Buda of Glynis and Andrew's reunion is the Hungarian setting for Glynis Wright’s return to her brother, Andrew Wright, after the Wright family’s catastrophe. Here, reunion is both an emotional refuge and a performance managed by Vlad Dracula: Glynis is brought into contact with the family she longs for, but her appearance, clothing, and speech remain subject to her husband’s control. The city’s cultivated houses and public splendor make that contradiction visible. Behind the elegance, the house is a place of surveillance, concealment, and unequal power.

Setting and the Dracula Residence

The city’s narrative presence is anchored by the Dracula residence, where Andrew arrives to see Glynis. From its parlor, he looks through French doors across a lush lawn that seems to descend toward the Danube. The house offers cool quiet, fine furnishings, and a marble hall whose craftsmanship Andrew admires; he remarks that its interior might suggest England or France, and observes that the furnishings appear to have been imported from France. This cultivated interior presents the Dracula household as wealthy and cosmopolitan, but Andrew’s first impressions cannot disclose what the residence conceals.

On his later approach, the house seems to resist ordinary life. Andrew arrives by carriage at midday, when the sun has reached its height, yet scarcely any sunlight appears to touch the imposing building. The air is still, the structure is silent, and not one bird sings in the tall trees. These details make the residence more than a luxurious address: to Andrew, its atmosphere produces a foreboding he cannot yet explain. The contrast between the welcoming parlor and the ominous exterior reflects the gap between Glynis’s carefully maintained appearance and the danger surrounding her.

A Return Governed by Concealment

Before the journey, Vlad sets the conditions under which Glynis may see Andrew. He tells her not to bring any dress or jewelry her brother could recognize, because Andrew has been told that her possessions were lost in the accident. Instead, she is to wear dresses her mother bought in Paris and jewels belonging to Erzsébet Dolingen. Vlad also promises a veil to cover Glynis’s changed appearance and insists that she wear it whenever she is with her brother. The proposed visit is therefore not a return to her former life, but an encounter staged to preserve Vlad’s account of what happened.

Soon after arriving in the city, Vlad sends for a dressmaker to make the veils. Glynis finds the heavy layers bothersome and resents the way organza and lace obstruct her view. As Andrew’s expected arrival approaches, the veil becomes a direct obstacle to the reunion she anticipates: she realizes she will not truly see him through its fabric, rips it from her face, and throws it onto the bed. Her frustration makes the veil’s double function plain. It conceals her from Andrew while also making her feel the limits Vlad has placed on her.

The pressure extends beyond clothing. Vlad instructs Glynis to remain polite, charming, and elusive, not to reveal too much of her past, and to let others explain her veil as a foreign mourning custom. He has also directed the household to conceal the truth about her supposed disfigurement. At the opera evening, Glynis descends in a black-and-gold gown prepared for her, accompanied by Andrew and Vlad. She notices the contrast between Andrew’s brightness and goodness and the dark, menacing presence around Vlad. For a moment, the gown and title of Countess Dracula make her feel radiant and alive, even though she knows herself to be undead. Buda’s social polish gives her a role to inhabit, but not the freedom to define its terms.

Andrew’s Visit and the Opera Evening

The reunion carries sharply different meanings for the siblings. Glynis is ecstatic and nervous to have Andrew visit her home. She senses his presence while asleep beside Vlad in their hiding place, first fearing that a vampire hunter has entered, then recognizing her brother. Vlad, who has also felt the surge of power, releases Andrew from its hold once Glynis identifies him. The meeting thus begins with a reminder that even Andrew’s arrival is subject to forces he does not understand and that Vlad can control.

Andrew’s account registers both affection and doubt. During the previous night, he repeatedly holds Glynis’s hand and asks whether she is happy; each time she says yes. Her answers sound heartfelt, but he remains uneasy about them. The visit leaves him emotionally exhausted, and Emil Baum is disturbed after examining Glynis. Andrew’s concern is not dispelled by the fine house or his sister’s composed manner: the reunion restores their physical closeness without giving him confidence that she is safe.

The opera evening carries the siblings from the private house into Buda’s glittering public life. Their carriage climbs a steep, tree-lined road bordered by lush growth and fragrant flowers toward the brightly lit Dosza Palace. Music and laughter drift down as they approach; carriages gather at the steps, where uniformed men escort guests along a red carpet into the palace. Glynis takes Andrew’s hand excitedly at the approach. The scene briefly lets her share the city’s spectacle with her brother, while the explanations prepared by Vlad continue to govern what the guests may know about her.

Departure and the Meaning of the City

Buda remains a divided refuge for Glynis. It brings Andrew within reach and offers rooms of beauty, elegant clothing, and access to public entertainments, yet the same setting surrounds their reunion with secrecy and Vlad’s authority. Andrew can see his sister, walk beside her, and ask whether she is happy; he cannot make her answer a reliable measure of her freedom. The house’s refined comfort and the silent, sunless exterior hold those opposing realities together.

After Andrew returns to England, Glynis’s response is mixed: she misses him, but takes comfort in knowing he is safely away. On a clear evening, she hurries into the night beneath the stars and feels the cool breeze from the Danube. Away from the house, Vlad’s presence begins to recede from her mind, and she experiences a sense of release from the suffocating bond between them. The relief does not erase her captivity, but it shows how strongly her experience of the city depends on proximity to Vlad. Buda is where family contact becomes possible and where distance from the controlling household can briefly recover a measure of self.