'Common friends?' echoed Mr. Hyde, a little hoarsely. 'Who are they?'
'Jekyll, for instance,' said the lawyer.
'He never told you,' cried Mr. Hyde, with a flush of anger. 'I did not think
you would have lied.'
'Come,' said Mr. Utterson, 'that is not fitting language.'
The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with
extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared into the
house.
The lawyer stood awhile when Mr. Hyde had left him, the picture of dis
quietude. Then he began slowly to mount the street, pausing every step or two
and putting his hand to his brow like a man in mental perplexity. The problem
he was thus debating as he walked, was one of a class that is rarely solved.
Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without
any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself
to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and
he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; all these were
points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto
unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him.
'There must be something else,' said the perplexed gentleman. 'There is some
thing more, if I could find a name for it. God bless me, the man seems hardly
human! Something troglodytic, shall we say? or can it be the old story of Dr.
Fell? or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and
transfigures, its clay continent?1 The last, I think; for, O my poor old Harry
Jekyll, if ever I read Satan's signature upon a face, it is on that of your new
friend.' Round the corner from the by-street, there was a square of ancient, hand
some houses, now for the most part decayed from their high estate and let in
flats and chambers to all sorts and conditions of men: map-engravers, archi
tects, shady lawyers and the agents of obscure enterprises. One house, how
ever, second from the corner, was still occupied entire; and at the door of this,
which wore a great air of wealth and comfort, though it was now plunged in
darkness except for the fanlight, Mr. Utterson stopped and knocked. A well-
dressed, elderly servant opened the door.
'Is Dr. Jekyll at home, Poole?' asked the lawyer.
'I will see, Mr. Utterson,' said Poole, admitting the visitor, as he spoke, into
a large, low-roofed, comfortable hall, paved with flags,2 warmed (after the
fashion of a country house) by a bright, open fire, and furnished with costly
cabinets of oak. 'Will you wait here by the fire, sir? or shall I give you a light
in the dining-room?' 'Here, thank you,' said the lawyer, and he drew near and leaned on the tall
fender.3 This hall, in which he was now left alone, was a pet fancy of his friend
the doctor's; and Utterson himself was wont to speak of it as the pleasantest
room in London. But to-night there was a shudder in his blood; the face of
Hyde sat heavy on his memory; he felt (what was rare with him) a nausea and
1. Container. 'Troglodytic': like a prehistoric cave why I cannot tell.' dweller or apelike. Dr. Fell: figure from the nursery 2. Flagstones. rhyme 'I do not like thee Dr. Fell; / The reason 3. Metal frame in front of a fireplace.
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THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE / 1653
distaste of life; and in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed to read a menace in
the flickering of the firelight on the polished cabinets and the uneasy starting
of the shadow on the roof. He was ashamed of his relief, when Poole presently
returned to announce that Dr. Jekyll was gone out.
