T h e T e x t or

S T R A N G E C A S E O F D R .

J E K Y L L A N D M R . H Y D E

^ d ^ ^
 *fB^. -C-irtrfe**^***'

Cover, first British paper-covered edition, January, 1886. (Note the pub-
lisher's pen-and-ink alteration of the date, from 1885 to 1886.) Though
subsequent editions have often inserted the word "The" before "Strange"
in titling this work, Stevenson in fact wrote the title out for his publisher
exactly as it appears here, presumably wanting its abruptness to heighten
the sense of strangeness surrounding his "strange case." Courtesy of the
Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Houghton Library of the Harvard Col-
lege Library. HEW 10.10.21.
 CONTENTS
-O

TO STORY OF THE DOOR 7

ia
KATHARINE DE MATTOS. 1 SEARCH FOR MR. HYDE

DR. JEKYLL WAS QUITE AT EASE '9

2I
THE CAREW MURDER CASE
It's ill to loose the bands that God decreed to bind;2
2
Still will we be the children of the heather and the wind. INCIDENT OF THE LETTER 4
Far away from home, O it's still for you and me
REMARKABLE INCIDENT OF DR. LANYON 2,8
That the broom is blowing bonnie3 in the north countrie.
INCIDENT AT THE WINDOW 31

THE LAST NIGHT 32

DR. LANYON'S NARRATIVE 41

HENRY JEKYLLS FULL STATEMENT OF THE CASE . . .47

i-

1. A Favorite cousin of Stevenson's. The poem here appearing under her name was adapted
by Stevenson from a longer poem he had written her several months earlier celebrating
their shared Scottish background.
2. Stevenson's original version of this line read, "We cannae break the bonds that^Qod
decreed to bind." As revised here, the line may be intended to echo the verses in Job in
which God, rebuking Job's presumption in questioning Him, asks "Canst thou . . . loose
the bands of Orion?" and "who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?" (Job 38:31 and
39:5).
3. I.e., that the Scotch broom (a flowering bush) is blooming handsomely.
 S t r a n g e C a s e

of

D r . Jekyll ancl M r . H y d e .

STORY OF THE DOOR.

Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that
was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in dis-
course; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary; and yet
somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to
his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; some-
thing indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke
not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more
often and loudly in the acts of his life. He was austere with himself;
drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and
though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for
twenty years. But'he had an approved1 tolerance for others; some;
times wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits
involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help
rather than to reprove. "I incline to Cain's heresy," he used to say
quaintly: "I let my brother go to the devil in his own way."2 In this
character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable
acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going
men. And to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers,
be never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.
No doubt the feat was easy to Mr. Utterson; for he was undemon-
strative at the best, and even his friendships seemed to be founded
in a similar catholicity3 of good-nature. It is the mark of a modest
man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of
opportunity; and that was the lawyer's way. His friends were those
of his own blood or those whom he had known the longest; his affec-
tions, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in
1- Proven.
2. Adam and Eve'sfirstbornson Cain murdered his brother Abel and afterwards asked, "Am
I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:5).
3. Breadth.
 STORY OF THE DOOR y
8 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

the object. Hence, no doubt, the bond that united him to Mr. Rich- "Indeed?" said Mr. Utterson, with-a slight changcof voice, "and
ard Enfield, his distant kinsman, the well-known man about town. what was that?"
It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each "Well, it-was this way," returned Mr. Enfield: "I was coming home
other or what subject they could find in common. It was reported by from some place.at the-end of the world,„about three.o'clock of a
those who encountered them in their Sunday walks, that they said black winter morning, and my way lay through a part of town where
nothing, looked singularly dull, and would hail with obvious relief there was literally nothing to be seen but lamps. Street after street,
the appearance of a friend. For all that, the two men put the greatest and all the folks asleep—street after street, all lighted up as if for a
store by these excursions, counted them the chief jewel of each week, procession and afTas empty as a church—till at last;I got into that
and not only set aside occasions of pleasure, but even resisted the state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for
calls of business, that they might enjoy them uninterrupted. the sight of a policeman. All at once, I sawtwo figures: one a little
It chanced on one of these rambles that their way led them down man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other
a by-street in a busy quarter of London. The street was small and a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able
what is called quiet, but it drove 4 thriving trade on the week-days. down a cross street. Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally
The inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed, and all emulously enough at the corner; arid then came the horrible part of the thing;
hoping to do better still, and laying out the surplus of their gains in for, the man trampled" calmly over the child's body and left her
coquetry;4 so that the shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with screaming on the ground. It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hell-
an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen. Even on Sun- ish to see. It wasn't like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.'
day, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively I gave a view halloa,8 took to my heels, collared my gentleman, and
empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neigh- brought him back to where there was already quite a; group about
bourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, the screaming child. He was perfectly cool and made no resistance,
well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, but gave me one look, so ugly thatjt brought out.the sweat on me
instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.' like running. The people who had turned out were the girl's own
Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east, the line family; and pretty soon, the doctor, for whom she had been sent, put
was broken by the entry of a court; and just at that point, a certain in his appearance. Well, the child was not much the worse, more
sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street. It frightened, according to the Sawbones;9, and there you might have
was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the supposed would be an end to it. But there was one curious circum-
lower storey and a blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper; stance. I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight. So had
and bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged and sordid negli- the child's family, which was only natural. But the doctor's case was
gence. The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, what struck me. He was the usual cut and dry apothecary,1 of no
was blistered and distained.6 Tramps slouched into the recess and particular age and colour, with a strong Edinburgh accent, and about
struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps; as emotional as a bagpipe. Well, sir, he was like the rest of us; every
the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; and for close on time he looked at my. prisoner, I saw that Sawbones turn sick and
a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random vis- white with the desire to kill him. I knew what was in his mind, just
itors or to repair their ravages. as he knew what was in mine; and killing being out of the question,
we did„the next best. We told the man we could and would make
Mr. Enfield and the lawyer were on the other side of the by-street; such a scandal out of this, as should make his name stink from one
but when they came abreast of the entry, the former lifted up his end of London to the other. If he had any friends or any credit, we
cane and pointed. undertook that he should lose them. And all the time, as we were
"Did you ever remark that door?" he asked; and when his com-
panion had replied in the affirmative, "It is connected in my mind,"
added he, "with a very odd story." 7. An inexorable destructive force; the term derives from accounts given by early European
travelers to India of religious worshippers being crushed to death beneath the wheels of
the huge processional chariot of the Hindu deity jagganath.
4. I.e., the shop keeper-in habitants were spending recent profits on new visual attractions to 8. The shout given by a huntsman on seeing a fox break cover. This usage by Stevenson is
lure customers. quoted in the OED.
5. Passer-by.
6. Discolored. 9. Slang for a doctor, especially a surgeon.
1. A dispenser of drugs; here an archaic and hence semi-facetious term for a doctor.
10 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE .STORY OF THE DOOR 11

