He went, but immediately returned with a letter: "My friend, welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the coach will leave for Bukovina; a place on it is reserved for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will wait for you and will bring you to me. I hope that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land. Your friend, Dracula."

4 May: I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count. It directed him to book the best place on the coach for me. But when I asked the landlord for details about this he didn't want to talk about it, and pretended that he could not understand my German. This could not be true, because up to then he had understood it perfectly; or at least, he had answered my questions exactly as if he did.

He and his wife, the old lady who had first met me, looked at each other in a frightened sort of way. He mumbled that the money for my coach trip had been sent in a letter, and that was all he knew. When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula, or if he could tell me anything about his castle, both he and his wife crossed themselves. They said that they knew nothing at all, and simply refused to speak any more. It was so near the time of departure that I had no time to ask anyone else. It was all very mysterious and not at all comforting.

Just before I was leaving, the old lady came up to my room and said in a hysterical way: "Must you go? Oh! Young Herr, must you go?"

Vocabulary:

Carpathians: The mountains of the area
Landlord: The owner of a place (here, of the Inn)
Direct: Instruct
Mumble: To say something not very clearly
Cross To make the sign of a cross on the forehead and chest
Hysterical: Wildly excited and upset