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chapter 1.story of the door mr. utterson the lawyer was a man of arugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed indiscourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehowlovable. at friendly meetings, and when the wine wasto his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something indeedwhich never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but moreoften and loudly in the acts of his life. he was austere with himself; drank gin whenhe was alone, to mortify a taste for

vintages; and though he enjoyed thetheater, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. but he had an approved tolerance forothers; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spiritsinvolved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than toreprove. "i incline to cain's heresy," he used tosay quaintly: "i let my brother go to the devil in his own way." in this character, it was frequently hisfortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence inthe lives of downgoing men.

and to such as these, so long as they cameabout his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour. no doubt the feat was easy to mr. utterson;for he was undemonstrative at the best, and even his friendship seemed to be founded ina similar catholicity of good-nature. it is the mark of a modest man to accepthis friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity; and that was thelawyer's way. his friends were those of his own blood orthose whom he had known the longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth oftime, they implied no aptness in the object.

hence, no doubt the bond that united him tomr. richard enfield, his distant kinsman, the well-known man about town. it was a nut to crack for many, what thesetwo could see in each other, or what subject they could find in common. it was reported by those who encounteredthem in their sunday walks, that they said nothing, looked singularly dull and wouldhail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend. for all that, the two men put the greateststore by these excursions, counted them the chief jewel of each week, and not only setaside occasions of pleasure, but even

resisted the calls of business, that theymight enjoy them uninterrupted. it chanced on one of these rambles thattheir way led them down a by-street in a busy quarter of london. the street was small and what is calledquiet, but it drove a thriving trade on the weekdays. the inhabitants were all doing well, itseemed and all emulously hoping to do better still, and laying out the surplus oftheir grains in coquetry; so that the shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation, like rows of smilingsaleswomen.

even on sunday, when it veiled its moreflorid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out incontrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses,and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of thepassenger. two doors from one corner, on the left handgoing east the line was broken by the entry of a court; and just at that point acertain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street. it was two storeys high; showed no window,nothing but a door on the lower storey and

a blind forehead of discoloured wall on theupper; and bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence. the door, which was equipped with neitherbell nor knocker, was blistered and distained. tramps slouched into the recess and struckmatches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps; the schoolboy had tried hisknife on the mouldings; and for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repairtheir ravages. mr. enfield and the lawyer were on theother side of the by-street; but when they

came abreast of the entry, the formerlifted up his cane and pointed. "did you ever remark that door?" he asked;and when his companion had replied in the affirmative."it is connected in my mind," added he, "with a very odd story." "indeed?" said mr. utterson, with a slightchange of voice, "and what was that?" "well, it was this way," returned mr.enfield: "i was coming home from some place at the end of the world, about threeo'clock of a black winter morning, and my way lay through a part of town where therewas literally nothing to be seen but lamps. street after street and all the folksasleep--street after street, all lighted up

as if for a procession and all as empty asa church--till at last i got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight ofa policeman. all at once, i saw two figures: one alittle man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a girl ofmaybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street. well, sir, the two ran into one anothernaturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of the thing; forthe man trampled calmly over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground.

it sounds nothing to hear, but it washellish to see. it wasn't like a man; it was like somedamned juggernaut. i gave a few halloa, took to my heels,collared my gentleman, and brought him back to where there was already quite a groupabout the screaming child. he was perfectly cool and made noresistance, but gave me one look, so ugly that it brought out the sweat on me likerunning. the people who had turned out were thegirl's own family; and pretty soon, the doctor, for whom she had been sent put inhis appearance. well, the child was not much the worse,more frightened, according to the sawbones;

and there you might have supposed would bean end to it. but there was one curious circumstance. i had taken a loathing to my gentleman atfirst sight. so had the child's family, which was onlynatural. but the doctor's case was what struck me. he was the usual cut and dry apothecary, ofno particular age and colour, with a strong edinburgh accent and about as emotional asa bagpipe. well, sir, he was like the rest of us;every time he looked at my prisoner, i saw that sawbones turn sick and white withdesire to kill him.

