Doctor's examination and discovery of puncture marks
Doctor Spielsberg's examination of Laura marks the story's decisive turn from ambiguous illness to confirmed supernatural assault. Summoned by Laura's father without her knowledge, the physician arrives early one morning and, after hearing Laura's account of her symptoms, grows visibly grave. His discovery of two small puncture wounds on her throat provides the first objective proof that Laura is not suffering from a natural disease but from the attacks of a vampire, a revelation that transforms the household's understanding of the mysterious epidemic plaguing the region and sets in motion the hunt for Carmilla.
The Examination and the Discovery
Laura's father had sent for Doctor Spielsberg without telling her, and the physician, a grave little man with white hair and spectacles, was waiting in the library when Madame Perrodon accompanied Laura there. Laura told him her story in full, and as she proceeded, the doctor's face grew graver and graver. They stood together in the recess of one of the windows, facing one another; when Laura finished, the doctor leaned with his shoulders against the wall, his eyes fixed on her earnestly with an interest in which was a dash of horror. After a minute's reflection, he asked Madame if he could see Laura's father. Laura's father entered smiling, saying, "I dare say, doctor, you are going to tell me that I am an old fool for having brought you here; I hope I am." But his smile faded into shadow as the doctor, with a very grave face, beckoned him to him. The two men talked for some time in the same window recess, speaking in a very low tone that Laura and Madame, standing together at the far end of the large room, could not hear. After a time, Laura's father's face looked into the room; it was pale, thoughtful, and, Laura fancied, agitated. He called Laura to him, saying, "Laura, dear, come here for a moment. Madame, we shan't trouble you, the doctor says, at present." Laura approached, for the first time a little alarmed; although she felt very weak, she did not feel ill. Her father held out his hand to her as she drew near, but he was looking at the doctor, who then began his questioning.
The Puncture Marks and the Diagnosis
Doctor Spielsberg asked Laura, "You mentioned a sensation like that of two needles piercing the skin, somewhere about your neck, on the night when you experienced your first horrible dream. Is there still any soreness?" Laura answered, "None at all." He then asked her to indicate with her finger about the point at which she thought this occurred. Laura pointed, saying, "Very little below my throat—here." She wore a morning dress which covered the place she pointed to. The doctor said, "Now you can satisfy yourself. You won't mind your papa's lowering your dress a very little. It is necessary, to detect a symptom of the complaint under which you have been suffering." Laura acquiesced; it was only an inch or two below the edge of her collar. Laura's father, growing pale, exclaimed, "God bless me!—so it is." The doctor said, with a gloomy triumph, "You see it now with your own eyes." Laura, beginning to be frightened, asked what it was. The doctor replied, "Nothing, my dear young lady, but a small blue spot, about the size of the tip of your little finger." He then turned to Laura's father and said, "the question is what is best to be done?" Laura urged in great trepidation, "Is there any danger?" The doctor answered, "I trust not, my dear. I don't see why you should not recover. I don't see why you should not begin immediately to get better." He then asked Laura, "That is the point at which the sense of strangulation begins?" Laura answered, "Yes." He continued, "And—recollect as well as you can—the same point was a kind of center of that thrill which you described just now, like the current of a cold stream running against you?" Laura said, "It may have been; I think it was." The doctor then turned to Laura's father and said, "Ay, you see?" and asked if he should say a word to Madame. Laura's father agreed.
The Doctor's Directive and Aftermath
The doctor called Madame to him and said, "I find my young friend here far from well. It won't be of any great consequence, I hope; but it will be necessary that some steps be taken, which I will explain by-and-by; but in the meantime, Madame, you will be so good as not to let Miss Laura be alone for one moment. That is the only direction I need give for the present. It is indispensable." Laura's father added, "We may rely upon your kindness, Madame, I know," and Madame satisfied him eagerly. The doctor then said to Laura, "And you, dear Laura, I know you will observe the doctor's direction." Laura's father then mentioned that he would ask the doctor's opinion upon another patient, their guest Carmilla, whose symptoms resembled Laura's but were much milder, and invited the doctor to return for supper that evening to see her. The doctor agreed to return at about seven that evening. After repeating their directions to Laura and Madame, Laura's father left with the doctor, and Laura saw them pacing together up and down between the road and the moat on the grassy platform in front of the castle, evidently absorbed in earnest conversation. The doctor did not return; Laura saw him mount his horse, take his leave, and ride away eastward through the forest. Nearly at the same time, she saw the man arrive from Dranfield with the letters and dismount to hand the bag to her father. In the meantime, Madame and Laura were both busy, lost in conjecture as to the reasons of the singular and earnest direction the doctor and Laura's father had concurred in imposing. Madame, as she later told Laura, was afraid the doctor apprehended a sudden seizure, and that without prompt assistance Laura might either lose her life in a fit or at least be seriously hurt. Laura, however, fancied—perhaps luckily for her nerves—that the arrangement was prescribed simply to secure a companion who would prevent her from taking too much exercise or eating unripe fruit. The examination thus leaves Laura under constant surveillance, her condition now officially recognized as a medical mystery that the doctor, with his gloomy triumph, has identified as the work of a vampire, though he does not yet speak that name aloud.
