Summary
Seward's diary records that Mina sends Van Helsing a telegram saying that she is coming to London with important news. Van Helsing has to leave immediately for Amsterdam, but he arranges for her to stay with Seward at the asylum. Van Helsing gives Seward Harker's Transylvanian diary and Mina's diary at Whitby to study.

Seward collects Mina from the railway station. At Seward's home, Mina asks him how Lucy died. Seward thinks it is too terrible a story to tell her, but Mina says that when he has read her diary and Harker's, he will know her better. Seward gives her the phonograph cylinders on which he keeps his spoken diary, and she listens to them. Mina is much moved by his account of what happened to Lucy, and transcribes the diary on her typewriter so that others may read it. Seward is unwilling to show it to anyone, but Mina explains that in order to rid the earth of Count Dracula, they must use all the knowledge available and have no secrets between them.

Harker arrives at Seward's, having been at Whitby doing research.

As Seward reads Harker's journal, he realizes with horror that the Count is now his next-door neighbor. He realizes too that Renfield's strange behavior is linked to the Count's presence, and that the Count is his "master."

Seward visits Renfield, who has calmed down and wants to discharge himself and go home.

At Whitby, Harker has found out from Mr Billington, the Count's lawyer, that fifty boxes of earth have been delivered to Carfax. Based on Seward's diary, however, Harker fears that the delivery men that Renfield attacked may have removed some of the boxes from Carfax.

Mina records in her diary that Harker seems stronger and more resolute than ever since his trip to Whitby. The Harkers are joined at Seward's by Holmwood and Morris. Holmwood breaks down in grief over Lucy's death, and is comforted by Mina. He makes Mina promise that if she should ever need his help, she must let him know. Mina subsequently asks Morris to be sure to come to her for comfort if he should ever need it.

Analysis
Though in many ways, Mina is a traditional Victorian lady, in other ways, she transcends the stereotype. Here, it is the scientifically trained Seward who wishes to keep his diary account of Lucy's death secret, and Mina who insists that it be shared among their band of friends so that they can use the information to defeat the Count. Both Seward and Mina are deeply affected by Lucy's death, but only Seward is tempted to allow his emotion to obstruct the scientific investigation. Mina is able to feel intense emotion - she emerges from hearing the diary entries having been crying - but also to put it to one side and take rational action. It is, perhaps, this quality that will later prompt Van Helsing to pay her the compliment that she has a man's brain.

On the other hand, Mina perfectly fulfils the traditional maternal role when faced with Holmwood's grief: "We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the mother-spirit is invoked." Mina embodies the best of male and female qualities.

This chapter marks the cementing of the friendship between the people who will join together to fight the Count: the Harkers, Seward, Holmwood and Morris. Only Van Helsing, the leader, is temporarily absent. Both Holmwood (speaking to Mina) and Mina (speaking to Morris), make promises of loyalty to each other that foreshadow a time when the friends will need to draw upon each other's help in their great task.

Given what we have learned about the limitations of the rational, scientific viewpoint in fighting the powers of darkness, we are compelled to view as symbolic the fact that the friends launch their campaign against the Count from a lunatic asylum. Elsewhere in the asylum, the mad Renfield is aware of the Count's movements, while the group of 'sane' and rational friends are in the dark and must be led every step of the way by the wise Van Helsing. The situation illustrates the Western psyche, divided into the rational conscious mind (the group of friends) and the irrational unconscious mind (Renfield and the Count). Both the mad and the sane are handicapped by their one-sided awareness; only Van Helsing bridges the two worlds.