Letter, Abraham Van Helsing, M. D., D. Ph., D. Lit., etc., etc., to Dr. Seward
“2 September.
“My good Friend,—
“When I have received your letter I am already coming to you. By good fortune I can leave just at once, without wrong to any of those who have trusted me. Were fortune other, then it were bad for those who have trusted, for I come to my friend when he call me to aid those he holds dear. Tell your friend that when that time you suck from my wound so swiftly the poison of the gangrene from that knife that our other friend, too nervous, let slip, you did more for him when he wants my aids and you call for them than all his great fortune could do. But it is pleasure added to do for him, your friend; it is to you that I come. Have then rooms for me at the Great Eastern Hotel, so that I may be near to hand, and please it so arrange that we may see the young lady not too late on to-morrow, for it is likely that I may have to return here that night. But if need be I shall come again in three days, and stay longer if it must. Till then good-bye, my friend John.
“Van Helsing.”
Hello. In terms of language use, I could not understand the following line. “Were fortune other, then it were bad for those who have trusted, for I come to my friend when he call me to aid those he holds dear”. what does were fortune other means?
I think that Van Helsing is saying in a very roundabout way that he doesn’t have any conflicts in his schedule, or other people in his life who need his attention at the moment, so he’s free and happy to come help out Dr. Seward.