pitching it in red hot, we were keeping the women off him as best consequence. Though even that, you know, is far from explaining
we could, for they were as wild as harpies. I never saw a circle of all," he added, and with the words fell into a vein of musing.
such hateful faces; and there was the man in the middle, with a kind From this he was recalled by Mr. Utterson asking rather suddenly:
of black, sneering coolness—frightened too, I> could see that—but "And you don't know if the drawer of.the cheque lives there?"
carrying it off, sir, really like Satan. 'If ybuj.choose to. make capital "A likely place, isn't it?" returned Mr. Enfield. "But I happen to
out of this accident,' said he, 'I am naturally helpless. No gentleman have noticed his address; he.lives in some square or other." ,
but wishes to avoid a scene,' says he. 'Name your figure.'(Well, we "And you never asked about—the .place with the door?" said Mr.
screwed him up to'a hundred pounds2 for the child's family; he would Utterson.
have clearly liked to stick out; but there was something about the lot "No, sir; I had a delicacy," was the reply.* "I feel very strongly about
of us that meant mischief, and at last he struck.3 The next thing was putting questions; it partakesntoor,much of^the style of the day of
to get the money; and where do you think he carried us but to that judgment. You start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit
place with the door?—whipped ojjit a key,-went in, and presently quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others;
came back with the matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for and presently some bland old bird (the last you would have thought
the balance on Coutts's,4 drawn payable to bearer and signed with a of) is knocked: on the head in his own back garden and the family
name that I can't mention, though it's one of the points of my story, have to change their name. No, sir, I make it a rule of mine: the
but it .was a name at least very well known and often printed.5 The more it looks like Queer Street,7 the lessl ask."
figure was stiff; but the signature was good for more than that, if it "A'very good rule, too," said the lawyer.
was only genuine. I took the liberty of pointing out to my gentleman ' But 1 have studied the place for myself," continued Mr. Enfield.
that the whole business looked apocryphal, and that a man does not, "It seems scarcely a house. There is no other door, and nobody goes
in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come in or out of that one but, once in a great while, the gentleman of my
out of ;it with another man's cheque for close upon a hundred adventure. There are three windows looking on the court on the first
pounds. But he was quite easy and sneering. 'Set your mind at rest,' floor;8 none below; the windows are always shut but they're clean'.
says he, 'I will stay with you till the banks open and cash the cheque And then there is a chimney which is generally smoking; so some-
myself.' So we all set off, the doctor, and the child's father, and our body must live there. And yet it's not so sure; for the buildings are
friend and myself, and passed the rest of the night in my chambers; so packed together about' that court; that it's hard to say where one
and next day, when we had breakfasted, went in a body to the bank. ends and another.begins." • i
I gave iruthe cheque myself; and said I had every reason-to believe The pair walke'd on again for a while in silence; and then "Enfield,"
it was a forgery. Not a bit of it. The cheque was genuine." said Mr. Utterson, "that's a good rule of yours."
"Tut-tut," said Mr. Utterson. "Yes, I think it is," returned Enfield.
"J see you feel as I do," said Mr. Enfield. "Yes, it's a bad story. For But for all that," continued the lawyer, "there's orie.point I want
my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really to ask: \ want to ask the name 'of that man who walked over the
damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the "very pink child."
of the proprieties,6 celebrated too, and {what makes it worse) one of "Well," said Mr. Enfield, "I can't see what harm it would do. It
your fellows who do what they call good. Black mail, I suppose; an was a man of the name of Hyde."
honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers of his ((Hm,'- said Mr. Utterson.- "What sort of a'man is he to see?"
youth. Black Mail House is what I call that place with the door, in " e is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his
appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable.
2. A large sum at the time; as a rough point of comparison, consider the figure mentioned
in George Gissing's novel The Odd Women (1893) as the salary of a character working as never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must
a mathematical lecturer at a London college in 1888, namely, one hundred and fifty e
deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity,
pounds a year. a
though I couldn't specify the point.9 He's an extraordinary looking
3. Surrendered; from the nautical term "strike," meaning to lower the topsails or haul down
the flag as a sign of surrender or salute. This figurative usage by Stevenson is quoted in g I L °n an£>0raafigurative allusion to living in troubled circumstances, especially debt.
the OED. Ho" ^° kQve Ine ground floor, or what North Americans would call the second
4. The most elite bank in Great Britain, catering to a wealthy, respectable clientele which at
its upper end included the British Royal Family.
5. Presumably in the London papers, which regularly featured news and gossip about the seve l,asscure aura °f deformity might for Stevenson's original readers have raised any of
town's most eminent citizens. in i.s cc °eiations current at the time: Christian lore about the Devil, said to be cunning
6. The height of proper conduct or respectability. >ncealrnent of his besttalized homs, tail, or cleft foot when he appeared in human
 12 DR. ]EKYLL* AND MR. HYDE SEARCH" FOR "MR. HYDE* 13

man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir; I can M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.,* &c.,.all his possessions were to pass
make no hand of it; I can't describe him. And it's not want of mem- into the hands of his "friend and benefactor Edward Hyde," but that
ory; for„I. declare I can see him this moment." in case of Dr. Jekyll's "disappearance'or unexplained absence for any
Mr. Utterson•>again walked some way in silence and obviously period exceeding three calendar months," the said Edward Hyde
under a weight of consideration.,"You aresure he used a key?".'he should step into the said Henry Jekyll's shoes .without further delay
inquired at last. T ' - «• j .,, * , and free from any burthen<or obligation, beyondthe payment of a
"My dear sir . . . " began Enfield, surprised out of himself. H*, few small sums to the members of the doctor's household. -This doc-
"Yes, I know," said Utterson;"I know it must seem strange:;The ument had long been the lawyer's eyesore..It;offended him.both'as
fact is, if I~do not ask you the name of the other party, it is because a lawyer-and as a lover of the sane and customary^sides of life, to
Lknow it already. You see,'Richard ,"your..taIe has gone home. If you whom the.fanciful was the immodest. And hitherto it was his igno-
have been inexact in any point, you had better, correct it." ","* „ *•„ rance of Mr;' Hyde that had swelled his indignation; now, by a sudden
"I think'you might have warned me," returnedithe other with a turn, it was his knowledge .l€was already bad enough when the name
touch of sullenness. "But I.have been pedantically exact, as you call was but a name of which he could learn no more. It was worse when
it.' The fellow had a key; and what's more,'he has it still. J saw.him it began'to be clothed upon with detestable attributes; and out of
use it,'not a week ago." - ' il ** '. the shifting, insubstantial mists that ha'd so long baffled his eye, there
Mr. Utterson sighed deeply but said never a word; and the young leaped up the sudden, definite presentment4 of a fiend..
man presently resumed. "Here is another lesson to say nothing," said "I thought it was madness,'Ihe said1, as he replaced the*obnoxious
he. "I am ashamed of my long tongue?- Let us make a-bargain never paper in the safe; "and now I begin to fear.it is disgrace." i
to refer to this again." ^ • " -* i.*"„j With that he blew out his candle, put on a great coat and set forth
"With all my heart," said the lawyer. "I shake hands ori'that, Rich- uvthe direction of Cavendish Square, that citadel of medicine,5
ard.'1- , . , r " where his friend, the great Dr. Lanyon, had his house and received
his crowding patients.^If anyone, knows, it will be Lanyon," he had
thought. "„. » *
SEARCH FOR MR. HYDE.
The solemn butler knew and welcomed him; he was subjected to
s
no stage of delay, but ushered direct from the door to the^dining-
That evening, Mr:1 Utterson came'home to His bachelor, house in
room where Dr.^Lanyon sat alone over his wine. This was'a hearty,
sombre spirits and sat down to dinner without relish., It was his cus-
healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman,-with a shoclcof hair prema-
tom of a Sunday, when this meal was over, to sit close by the fire, a
turely white, arid a boisterous and decided manner. At sight of Mr.
volume of some dry divinity1 on his reading desk,;until the clock of
Utterson, he sprang up from his chair and welcomed him with both
the neighbouring church rang out the hour of twelve, when he would
hands. The geniality, as was the way of the man, was somewhat
go soberly and gratefully to bed! On this night; however, as soon as
theatrical to the eye; but it reposed on genuine feeling. For these
the cloth was taken away, he took up. a candle^and went into his
two were old friends, old mates both at school6 and college, both
business room. There he opened his safe, took from the most private
thorough respecters of themselves and of each other, and, what does
part of it a document endorsed on the envelope as Dr. Jekyll's Will,
and sat down with a clouded brow to study its contents. The will was
holograph,2 for Mr. Utterson, though he took charge of it now that 3- Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Civil Law, Doctor of Laws, and Fellow of the Royal Society.
Thefirsttwo credentials reflect Jekyll's professional training in medicine and law. The
it was made, had refused to lend the least assistance in the making second two reflect his subsequent professional achievement: Doctor of Laws was com-
of it; it provided not only that; in case of the decease of Henry Jekyll, monly an honorary degree; and fellowship in the venerable Royal Society (members since
its founding in the seventeenth century included Sir Isaac Newton, Sir William Herschel,
and Michael Faraday) was by invitation only, with justfifteennew fellows being chosen
form;'Gothicfiction'stales of villains or monster-men whose depravity is only hinted at each year on the basis of distinguished contributions to natural science.
by surface appearances; and neo-Darwinist theories interpreting animal-like features in 4. Image.
humans as signs of a grotesque criminality or under-evolution. 5- Fashionable physicians, surgeons, and dentists had by late Victorian times become the
1. Theology. Utterson's austere Sunday evening routine, along with his earlier-mentioned chief tenants of the once-aristocratic homes in this square at the foot of Harley Street in
abstinence from theater-going and "mortification" of a taste for wine, reflect the puritan- west central London. ^
ical ethos which the Evangelical movement helped to spark in nineteenth-century British 6. One of the select, all-male boarding schools where sons of the well-to-do were educated
Christianity. from the age of about eleven to eighteen. "Old boy" ties could readily carry over through
2. Wholly written by the person in whose name it appears. university years and into'later adult life.
14 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE SEARCH FOR MR. HYDE 15

