Letter
from Miss Mina Harker
to Miss Lucy WestenraLETTER, MINA HARKER TO
LUCY WESTENRA (Unopened by her) 18 September "My dearest Lucy, "Such
a sad blow has befallen us. Mr. Hawkins has died very suddenly. Some may not think
it so sad for us, but we had both come to so love him that it really seems as
though we had lost a father. I never knew either father or mother, so that the
dear old man's death is a real blow to me. Jonathan is greatly distressed. It
is not only that he feels sorrow, deep sorrow, for the dear, good man who has
befriended him all his life, and now at the end has treated him like his own son
and left him a fortune which to people of our modest bringing up is wealth beyond
the dream of avarice, but Jonathan feels it on another account. He says the amount
of responsibility which it puts upon him makes him nervous. He begins to doubt
himself. I try to cheer him up, and my belief in him helps him to have a belief
in himself. But it is here that the grave shock that he experienced tells upon
him the most. Oh, it is too hard that a sweet, simple, noble, strong nature such
as his, a nature which enabled him by our dear, good friend's aid to rise from
clerk to master in a few years, should be so injured that the very essence of
its strength is gone. Forgive me, dear, if I worry you with my troubles in the
midst of your own happiness, but Lucy dear, I must tell someone, for the strain
of keeping up a brave and cheerful appearance to Jonathan tries me, and I have
no one here that I can confide in. I dread coming up to London, as we must do
that day after tomorrow, for poor Mr. Hawkins left in his will that he was to
be buried in the grave with his father. As there are no relations at all, Jonathan
will have to be chief mourner. I shall try to run over to see you, dearest, if
only for a few minutes. Forgive me for troubling you. With all blessings, "Your
loving "Mina Harker" |
