'I saw Mr. Hyde go in by the old dissecting-room door, Poole,' he said. 'Is
that right, when Dr. Jekyll is from home?'
'Quite right, Mr. Utterson, sir,' replied the servant. 'Mr. Hyde has a key.'
'Your master seems to repose a great deal of trust in that young man, Poole,'
resumed the other musingly.
'Yes, sir, he do indeed,' said Poole. 'We have all orders to obey him.'
'I do not think I ever met Mr. Hyde?' asked Utterson.
'O, dear no, sir. He never dines here,' replied the butler. 'Indeed we see
very little of him on this side of the house; he mostly comes and goes by the
laboratory.'
'Well, good-night, Poole.'
'Good-night, Mr. Utterson.'
And the lawyer set out homeward with a very heavy heart. 'Poor 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 the law of God, there is no statute of limitations. Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace: punishment coming, -pede claudo,4 years after memory has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault.' And the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded awhile on his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there. His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into a sober and fearful gratitude by the many that he had come so near to doing, yet avoided. And then by a return on his former subject, he conceived a spark of hope. 'This Master Hyde, if he were studied,' thought he, 'must have secrets of his own; black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll's worst would be like sunshine. Things cannot continue as they are. It turns me cold to think of this creature stealing like a thief to Harry's bedside; poor Harry, what a wakening! And the danger of it; for if this Hyde suspects the existence of the will, he may grow impatient to inherit. Ay, I must put my shoulder to the wheel?if Jekyll will but let me,' he added, 'if Jekyll will only let me.' For once more he saw before his mind's eye, as clear as a transparency, the strange
clauses of the will.
Dr. Jekyll Was Quite at Ease
A fortnight later, by excellent good fortune, the doctor gave one of his pleas
ant dinners to some five or six old cronies, all intelligent, reputable men and
all judges of good wine; and Mr. Utterson so contrived that he remained
behind after the others had departed. This was no new arrangement, but a
thing that had befallen many scores of times. Where Utterson was liked, he
was liked well. Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted
and the loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; they liked to
4. With lame foot (Latin). From the Roman poet Horace's Odes 3.2.32: 'Rarely has Vengeance with her lame foot abandoned the wicked man with a head start on her.'
.
1654 / ROBERT Louis STEVENSON
sit awhile in his unobtrusive company, practising for solitude, sobering their
minds in the man's rich silence after the expense and strain of gaiety. To this
rule, Dr. Jekyll was no exception; and as he now sat on the opposite side of
the fire?a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a
slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness?you could see
by his looks that he cherished for Mr. Utterson a sincere and warm affection.
'I have been wanting to speak to you, Jekyll,' began the latter. 'You know
that will of yours?'
A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distasteful; but the
doctor carried it off gaily. 'My poor Utterson,' said he, 'you are unfortunate
in such a client. I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will; unless
it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my scientific
heresies. O, I know he's a good fellow?you needn't frown?an excellent fel
low, and I always mean to see more of him; but a hide-bound pedant for all
that; an ignorant, blatant pedant. I was never more disappointed in any man
than Lanyon.' 'You know I never approved of it,' pursued Utterson, ruthlessly disregarding
the fresh topic.
