"Brian Stoker - Dracula" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

With a courteous bow, he opened for me himself the door
to the octagonal room, and I entered my bedroom.

I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt. I fear.
I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul.
God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me!


7 May.--It is again early morning, but I have rested and enjoyed
the last twenty-four hours. I slept till late in the day,
and awoke of my own accord. When I had dressed myself I
went into the room where we had supped, and found a cold
breakfast laid out, with coffee kept hot by the pot being
placed on the hearth. There was a card on the table,
on which was written--"I have to be absent for a while.
Do not wait for me. D." I set to and enjoyed a hearty meal.
When I had done, I looked for a bell, so that I might let
the servants know I had finished, but I could not find one.
There are certainly odd deficiencies in the house, considering
the extraordinary evidences of wealth which are round me.
The table service is of gold, and so beautifully wrought
that it must be of immense value. The curtains and upholstery
of the chairs and sofas and the hangings of my bed are
of the costliest and most beautiful fabrics, and must have
been of fabulous value when they were made, for they are
centuries old, though in excellent order. I saw something
like them in Hampton Court, but they were worn and frayed and
moth-eaten. But still in none of the rooms is there a mirror.
There is not even a toilet glass on my table, and I had to get
the little shaving glass from my bag before I could either shave
or brush my hair. I have not yet seen a servant anywhere,
or heard a sound near the castle except the howling of wolves.
Some time after I had finished my meal, I do not know whether
to call it breakfast of dinner, for it was between five and six
o'clock when I had it, I looked about for something to read,
for I did not like to go about the castle until I had asked
the Count's permission. There was absolutely nothing in
the room, book, newspaper, or even writing materials, so I
opened another door in the room and found a sort of library.
The door opposite mine I tried, but found locked.

In the library I found, to my great delight, a vast number of English books,
whole shelves full of them, and bound volumes of magazines and newspapers.
A table in the center was littered with English magazines and newspapers,
though none of them were of very recent date. The books were of the most
varied kind, history, geography, politics, political economy, botany, geology,
law, all relating to England and English life and customs and manners.
There were even such books of reference as the London Directory, the "Red"
and "Blue" books, Whitaker's Almanac, the Army and Navy Lists, and it somehow
gladdened my heart to see it, the Law List.