not always follow, men who thoroughly enjoyed each other's com- Or else he wouId.,see a;,room in a rich house, where his friend lay
pany. ! asleep, dreaming and smiling at. his dreams; and then the door of
After a little rambling talk, the lawyer led up to the subject which that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked apart;
so disagreeably preoccupied his mind. the sleeper recalled, and lo! there would stand by his side a figure to
"I suppose, Lanyon," said he, "you and I,must be the two oldest whom power was given,2 and even at that dead hour, he must rise
friends that Henry Jekyll has?" L and do its bidding.* The figure in these two phases haunted the law-
"I wish the friends were younger," chuckled Dr. Lanyon. "But I yer all night; and if at any time he dozed over; it was but tosee it
suppose we are. And what of that?T see little of him now." glide more stealthily through sleeping houses, or. move the. more
"Indeed?" said Utterson. "I thought you had a.bond of.common swiftly and stillthe more swiftly, even to dizziness, through wider
interest." labyrinths of lamplighted city, and at every street corner crush a child
"We had," was the reply. "But it is more than ten years since Henry and leave her .screaming. And still the figure had no face^by which
Jekyll became too fanciful for..me. He began to go wrong, wrong in he might know it; even in his .dreams, it had no face, or one that
mind; and though of course I continue-to take an interest in him for baffled him and melted: before his eyes; and thus it was that there
old sake's sake as they say, I see and Ihave seen devilish little of the sprang upland grew apacecin the lawyer's mind a singularly strong,
man. Such unscientific balderdash," added the doctor, flushing sud- almost ah inordinate, curiosity to behold the features of the real Mr.
denly purple, "would have estranged Damon and Pythias."7 Hyde. If he could but once set eyes on him, he thought the mystery
This little spirt8 of temper was somewhat of a relief to Mr. Utter- would lighten and perhaps roll altogether away, as was the habit.of
son. "They have only differed on some point of science," he thought; mysterious things when well examined. He might see a reason for
and being aman of no scientific passions (except in the matter of his friend's strange preference or bondage (call it which you please)
conveyancing)9 he even added: "It is nothing worse than that!" He and even for the startling clauses of the will. And at least it would
gave his friend a few seconds to recover his composure, and then be a face worth seeing: the face of a man who was without bowels
approached the question he had come to put. "Did you ever come of mercy:4 a face which had but to show itself to raise up, in the
across a protege of his—one Hyde?" he asked. r mind of the unimpressionable Enfield, a spirit of enduring hatred.
"Hyde?" repeated Lanyon. "No. Never heard of him. Since my From that,time forward, Mr. Utterson began to haunt the door in
time." the by-street of shops. In the morning before office hours, at noon
That was the amount of information that the lawyer carried back when business was plenty and time scarce, at night under the face
with him to the great, dark bed on which he tossed to and fro, until of the fogged city moon, by all lights and at all hours of solitude or
the small hours of the morning began to grow large. It was anight concourse, the lawyer was to be found on his chosen post.
of little ease to fhis toiling mind, toiling in mere1 darkness and '"If he be Mr. Hyde," he had thought, "I shall be Mr. Seek."
besieged by questions. And at last his patience was rewarded. It was a fine dry night; frost
Six o'clock struck on the bells of the church that was so conven- in the air; the streets as clean as a ballroom floor; the .lamps,
iently near to Mr. Utterson's dwelling, and still he was digging at the unshaken by any wind, drawing a regular pattern of light and shadow.
problem. Hitherto it had touched him on the intellectual side alone; By ten o'clock, when the,shops, were closed, the by-street was very
but now his imagination also was engaged or rather enslaved; and as solitary and, in spite of the low growl of London from all round, very
he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained silent. Small sounds carried far; domestic sounds out of the houses
room, Mr. Enfield's tale went by before his mind in a scroll of lighted were clearly audible on either side of the roadway; and the rumour5
pictures. He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal of the approach of any passenger preceded him by a long time. Mr.
city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly; then of a child Utterson had been some minutes at his post, when he was aware of
running from the doctor's; and then these met, and that human Jug-
gernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams. '• An echo of Revelation 13:5 and 13:7, where it is said of the demonic beast who blasphemes
s
against God that "power was given" him by the dragon (i.e., the devil).
- rhis dream is reminiscent, accidentally or not, of the scene in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
7. Damon and Phintias, usually called Pythias, were two philosophers of ancient Greece (1818) in which Victor Frankenstein wakesfroma tormented sleep to see the monster he
whose friendship was proverbial: when Pythias was condemned to death, Damon tem- has just created forcing his way into Frankenstein's bedroom and opening the curtains of
porarily took his friend's place in captivity at the risk of his own life. his bed.
8. Spurt. • Compassion (from an old notion of bowels as the body's center of sympathetic emotions);
9. The drawing of deeds for transfer of property. ct. Colossians 3:12, "bowels of mercy."
5
1. Absolute, pure (an obsolete usage which occurs again later in the tale). - Noise.
16 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE SEARCH FOR MR. HYDE 17

