Harker and the Count: Chapter VI
Letter from Miss Mina Murray to Miss Lucy Westenra.
6 May 1893.
My dearest Lucy, —
Forgive my long delay in writing, but I have been simply overwhelmed with work. The life of an assistant matron and tutor is sometimes trying. I am longing to be with you, by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air. I have been working very hard lately, because I want to keep up with Jonathan’s career. He has been promised a position as junior partner, you see. When the firm becomes Hawkins and Harker, I suspect he will find himself overwhelmed with work. So I have been practising shorthand very assiduously. When we are married, I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan, and if I can stenograph well enough, I can take down what he wants to say in this way and write it out for him on the typewriter, at which also I am practising with all my heart.
He and I sometimes write letters in shorthand, and he is keeping a stenographic journal of his travels abroad. I like to think I inspired him with my own diary. I am certain you still choose to dash off two pages to the week, with Sunday squeezed in a corner. But when I am with you, I shall continue to keep mine regularly, writing whenever and whatever I feel inclined.
I know you prefer your writing to have a reader, and no, I do not suppose my ruminations on my days will ever be much of interest to other people; but the diary is not intended for…
