I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina. All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Some of them were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets and round hats and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion.

I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress—white undergarment with long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. Being practically on the frontier—for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina—it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress—white undergarment with long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country. He went, but immediately returned with a letter. He went, but immediately returned with a letter. When I came close she bowed and said, “The Herr Englishman?” “Yes,” I said, “Jonathan Harker.” She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirt-sleeves, who had followed her to the door.