an odd, light footstep drawing near. In the course of;his nightly ing of the will?" But he kept his feelings to himself and only grunted
patrols, he had long grown'accustomed to the quaint effect with in acknowledgement of the address.
which the footfalls of a single person, while he is.still argreat way "And now," said the other, "how did you know me?"
off, suddenly spring out distinct from the vast hum and clatter of the "By description," was the reply.
city. Yet his attention had never before been so sharply and decisively "Whose description?"
arrested; and it was with a strong, superstitious prevision of success "We have common friends," said Mr. Utterson.
that he withdrew into the entry of the court; "Common friends?" echoed Mr. Hyde, a little hoarsely. "Who are
The steps drew swiftly nearer, and swelled out suddenly louder as they?"
they turned the end of the street. The lawyer, looking forth from the "Jekyll, for instance," said the lawyer.
entry, could soon see what manner of man he had to deal with. He "He-never told you," cried Mr. Hyde, with a flush of anger. "I did
was small and very plainly dressed, and the look of him, even at that not think you would have lied."
distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher's inclination. "Come," said Mr. Utterson, "that is not fitting language."
But he made straight for the door, crossing the roadway to save time; The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment,
and as he came, he drew a key from his pocket like one approaching with extraordinary quickness, he had: unlocked the door and disap-
home. ,1 peared into the house.
Mr. Utterson stepped out and touched him on the shoulder as he The lawyer stood awhile when Mr. Hyde had left him, the picture
passed. "Mr. Hyde, I think?" of disquietude. Then he began slowly to mount the street, pausing
Mr. Hyde shrank back with a hissing intake of the breath. But his every step or two and putting his hand to his brow like a man in
fear was only momentary; and though he did not look the lawyer in mental perplexity. The problem he was thus debating as he walked,
the face, he answered coolly enough: "That is my name. What do was one of a class that is rarely solved. Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarf-
you want?" ish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable mal-
"I see you are going in," returned the lawyer. "I am an old friend formation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the
of Dr. Jekyll's—Mr. Utterson of Gaunt Street—you must have heard lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness,
my riarrie; and meeting you so conveniently, I thought you might and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice;
admit me." all these were points against him, but not all of these together could
"You will not find Dr. Jekyll; he is from home," replied Mr. Hyde, explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which
blowing in the key.6 And then suddenly, but still without looking up, Mr. Utterson regarded him. "There must be something else," said
"How did you know me?" he asked. the perplexed gentleman. "There is something more, if"I: could find
"On your side," said Mr. Utterson, "will you do me a favour?" a name for it. God bless me, the man seems hardly human! Some-
"With pleasure," replied the other. "What shall it be?" thing troglodytic,8 shall we say? or can it be the old story of Dr. Fell?9
"Will you let me see your face?" asked the lawyer. or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through,
Mr. Hyde appeared to hesitate, and then, as if upon some sudden and transfigures, its clay continent?1 The last, I think; for O my poor
reflection, fronted abouLwith an air of defiance; and the pair stared old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan's signature upon a face, it is on
at each other prettyfixedlyfor a few seconds. "Now I shall know you that of your new friend."
again," said Mr. Utterson. "It may be useful." Bound the corner from the by-street, there was a square of
"Yes," returned Mr. Hyde, "it is as well we have met; and a propos, ancient, handsome houses, now for the most part decayed from their
you should have my address." And he gave a number of a street in high estate and let in flats and chambers to all sorts and conditions
Soho.7
"Good God!" thought Mr. Utterson, "can he too have been think- • Characteristic of a troglodyte, or cave-dweller.
t_man wno inspires an unspeakable or unfathomable repugnance. The allusion derives
6. This pulling phrase may refer to blowing the bit or shank of the key clean of dust; in any tforn a verse written by a seventeenth-century Oxford student, Thomas Brown, who retai-
case, the action is best understood as an idling gesture undertaken to avoid having to look led against a disciplinarian dean, Dr. John Fell, by loosely translating a Latin epigram
Utterson in the face. J>y Martial to read: "I do not love thee, Dr. Fell, / The reason why I cannot tell; / But this
7. A district in central London known in Victorian times for its crowded immigrant popu- l 'ksnow, and know full well, / I do not love thee, Dr. Fell."
lations and squalid entertainments, including taverns, music halls, and brothels. It i* , ^rihly container, i.e., the body. This usage of "continent" by Stevenson is quoted in
roughly a mile east of fashionable Cavendish Square where Dr. Lanyon lives.
 18 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE DR. JEKYLL WAS QUITE AT EASE #19

of men: map-engravers, architects, shady, lawyers andidhe agents of punishment coming, pede claudo,4 years after memory has forgotten
obscure enterprises. One house,,however, secondfrorh the corner, and self-love condoned the fault." And>• the lawyer, scared by the
was still occupied entire; and at the door of this, which wore a great thought,.brooded awhile.on his.own past, groping in all the corners
air of wealth and comfort, though it"was now plunged in darkness of memory,:lest by chance someJack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity
except for the fan-light, Mr. Utterson stopped and knocked. A well- should leap to light? there. His,past was fairly blameless; few men
dressed, elderly servant opened the door. could read; the rolls of their, life .with less apprehension; yet he was
"Is Dr. Jekyll at-home, Poole?" asked the lawyer. humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised
"I will see, Mr. Utterson," said Poole, admitting the visitor, as he up again into a sober and fearful gratitude by the many that he had
spoke, into a large, low-roofed, comfortable hall, paved with flags,3 come so near to doing, yet avoided. And then by.aTeturn on his
warmed (after thefashion of a country house) by a bright, open fire, former subject^he conceived a spark of hope. "This Master Hyde, if
and furnished with costly cabinets of dak. "Will you wait here by the he were studied," thought he, "must have secrets of his own: black
•fire, sir? or shall I give you a light in the dining-room?" secrets,, by the look' of him;-secrets compared to which poor Jekyll's
"Here, thank you," said the lawyer, and he drew near arid leaned worst would be like sunshine. Things cannot continue as they are.
on the tall fender.3 'This hall; in which^he was now left alone, was a It turns me cold to think of this creature stealing like a thief to
pet fancy of his friend the doctor's; and Utterson himself was wont Harry's bedside; poor Harry, what a,wakening! And the danger of it;
to speak of.it as'the pleasantest'room in London. But to-night there for if this Hyde suspects the existence of the will, he may grow impa-
was a shudder in his blood; the face of Hyde sat heavy on his mem- tient to inherit. Ay, I must put my shoulder to the wheel—if Jekyll
ory; he felt (what was rare with him) a nausea and distaste of life; will but let me," he added,"if Jekyll",will only let me." For once more
and in the-gloom of his spirits, he seemed to read a menace in the he saw before his mind's eye, as clear as a transparency, the strange
flickering of' the firelight oh the polished "cabinets and the uneasy clauses of the will. ''' ,
starting.of the shadow on the. roof. He was ashamed'iof his relief,
when Poole presently returned to announce that Dr. Jekyll was gone
DR. JEKYLL WAS QUITE AT EASE.
out.
"I saw Mr. Hyde go in by the old dissecting room door, Poole," he A fortnight later, by, excellent good fortune, the doctor gave one of
said. "Is that right,.when Dr. Jekyll is from home?" his pleasant dinners"to some?five,or six old cronies, all.intelligent,
"Quite right,,Mr. Utterson, sir," replied the,servant. "Mr. Hyde reputable men and all judges of good wine; and Mr. Utterson so
has a key." contrived that he remained behind after" the,others'had departed.
, "Your master seems* to repose a great deal of .trust in that young This was no new arrangement, but a thing that^had befallen many
^man,,Poole," resumed the other musingly. scores of times. Where Utterson was liked, he was liked well. Hosts
"Yes, sir, he-do indeed," said Poole. "We have all orders to obey loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted and the loose-
him." tongued had already their foot on the threshold;' they liked to sit
"I"dp not think I-ever met Mr. Hyde?" asked.Utterson. awhile in his unobtrusive company, practicing for solitude; sobering
"O, dear no, sir. He never dines here," replied the'butler. "Indeed their minds in the,man's;.rich silence after the expense1 and strain
we see very little of him on this sideof the house; fie mostly comes °r gaiety. To this rule, Dr. Jekyll was no exception; and as he. now
and goes by the laboratory." sat on the opposite, side of the fire—a large, well-made, smooth-
"Well, good night, Poole." aceda man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every
"Good night, Mr. Utterson." ark of capacity and kindness—you could see by his looks that he
c
And the lawyer set out homeward with a very heavy heart. "Poor nerished for Mr. Utterson a sincere and warm affection.
Harry Jekyll," he thought, "my mind misgives me he is in deep waters.
He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in th 'R' °n 'imPetin8Horace
foot." Utterson is recalling the closing line of an ode on male virtue by
the law of God, there is no statute of limitations. Ay, it must be that; cWj ™«nseP°om nas (65-8 B.C.), "ram antecedentem scelestumIdeseruit -pede P
thni. L '^ Vengeance abandoned a wicked man through lameness of foot
the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace- otign he has got a start on her" (Horace, Odes, 3.2.32}.
\ g^ndUure of energy.
2. I.e., flagstones. " hai/3 navin8 a face free from hair, wrinkles, etc.; used figuratively, the term means
3. A metal frame put in front of a fireplace to keep embers from rolling out onto the il°° • g or assuming a bland, ingratiating, or insinuating manner.
20 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE THE CAREW. MURDER CASE 21

