The Count’s mysterious warning frightened me at the time.  It frightens me more not when I think of it, for in the future he has a fearful hold upon me.  I shall fear to doubt what he may say!

When I had written in my diary and had fortunately replaced the book and pen in my pocket I felt sleepy.  The Count’s warning came into my mind, but I took pleasure in disobeying it.  The sense of sleep was upon me, and with it the obstinacy which sleep brings as outrider.  The soft moonlight soothed, and the wide expanse without gave a sense of freedom which refreshed me.  I determined not to return tonight to the gloom-haunted rooms, but to sleep here, where, of old, ladies had sat and sung and lived sweet lives whilst their gentle breasts were sad for their menfolk away in the midst of remorseless wars.  I drew a great couch out of its place near the corner, so that as I lay, I could look at the lovely view to east and south, and unthinking of and uncaring for the dust, composed myself for sleep.  I suppose I must have fallen asleep.  I hope so, but I fear, for all that followed was startlingly real, so real that now sitting here in the broad, full sunlight of the morning, I cannot in the least believe that it was all sleep.

I was not alone.  The room was the same, unchanged in any way since I came into it.  I could see along the floor, in the brilliant moonlight, my own footsteps marked where I had disturbed the long accumulation of dust.  In the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by their dress and manner.  I thought at the time that I must be dreaming when I saw them, they threw no shadow on the floor.  They came close to me, and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together.  Two were dark, and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes, that seemed to be almost red when contrasted with the pale yellow moon.  The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires.  I seemed somehow to know her face, and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment how or where.  All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips.  There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear.  I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips.  It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina’s eyes and cause her pain, but it is the truth.  They whispered together, and then they all three laughed, such a silvery, musical laugh, but as hard as though the sound never could have come through the softness of human lips.  It was like the intolerable, tingling sweetness of waterglasses when played on by a cunning hand.  The fair girl shook her head coquettishly, and the other two urged her on.

One said, “Go on!  You are first, and we shall follow.  Yours is the right to begin.”