'My will? Yes, certainly, I know that,' said the doctor, a trifle sharply. 'You
have told me so.'
'Well, I tell you so again,' continued the lawyer. 'I have been learning
something of young Hyde.' The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there
came a blackness about his eyes. 'I do not care to hear more,' said he. 'This
is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop.'
'What I heard was abominable,' said Utterson.
'It can make no change. You do not understand my position,' returned the
doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. 'I am painfully situated, Utter-
son; my position is a very strange?a very strange one. It is one of those affairs
that cannot be mended by talking.'
'Jekyll,' said Utterson, 'you know me: I am a man to be trusted. Make a
clean breast of this in confidence; and I make no doubt I can get you out of
it.'
'My good Utterson,' said the doctor, 'this is very good of you, this is down
right good of you, and I cannot find words to thank you in. I believe you fully;
1 would trust you before any man alive, ay, before myself, if I could make the
choice; but indeed it isn't what you fancy; it is not so bad as that; and just to
put your good heart at rest, I will tell you one thing: the moment I choose, I
can be rid of Mr. Hyde. I give you my hand upon that; and I thank you again
and again; and I will just add one little word, Utterson, that I'm sure you'll
take in good part: this is a private matter, and I beg of you to let it sleep.'
Utterson reflected a little, looking in the fire. 'I have no doubt you are perfectly right,' he said at last, getting to his feet.
'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 like you to under
stand. I have really a very great interest in poor Hyde. I know you have seen
him; he told me so; and I fear he was rude. But I do sincerely take a great, a
very great interest in that young man; and if I am taken away, Utterson, I wish
you to promise me that you will bear with him and get his rights for him. I
think you would, if you knew all; and it would be a weight off my mind if you
would promise.' 'I can't pretend that I shall ever like him,' said the lawyer.
.
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE / 1655
'I don't ask that,' pleaded Jekyll, laying his hand upon the other's arm; 'I
only ask for justice; I only ask you to help him for my sake, when I am no
longer here.'
Utterson heaved an irrepressible sigh. 'Well,' said he, 'I promise.'
The Carew Murder Case
Nearly a year later, in the month of October, 18?, London was startled by
a crime of singular ferocity and rendered all the more notable by the high
position of the victim. The details were few and startling. A maid servant living
alone in a house not far from the river, had gone upstairs to bed about eleven.
Although a fog rolled over the city in the small hours, the early part of the
night was cloudless, and the lane, which the maid's window overlooked, was
brilliantly lit by the full moon. It seems she was romantically given, for she sat
down upon her box, which stood immediately under the window, and fell into
a dream of musing. Never (she used to say, with streaming tears, when she
narrated that experience), never had she felt more at peace with all men or
thought more kindly of the world. And as she so sat she became aware of an