"I have been wanting to speak to you, Jekyll," began the latter. rude. But I do sincerely take a.great,„a very great interest" iri that
"You know that" will of yours?" young man; and if I am taken away, Utterson, I wish you to promise
A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distaste- me that you will bear with him and get his rights for him. I think
ful; but the doctor carried it off gaily. "My poor Utterson," said he, you would, if you knew all; and it would be a .weight off my mind if
"you are unfortunate in such a client. I never saw a man so distressed you would promise."
as you,,were..by my will; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lan- "I can't pretend that I shall ever like him," said the lawyer.
yon, at what he called my scientific, heresies. O, I know he's a good "I don't ask that," pleaded Jekyll, laying his hand upon the other's
fellow—you needn't frown—an excellent fellow, and I always mean arm; "I only,ask for justice; I only ask you to help him for my sake,
to see more of him; but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, when l a m no longer here."
blatant pedant. I was never more disappointed in any man than Lan- Utterson heaved an irrepressible sigh. "Well," said he. "I promise."
yon."
"You know I never approved of it," pursued Utterson, ruthlessly
THE CAREW MURDER CASE.
disregarding the fresh topic.
y
"My will? Yes, certainly, I know that," said the doctor, a trifle
Nearly a year later, in the month of October 18—,' London was
sharply. "You have told me so."
startled by a crime of singular ferocity and rendered all the more
"Well, I tell you so again," continued'the lawyer. "I1 have been notable by the high position of the victim. The details were few and
'learning something of young Hyde." startling. A maid servant living alone in a house not far from the
The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale "to the very lips, river, had gone upstairs to bed about eleven. Although a fog rolled
and there came a blackness about his eyes. "I do not care to hear over the city in the small hours, the early part of the night was cloud-
more," said he. "This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop." less, and the lane, which the maid's window overlooked, was bril-
"What I heard was abominable," said Utterson. liantly lit by the full moon. It seems she was romantically given, for
"It can make no change. You do not understand my position," she sat down upon her box, which stood immediately under the.win-
returned the doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. "I am dow, and fell into a dream of musing. Never (she used to say, with
painfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange—a very streaming tears, when she narrated that experience) never had she
strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by felt more at peace with all men or thought more kindly of the world.
talking." And as she so sat she became aware of an aged and beautiful gen-
"Jekyll," said Utterson, "you know me: I am a man to be trusted. tleman with white hair, drawing near along the lane; and advancing
Make a clean breast of this in confidence; and I make no doubt I to meet him, another and very small gentleman, to whom at first she
can get you out of it." paid less attention. When they had come within speech (which was
"My good Utterson," said the doctor, "this is very good of you, this just under the maid's eyes) the older man bowed and accosted the
is downright good of you, and I cannot find words to thank you in. other with a very pretty manner of politeness. It did not seem as if
I believe you fully; I would trust you before any man alive, ay, before the subject of his address were of great importance; indeed, from his
myself, if I could make the choice; but indeed it isn't what you fancy; pointing, it sometimes appeared as if he were only inquiring his way;
it is not so bad as that; and just to put your good heart at rest, I will but the moon shone on his face as he spoke, and the girl was pleased
tell you one thing: the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde. to watch it, it seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world
I give you my hand upon that; and I.thank you again and again; and kindness of disposition, yet with-something high too, as of a well-
I will just add one little word, Utterson, that1 I'm sure you'll take in rounded self-content. Presently her eye wandered to the other, and
good part: this is a private matter, and I beg of you to let it sleep." she was surprised to recognise in him a certain Mr. Hyde, who had
Utterson reflected a little looking in the fire. once visited her master and for whom she had conceived a dislike.
"I have no-doubt you are perfectly right," he said at last, getting He had in his hand a heavy cane, with which he was trifling; but he
to his feet. answered never a word, and seemed to listen iwith an ill-contained
"Well, but since we have touched Upon this business, and for the
last time I hope," continued the doctor, "there is one point I should • otevenson followed a then-familiar literary convention in using a dash for thefinaltwo
like you to understand. I have really a very great interest in poor digits of a date so as to leave the exact year unspecified. Draft fragments of the tale show
that at an earlier stage of composition he included several fully specified dates that set
Hyde. I know you have seen him; he told me so; and I fear he was the action of the story in the years 1883-85.
22 DR: JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE THE CAREW MURDER CASE 23

impatience. And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame Mr. Utterson reflected; and then, raising his head," "If-you will
of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying come with me in; my cab," he said, "I thinkj can take you-to his
on (as the maid described it) like a madman. The old gentleman took house."
a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; It was by this time about nine in the morning, and the first fog of
and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all, bounds and clubbed him to the season.3 A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered4 over heaven,
the earth. And next-moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling but the wind was continually charging and routing these embattled
his'victim under foot, and.,hailing down_a storm of blows, under vapours; so that as the cab crawled from street to street, Mr. Utterson
which the bones were audibly "shattered and the body jumped upon beheld a marvellous number of degrees*and hues of twilight; for here
the roadway. At the horror of these sights* and sounds, the maid it would be dark like the back-end of evening;and there would be a
fainted. t glow of a rich, lurid brown, like the light_of some strange conflagra-
It was two o'clock when she came to herself and called for the tion; and here, for a moment, thefog would be quite broken up, and:
police. The murderer was gone long ago^ but there lay his victim in a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between ithe swirling
the middle of the lane, incredibly mangled^ The stick with which the wreaths. The dismal quarter of Soho seen under these changing
deed had been done, although it was"of sometrare and very tough glimpses,,. with its "muddy ways, and slatternly passengers, and its
and heavy wood, had.broken in the middle under the stress of this' lamps, which had never been.:extinguished or had been kindled
insensate cruelty;'and one splinteredvhalf had rolled in the neigh- afresh to. combat this mournful reinvasion of darkness, seemed, in
bouring gutter—the other, without doubt, had been carried away by the lawyer's* eyes, like a district of some city in a nightmare. The
the murderer. A purse and a gold, watch were found upon the victim; thoughts of his mind; besides, were of the gloomiest dye; and when
but no cards or papers; except a sealed and'stamped envelope, which he glancedat the companion of his drive; he was conscious of some
he had been probably carrying to the post,'and which bore the name touch of that terror of the law and the law's officers, which may at
f
and address of Mr.. Utterson. times assail the most honest. " * * « -. «..
This was brought?tb the lawyer thelnext morning, ibefore he was As the cab drew up before the address? indicated,tthe fog lifted a
out of bed; and he had no sooner seen it, and been told the circum-' little and showed him a dingy street, a-gin palace,5 a low French
stances, than he shot out a solemn lip., "I shall say nothing till I have eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers6 and twopenny
seen the body," said he; "this may be very serious. Have the kindness salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many
to wait while I dress." And with the same grave countenance he women of many different nationalitiesspa&sing out,;key in hand, to
hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police statiort,'whither have a morning glass; and the'next moment'the fog'settled down
the body had been carried. As soon as he came into the- cell, he again upon that part, as brown "asumber, arid'cut him off from his
nodded. • blackguardly surroundings. This was the home of Henry Jekyll's
"Yes," said he, "Lrecognise him. I am sorry to say that this.is Sir favourite; of a man who was heir to quarter of a million sterling.7
Danvers Carew."2 An ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door. She
"Good God, sir," exclaimed the officer, "is impossible?" And the had ah evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excel-
next moment his eye- lighted up with professional ambition. "This lent. Yes, she said, this was;-Mr. Hyde's, but he was not at home; he
will make a deal of noise,":he said. "And perhaps you can help us to had been in that night very!late,1 but,had gone away again in less
the man." And he. briefly narrated what the maid had seen, and than an hour; there was nothing strange in/that; his habits were very
showed the-broken stick. ., irregular, and he was often absent; for instance, it was nearly two
Mr. Utterson had already quailed at the name of Hyde; but when months since she' had seen him <till yesterday. , •>
the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer: broken and "Very well then, we wish to see his rooms," said the lawyer; and
battered as it was, he recognised it for one that he had himself pre-
sented many years before to Henry Jekyll. 3- In modern terms, smog; by the late nineteenth century, smoke pollution in industrialized
"Is this Mr. Hyde a person of small stature?" he inquired. London had become so thick that when mixed with fog, especially during the winter
months, it produced famously sky-darkening, choking hazes that could last for days or
"Particularly small and particularly wicked-looking, is what the weeks on end.
maid calls him," said the officer. 4. I.e., loured; looked dark and threatening.
5. The phrase was used contemptuously of the cheapest type of drinking establishment.
2. "Sir" is either the formal title conferred for his lifetime on a man who is given a knighthood 6-
7 Cheap serial installments of popular sensationfiction,also known as "penny dreadfuls."
or the title borne by a hereditary baronet.' - I.e., pounds sterling.
24 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE INCIDENT OF THE LETTER 25

