"The count himself came forward and took off the cover of a dish, and I fell to at once on an excellent roast chicken. This, with some cheese and a salad and a bottle of old tokay, of which I had two glasses, was my supper. During the time I was eating it the Count asked me many questions as to my journey, and I told him by degrees all I had experienced."
And so Count Dracula and Mr. Harker become acquainted with one another, although the knowing reader will observe that the advantage is all with the count. He is a courteous host, as Harker reports in the journal he has been keeping since he left England, in order that he be better able to tell his intended, Mina, everything that has happened to him while he is away from her. The opening of the journal is filled with homey little notes that he must get this or that recipe for Mina, descriptions of what people, especially women, wear, and impressions of the scenery.
It is very precise, and well-researched, and it is Stoker's way of lulling us into suspending our disbelief, something which is going to be taking a major shock quite shortly after this pleasant supper in which the count, having dined, does not join. Indeed, he will not take even a glass of tokay, for he does not drink. Or as they put it in the movies, but not the book, "I do not drink—wine."
Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897.
