He seemed so confident that I, remembering my own confidence two nights before and with the baneful result, felt awe and vague terror. It must have been my weakness that made me hesitate to tell it to my friend, but I felt it all the more, like unshed tears.
– Bram Stoker
Dracula, Chapter 10. Dr. John Seward about Prof. Van Helsing, who filled the ailing Lucy’s room with garlic flowers and had Lucy place a wreath of garlic around her neck. Van Helsing says the garlic is a protection against evil – he is a believer in the value of the old superstitions, but his former student Seward is a sceptic.