when the woman began to declare it was impossible, "I had better down by the kitchen offices' and across a yard which had once been
tell you who this person is," he added. "This is Inspector Newcomen a garden, to the building which was indifferently2 known as the lab-
of Scotland Yard." oratory or the dissecting rooms. The doctor had bought the house
A flash of odious joy appeared upon the woman's face. "Ah!" said from the heirs of a celebrated surgeon; and his own tastes being
she, "he is in trouble! What has he done?" rather chemical than anatomical, had changed the destination of the
Mr. Utterson and the inspector exchanged glances. "He don't block3 at the bottom of the garden. It was the first time that the
seem a,very popular character," observed the latter. "And now, my lawyer had been received in that part of his friend's quarters; and he
good woman, just let me and this gentleman have a look about us." eyed the dingy windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round
In the whole extent of the house, which-but for the old woman with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre,4
remained otherwise empty, Mr. Hyde had only used' a couple of once crowded with eager students and now lying gaunt and silent,
rooms; but these were furnished with luxury and good taste. A closet the tables laden with chemical apparatus, the floor strewn with
was filled*with wine; the plate was of silver, the napeiy8 elegant; a crates and littered with packing straw, and the light falling dimly
good picture hung upon the walls, a gift (as Utterson supposed) from through the foggy cupola. At the further end, a flight of stairs
jHenry Jekyll, who was much of a connoisseur; and the carpets were mounted to a door covered with red baize; arid through this, Mr.
of many plies and agreeable in,colour. At this moment, however, the Utterson was at last received into the doctor's cabinet.5 It was a large
rooms bore every mark of having been recently and hurriedly ran- room, fitted round with glass presses,6 furnished, among other
sacked; clothes lay about the floor, with their..pockets inside out; things, with a cheval-glass7 and a business table, and looking out'
lockfast* drawers stood open; and on the hearth there lay a;pile of upon the court by three dusty windows barredlwith iron. The fire
gray ashes, as though many papers had been burned. From these burned in the grate; a lamp was set lighted on the chimney shelf, for
embers the inspector disinterred the butt end of a green cheque even in the houses the fog began-to lie thickly; and there, close,up
book, which had resisted the action of the fire; the other half of the to the warmth, sat Dr. Jekyll, looking deadly sick. He did not rise to:
stick was found behind the door; and as this clinched his suspicions, meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in
the officer declared himself delighted. A visit to the bank, where a changed voice.
several thousand pounds were found to be lying to the murderer's "And now," said Mr. Utterson, as soon as Poole had left them,
credit, completed his gratification. "you have heard the news?"
"You may depend upon it, sir," he told Mr. Utterson: "I have him The doctor shuddered. "They were crying it in the square," he said.
in my hand. He must have lost his head, or he never would have left "I heard them in my dining room."
the stick or, above all, burned the cheque book. Why, money's life "One word," said the lawyer. "Carew was my client, but so are you,
to the man. We have nothing to do but wait for him at the bank, and and I want to know what I am doing. You have not been mad enough
get out the handbills."1 to hide this fellow?"
This last, however, was not* so easy of accomplishment; for Mr. "Utterson, I swear to God," cried the doctor, "I swear to God I will
Hyde had numbered few familiars—even the master of the servant never set eyes on him again. I bind my honour to you that I am done
maid had(pnly seen him twice; his family could nowhere be traced; with him in this world. It is all at an end. And indeed he does not
he had never been photographed;'and the few who could describe want my help; you do not know him as I do; he .is safe, he is quite
him differedwidely, as common observers will. Only on one point, safe; mark my words, he will never more be heard of."
were they agreed; and that was the haunting sense of unexpressed The lawyer listened gloomily; he did not like his friend's feverish
deformity with which the fugitive impressed his beholders. manner. "You seem pretty sure of him," said he; "and for your sake,

INCIDENT OF THE LETTER. E Rooms devoted to kitchen functions.

^ Without difference or distinction.
It was late in the afternoon, when Mr. Utterson found his way to Dr. • te., had changed the purpose of the building.
surgical or anatomical theater, with seats for students arranged around a central lec-
Jekyll's door, where he was at onceadmitted by Poole, and carried during or demonstration platform.
A private chamber; etymologic ally connected with the tale's earlier use of "cabinet" as a
8. Domestic linens, especially table linens. urniture piece ("costly cabinets of oak") around the idea of a little cabin, room, or repos-
itory.
9. Fastened or secured by a lock (Scottish usage).
1. Printed sheets circulated locally by hand describing known or suspected criminals and j' Aifred cuPl,oards wi'" 8lass doors'
seeking information from the public to aid in their identification and arrest. full-length mirror pivotally attached to a stationary frame in which it may be tilted.'
26 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE INCIDENT OF THE LETTER 27

