one is reluctantly compelled to conjecture that the real minutes of that meeting have been destroyed] Now this could not be the list actually recommended by the Council on the morning of the 26th of November, because the President himself, on the evening of that day, informed shop Capt

Then there came to me the old fear of sleep, and I determined to keep awakePerversely sleep would try to come then when I did not want itSo, as I feared to be alone, I opened my door and called out, "Is there anybody there?" There was no answerI was afraid to wake mother, and so closed my door againThen outside in the shrubbery I heard a sort of howl like a dog's, but more fierce and deeperI went to the window and looked out, but could see nothing, except a big bat, which had evidently been buffeting its wings against the windowSo I went back to bed again, but determined not to go to sleepPresently the door opened, and mother looked inSeeing by my moving that I was not asleep, she came in and sat by meShe said to me even more sweetly and softly than her wont, "I was uneasy about you, darling, and came in to see that you were all right I feared she might catch cold sitting there, and asked her to come in and sleep with me, so she came into bed, and lay down beside meShe did not take off her dressing gown, for she said she would only stay a while and then go back to her own bedAs she lay there in my arms, and I in hers the flapping and buffeting came to the window againShe was startled and a little frightened, and cried out, "What is that?" I tried to pacify her, and at last succeeded, and she lay quietBut I could hear her poor dear heart still beating terriblyAfter a while there was the howl again out in the shrubbery, and shortly after there was a crash at the window, and a lot of broken glass was hurled on the floorThe window blind blew back with the wind that rushed in, and in the aperture of the broken panes there was the head of a great, gaunt gray wolf Mother cried out in a fright, and struggled up into a sitting posture, and clutched wildly at anything that would help herAmongst other things, she clutched the wreath of flowers that DrVan Helsing insisted on my wearing round my neck, and tore it away from meFor a second or two she sat up, pointing at the wolf, and there was a strange and horrible gurgling in her throatThen she fell over, as if struck with lightning, and her head hit my forehead and made me dizzy for a moment or two The room and all round seemed to spin roundI kept my eyes fixed on the window, but the wolf drew his head back, and a whole myriad of little specks seems to come blowing in through the broken window, and wheeling and circling round like the pillar of dust that travellers describe when there is a simoon in the desertI tried to stir, but there was some spell upon me, and dear Mother's poor body, which seemed to grow cold already, for her dear heart had ceased to beat, weighed me down, and I remembered no more for a while The time did not seem long, but very, very awful, till I recovered consciousness againSomewhere near, a passing bell was tollingThe dogs all round the neighbourhood were howling, and in our shrubbery, seemingly just outside, a nightingale was singingI was dazed and stupid with pain and terror and weakness, but the sound of the nightingale seemed like the voice of my dead mother come back to comfort meThe sounds seemed to have awakened the maids, too, for I could hear their bare feet pattering outside my doorI called to them, and they came in, and when they saw what had happened, and what it was that lay over me on the bed, they screamed outThe wind rushed in through the broken window, and the door slammed toThey lifted off the body of my dear mother, and laid her, covered up with a sheet, on the bed after I had got upThey were all so frightened and nervous that I directed them to go to the dining room and each have a glass of wineThe door flew open for an instant and closed againThe maids shrieked, and then went in a body to the dining room, and I laid what flowers I had on my dear mother's breastWhen they were there I remembered what DrVan Helsing had told me, but I didn't like to remove them, and besides, I would have some of the servants to sit up with me nowI was surprised that the maids did not come backI called them, but got no answer, so I went to the dining room to look for shop them