I hope you may be right. If it came to a trial, your name- might letter had come by the laboratory door; possibly, indeed, it had been
appear." written in the cabinet; and if that were so, it must be differently
"1 am quite sure of him," replied Jekyll; "I have grounds for cer- judged, and handled with the more caution. The newsboys, as he
tainty that il cannot share with anyone. But there is one thing on went, were crying themselves hoa'rse along the footways: "Special
which you may advise me. I have—I have received a letter; and I am edition. Shocking murder of an M.P."8 That was the funeral oration
at a loss whether I should show it to the police. I should like to leave ofone friend and client; and he could not help a certain apprehen-
it in your hands, Utterson; you would judge wisely I am sure; I have sion lest the good name of another should be sucked down in the
so great a trust in you." eddy of the scandal. It was, at least, a ticklish decision that he had
"You fear, I suppose, that it might lead to his detection?" asked to make; and self-reliant as he was by habit, he began to cherish a
the lawyer. longing for advice. It was not to be had directly; but perhaps, he
"No," said the other. "I cannot say that I care what becomes of thought, it might be fished for.
Hyde; I am quite done with him. I was thinking of my own character, Presently after, he sat on one side, of his own hearth, with Mr.
which this hateful business has rather exposed." Guest, his head clerk, upon the other, andmidway between, at a
Utterson ruminated awhile; he was surprised at his friend's self- nicely calculated distance from thefire, a bottle of a particular old
ishness, and yet relieved by it. "Well," said he, attlast, "let me see wine that had long dwelt unsunned in the foundations of his house.
the letter." The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city, where the
" The letter was written in an odd, upright hand and signed "Edward lamps> glimmered like carbuncles;9 and through the muffle and
Hyde": and it signified, briefly enough, that1 the writer's benefactor, smother of these fallen clouds, the procession of the town's life was
Dr. Jekyll, whom he had long so unworthily repaid for a thousand still rolling in through the great arteries with a sound as of a mighty
generosities, need labour under no alarm for his safety as he had wind. But the room was gay with firelight. In the bottle the acids
means of escape on which he placed a sure dependence. The lawyer were long ago resolved; the imperial dye1 had softened with time, as
liked this letter well enough; it put a better colour on the intimacy the colour grows richer in stained windows; and the glow of hot
than he had looked for; and he blamed himself for some of his past autumn afternoons on hillside vineyards, was ready to be set free and
suspicions. to disperse the fogs of London. Insensibly th'e lawyer melted. There
"Have you the envelope?" he asked. was no man from whom he kept fewer secrets than Mr. Guest; and
"I burned it," replied Jekyll, "before I thought what I was about. he was not always sure that he kept as many as he meant. Guest had
But it bore no postmark. The note was handed in." often been on business to the doctor's; he knew Poole; he could
scarce have failed to hear of Mr. I lyde's familiarity about the house;
"Shall I keep this and sleep upon it?" asked Utterson.
he, might draw conclusions: was it,not as well, then, that he should
"I wish you to'judge for. me entirely," was-the reply. "I have lost
see a letter which put that'mystery to rights? and above all since
confidence in myself."
Guest, being a great student and critic, of handwriting, would con-
"Well, I shall consider," returned the lawyer. "And how one word
sider the step natural and obliging? The clerk, besides, was a man of
more: it was Hyde who dictated the terms in your will about that
counsel; he would scarce read so strange a document without drop-
disappearance?"
ping a remark; and by that remark Mr. Utterson might shape his
The doctor seerhe'd seized with a qualm of faintness; he shut his future course.
mouth tight and nodded.
"I knew it," said Utterson. "He meant to murder you. You have "This is a sad business about Sir Danvers," he said.
had a fine escape." "Yes, sir, "indeed. It has elicited a great deal of public feeling,"
"I have had what is far more to the purpose," returned the doctor returned Guest. "The man, of course, was mad."
solemnly: "I have had a lesson—O God, Utterson,1 what a lesson I "1 should like to hear your views on that," replied Utterson. "I have
have had!" And he covered his face for a moment with his hands. a document here in his handwriting; it is between .ourselves, for I
On his way-out, the lawyer stopped and had a word or two with scarce know what to do about it; it is an ugly business at the best.
Poole. "By the by," said he "there was a letter handed in to-day: .what 8
was the messenger like?" But Poole was positive nothing had come - Member of Parliament.
"• Precious stones of a red orfierycolor.
except by post; "and only circulars by that," he added. 1 • A shade of crimson or purple recalling the dye used to color imperial robes worn in ancient
This news sent off the visitor with his fears renewed. Plainly the Rome.
 28 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE REMARKABLE INCIDENT OF DR. LANYON 29
2
But there it is; quite in your way: a murderer's autograph." their familiar guest and entertainer; and whilst he had always been
Guest's eyes brightened, and he sat down, at once and studied it known for charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion.
with passion. "No, sir," he said; "not mad; but it is an odd hand." He was busy, he was much in the open air, he did good; his face
"And by all accounts a very odd writer," added the lawyer. seemed to open and brighten, as if with an iriward consciousness of
Just then the servant entered with a note. service; and for more than two months, the doctor was at peace.
•I "Is that from Dr. Jekyll, sir?" inquired the clerk. "I thought I knew On the 8th of January Utterson had dined at the doctor's with a
the writing. Anything private, Mr. Utterson?" small party; Lanyon had been there; and the face of the host had
"Only an invitation to dinner. Why? do you want to see it?" looked from one to the other as in the old days when the trio were
"One moment. I thank you, sir;" and the clerk laid the two sheets inseparable friends. On the 12th, and again on the 14th, the door
of paper alongside and sedulously compared their contents. "Thank was shut against the lawyer. "The doctor, was confined to the house,"
you, sir," he said at last, returning both; "it's a very interesting auto- Poole said, "and saw ho one." On the 15th, he tried again, arid'was
graph"." again refused; and having now been used for the last two months to
I There was a pause, during which Mr. Utterson struggled with him- see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh?
self. "Why did you compare them, Guest?" he inquired suddenly. upon his spirits. The fifth night, he had in Guest to dine with him;
"Well, sir," returned the clerk, "there's a rather singular resem- and the sixth he betook himself to Dr. Lanyon's.
blance; the two hands are in many points identical:' only differently There at-least he was not denied admittance; but when he came
,1 I sloped." in, he was shocked at the change which had taken place in the doc-
"Rather quaint," said Utterson. tor's appearance. He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his
"It is, as you say; rather quaint," returned Guest. face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was
"I wouldn't speak of this note, yt$u know," said the master. - visibly balder and older; and yet it was not.so much these tokens of
"No, sir," said the clerk. "I understand." a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer's notice, as a look in
But no sooner was Mr. Utterson alone that night, thanhe locked the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-
the note into his safe where it reposed from that time forward. seated terror of the mind. It was unlikely,that the doctor should fear
"What!" he thought. "Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!" And his death; and yet that was what Utterson was tempted to suspect. "Yes,"
blood ran cold in his veins. he thought, "he is a doctor, he must know his own state and that his
days are counted; and the knowledge is more than he can bear." And
yet when Utterson remarked on his ill-looks, it was with an air of
REMARKABLE INCIDENT OF DR. LANYON.
great firmness that'Lanyon declared himself a doomed man.
Time ran on; thousands of pounds were offered in reward, for the "1 have had a shock," he.said, "and I shall never recover. It is a
death of Sir Danvers was resented as a public injury; but Mr. Hyde question of weeks. Well, life has been pleasant; I liked it; yes, sir, I
had disappeared out of the ken' of the police as though he had never used to like it. I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more
existed. Much of his past was unearthed, indeed, and all disreputa- glad to get away."
ble: tales came out of the man's cruelty, at once so callous and vio- "Jekyll is ill, too,"'observed Utterson. "Have you seen him?"
lent, of his vile life, of his strange associates, of the <• hatred that But Lanyon's face changed, and he held up a trembling hand. "I
seemed to have surrounded his career; but of his present wish to see or hear no more of Dr. Jekyll," he said in a loud, unsteady
whereabouts, not a whisper. From the time he had left the house in voice. "I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will
Soho on the morning of the murder, he was simply blotted out; and spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead."
gradually, as time, drew on, Mr. Utterson began to recover from the Tut-tut," said Mr. Utterson; and then after a considerable pause,
hotness of his alarm, and to grow more at quiet with himself. The Can't I do anything?" he inquired. "We are three very old friends,
death of Sir Danvers was, to his way of thinking, more than paid for Lanyon; we shall not live to make others."
by the disappearance of Mr. Hyde. Now that that evil influence had "Nothing can be done,'\returned Lanyon; "ask himself."
been withdrawn, a new life began for Dr. Jekyll. He came out of his He will not see me," said the lawyer.
seclusion, renewed relations with his friends, became once more I am not surprised at that," was the reply.
2, In your area of expertise or interest. Some day, Utterson, after I am dead, you may perhaps come to
1. Sight; knowledge. learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you. And in the mean-
 30 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE INCIDENT AT THE WINDOW 31

time,?if you can sit and talk with me of other things, for God's sake,. and horrible. Written by the hand of Lanyon, what should it mean?
stay and do so; but if you cannot keep clear of this accursed topic, A great curiosity came on the trustee, to disregard the prohibition
then.'in God's name, go, for I cannot bear it." and dive at once to the bottom ofthese mysteries; but professional
* As'soon as he got home, Utterson sat down and wrote to Jekyll, honour and faith to his dead friend were Astringent obligations, and
complaining of his exclusiori from the house, and asking the cause the packet slept inthe inmost corner of his private safe. *•
of this unhappy break with Lanyon; and the next day brought him a It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it; and it
IorigJanswer, often very pathetically worded, and sometimes darkly may be doubted if, from that day forth, Utterson desired the society
mysterious in drift. The quarrel with Lanyon was incurable. "Ido of his surviving friend with the same eagerness. He thought of him
not blame our old friend," Jekyll wrote, "but I share his view that we kindly; but his thoughts were disquieted and fearful.<He went to call
must never meet. I. mean, from henceforth toJead a life,of extreme indeed; but he was perhaps relieved to be denied admittance; per-
seclusion; you must not be surprised, nor must you doubt my haps, in his heart; he preferred to speak with Poole upon the door-
friendship, if my door is often shut even to you. You must suffer.me. step and surrounded by the air and sounds of the open city, rather
to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and than to be admitted into that house of voluntary bondage, and to sit
a danger that.I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners,2 I am the and speak with its inscrutable recluse. Poole had, indeed,*no very
chief of sufferers also. I could not think that this earth contained a pleasant news to communicate. The doctor, it appeared, now more
place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning; and you can do but than ever confined himself to the cabinet over the laboratory, where
one thing, Utterson, to lighten this destiny, and that is to. respect he would sometimes even sleep; he was out of spirits, he had grown
my silence." Utterson was1 amazed; the dark influence of Hyde had! very silent, he did not read; it seemed as if he had something on his
been withdrawn, the doctor had returned to his old tasks and ami-! mind. Utterson became so used to the unvarying character of these
ties; a week ago, the prospect-had smiled'with every promise of a? reports, that he fell off little by little in the frequency of his visits.
cheerful.and anjhonoured age; anfl now in a moment, friendship,
and peace of mind and the whole tenor of his life were wrecked. So
great and unprepared a change pointed to.madness;.but in view of INCIDENT AT THE WINDOW.'
Lanyon's manner' and words, there must lie for it some deeper It chanced on Sunday, when.; Mr. Utterson was on his usual walk
ground. w, with Mr. Enfield1, that their way lay once again through the by-street;
A week afterwards Dr. Lanyon took to his bed, and in something and that when they came in front of the. door, both stopped to gaze
less than a fortnight he was dead. The night after the funeral, at on it.
which he had been sadly affected, Utterson locked the door of his "Well," said Enfield, "that story's at an end at least. We shall never
business room, and sitting there by the light of a melancholy candle, see more of Mr. Hyde."
drew out and set before him an envelope addressed by the hand and "I hope not," said Utterson. "Did I ever tell you that I once saw
sealed with the seal of his dead friend.'"PRIVATE: for the,hands of him, and shared your feeling of repulsion?"
J. G. Utterson ALONE and in case of his predecease to be. destroyed "It was impossible to do the one without the other," returned
unread," so it was emphatically superscribed; and the lawyer dreaded Enfield. "And by the way what an ass ..your must have thought me,
to behold the contents. "I Have buried one friend to-day," he thought: not to know that this was a back way To Dr. Jekyll's! It was partly
"what if this should cost me another?" And then he condemned the your own fault that I found it out, even when, I did."
fear as a disloyalty, and broke the seal. Within there was another, "So you;found it out, did you?" said Utterson.
enclosure, likewise sealed, and marked upon the cover as "not to be "But if that be so, we may step-into the court and.take a look at
opened till the death or disappearance of Dr. Henry Jekyll." Utterson the windows. To tell you the truth, I am uneasy about poor Jekyll;
could not trust his eyes. Yes, it was disappearance; here again, as in and even outside, I feel as if the presence.of a friend might do him
the mad will which he had long ago restored to its author, here again' good."
were the idea of a disappearance and the name of Henry Jekyll brack- The court was very cool and a little damp, and full of premature
eted. But in the will, that idea had sprung from the sinister sugges- twilight, although the sky,ihigh up overhead, was still bright with
tion of the man Hyde; it was set there with a purpose all too plain sunset. The middle one of the three windows was half way open; and
sitting close beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien,
2. An echo of the line in Paul's First Epistle to Timothy, "Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners; of whom 1 am chief" {I Timothy 1:15). like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll.
 32 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE THE LAST NIGHT 33

"What! Jekyll!" he cried. "Istrust you are better." *" The man's appearance amply bore out his words; his manner was
"I am very low, Utterson," replied the doctor drearily, "very low. It altered for the worse; and except for thcmoment when he had first
'will not last long, thank God." announced his terror, he had not once looked the lawyer in the face.
"You stay too much indoors," said the lawyer. "You should be out, Even now, he sat with the glass of wine untasted on his knee, and
whipping up the circulation like Mr. Enfield" and me. (This is my his eyes directed to a corner of the floor. "I can bear it no more," he
cousin—Mr. Enfield—Dr. Jekyll.) Come now; get your hat and take repeated.
a quick turn with us." "Come," said the lawyer, "I see you have some good reason, Poole;
"You are very good," sighed the other. "I should like to very much; I see there is something seriously amiss:vTry to tell me what it is."
but no, no, no, it is quite impossible; I dare-not.-But indeed, Utter- "I think there's been foul play," said Poole, hoarsely.
son, I am very glad to see you; this is really a great pleasure; I would "Foul play!" cried the lawyer, a good deal frightened and rather
ask you and Mr. Enfield up, but the place is really not fit." inclined to be irritated in consequence. "What foul play? What does
"Why then," said the lawyer, good-naturedly, "the best thing we the man mean?"
can do is to stay down here and speak with you from where we are." "I daren't say, sir," was the answer; "but will you come along with
"That is just what I was about to venture to propose," returned the me and see for yourself?"
doctor with a smile. But the words were hardly uttered, before the Mr. Utterson's only answer was to rise and get his hat and great
smile was struck* out of his face and succeeded by an expression of coat; but he observed with wonder the greatness of the-relief that
such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two appeared upon the butler's face, and perhaps with no less, that the
II gentlemen below. They saw it but Mr a glimpse, for the window was wine was still untasted when he set it down to follow.
instantly thrust down; but that glimpse had been sufficient, and they It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon,
turned and 'left the court without a word. In silence, too, they tra- lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and a flying
versed the by-street; and it was not until they had come into a neigh- wrack of the most diaphanous arid lawny1 texture. The wind made
bouring thoroughfare, where even upon a Sunday there were still talking difficult, and flecked the blood into the face. It seemed to
some stirrings of life, that Mr. Utterson at last turned and looked at have swept the streets unusually bare of passengers, besides; for Mr.
his companion. They were both pale; and there was an answering Utterson thought he had never seen that part of London so deserted.
horror in their eyes. He could have wished it otherwise; never'in his life had he been
"God forgive us, God forgive us," said Mr. Utterson. conscious of so sharp a wish to see and touch his fellow-creatures;
But Mr. Enfield only nodded his head very seriously, and walked for struggle as he might, there was borne in upon his mind a crushing
on once more in silence. anticipation of calamity. The square, when they got there, was all
full of wind and dust, and the thin trees in the garden were lashing
themselves along the railing. Poole, who had kept all the way a pace
THE LAST NIGHT. or two ahead, now pulled up in the middle of the pavement, and in
Mr. Utterson was. sitting by his fireside one evening after dinner, spite of the biting weather, took off his hat and mopped his brow
when he was surprised to receive a visit from-Poole. with a red pocket-handkerchief. But for all the hurry of his coming,
"Bless me, Poole, what brings you here?" he cried; and then taking these were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the
a second look at hini, "What ails you?" he added, "is the doctor ill?" moisture of some strangling anguish; for his face was white and his
"Mr. Utterson," said the man, "there is something wrong." voice, when1 he spoke, harsh and broken.
"Take a seat, and here,is a glass of wine for you," said the lawyer. "Well, sir," he said, "here we are,"and God grant there be nothing
"Now, take your time, and tell me plainly what you want." wrong."
"You know the doctor's ways, sir," replied Poole, "and how he shuts "Amen, Poole," said the lawyer.
himself up. Well, he's shut up again in the cabinet; and I don't like Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the
it, sir—I wish I may die if I like it. Mr.-Utterson, sir, I'm afraid." door was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, "Is
"Now, my good man," said the lawyer, "be explicit. What are you that you, Poole?"
afraid of?" "Its all right," said Poole. "Open the door."
"I've been afraid for about a week," returned Poole, doggedly dis- 1 • Wrack: a layer or mound of clouds pushed by the wind; lawny: characteristic of the thin,
regarding the question, "and I can bear it no more." fine-spun fabric known as lawn.