i knew what was in his mind, just as heknew what was in mine; and killing being out of the question, we did the next best. we told the man we could and would makesuch a scandal out of this as should make his name stink from one end of london tothe other. if he had any friends or any credit, weundertook that he should lose them. and all the time, as we were pitching it inred hot, we were keeping the women off him as best we could for they were as wild asharpies. i never saw a circle of such hateful faces;and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of black sneering coolness--frightenedtoo, i could see that--but carrying it off,

sir, really like satan. `if you choose to make capital out of thisaccident,' said he, `i am naturally helpless.no gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene,' says he. `name your figure.' well, we screwed him up to a hundred poundsfor the child's family; he would have clearly liked to stick out; but there wassomething about the lot of us that meant mischief, and at last he struck. the next thing was to get the money; andwhere do you think he carried us but to

that place with the door?--whipped out akey, went in, and presently came back with the matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on coutts's, drawnpayable to bearer and signed with a name that i can't mention, though it's one ofthe points of my story, but it was a name at least very well known and often printed. the figure was stiff; but the signature wasgood for more than that if it was only genuine. i took the liberty of pointing out to mygentleman that the whole business looked apocryphal, and that a man does not, inreal life, walk into a cellar door at four

in the morning and come out with another man's cheque for close upon a hundredpounds. but he was quite easy and sneering. `set your mind at rest,' says he, `i willstay with you till the banks open and cash the cheque myself.' so we all set off, the doctor, and thechild's father, and our friend and myself, and passed the rest of the night in mychambers; and next day, when we had breakfasted, went in a body to the bank. i gave in the cheque myself, and said i hadevery reason to believe it was a forgery.

not a bit of it.the cheque was genuine." "tut-tut," said mr. utterson. "i see you feel as i do," said mr. enfield."yes, it's a bad story. for my man was a fellow that nobody couldhave to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the verypink of the proprieties, celebrated too, and (what makes it worse) one of yourfellows who do what they call good. black mail i suppose; an honest man payingthrough the nose for some of the capers of his youth. black mail house is what i call the placewith the door, in consequence.

though even that, you know, is far fromexplaining all," he added, and with the words fell into a vein of musing. from this he was recalled by mr. uttersonasking rather suddenly: "and you don't know if the drawer of the cheque lives there?""a likely place, isn't it?" returned mr. enfield. "but i happen to have noticed his address;he lives in some square or other." "and you never asked about the--place withthe door?" said mr. utterson. "no, sir: i had a delicacy," was the reply. "i feel very strongly about puttingquestions; it partakes too much of the

style of the day of judgment.you start a question, and it's like starting a stone. you sit quietly on the top of a hill; andaway the stone goes, starting others; and presently some bland old bird (the last youwould have thought of) is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the familyhave to change their name. no sir, i make it a rule of mine: the moreit looks like queer street, the less i ask." "a very good rule, too," said the lawyer."but i have studied the place for myself," continued mr. enfield."it seems scarcely a house.

there is no other door, and nobody goes inor out of that one but, once in a great while, the gentleman of my adventure. there are three windows looking on thecourt on the first floor; none below; the windows are always shut but they're clean. and then there is a chimney which isgenerally smoking; so somebody must live there. and yet it's not so sure; for the buildingsare so packed together about the court, that it's hard to say where one ends andanother begins." the pair walked on again for a while insilence; and then "enfield," said mr.

utterson, "that's a good rule of yours.""yes, i think it is," returned enfield. "but for all that," continued the lawyer,"there's one point i want to ask: i want to ask the name of that man who walked overthe child." "well," said mr. enfield, "i can't see whatharm it would do. it was a man of the name of hyde.""hm," said mr. utterson. "what sort of a man is he to see?" "he is not easy to describe.there is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing,something down-right detestable. i never saw a man i so disliked, and yet iscarce know why.

he must be deformed somewhere; he gives astrong feeling of deformity, although i couldn't specify the point. he's an extraordinary looking man, and yeti really can name nothing out of the way. no, sir; i can make no hand of it; i can'tdescribe him. and it's not want of memory; for i declarei can see him this moment." mr. utterson again walked some way insilence and obviously under a weight of consideration. "you are sure he used a key?" he inquiredat last. "my dear sir..." began enfield, surprisedout of himself.

"yes, i know," said utterson; "i know itmust seem strange. the fact is, if i do not ask you the nameof the other party, it is because i know it already. you see, richard, your tale has gone home.if you have been inexact in any point you had better correct it." "i think you might have warned me,"returned the other with a touch of sullenness."but i have been pedantically exact, as you call it. the fellow had a key; and what's more, hehas it still.

i saw him use it not a week ago."mr. utterson sighed deeply but said never a word; and the young man presently resumed. "here is another lesson to say nothing,"said he. "i am ashamed of my long tongue.let us make a bargain never to refer to this again." "with all my heart," said the lawyer."i shake hands on that, richard." -chapter 2.search for mr. hyde that evening mr. utterson came home to hisbachelor house in sombre spirits and sat down to dinner without relish.

it was his custom of a sunday, when thismeal was over, to sit close by the fire, a volume of some dry divinity on his readingdesk, until the clock of the neighbouring church rang out the hour of twelve, when hewould go soberly and gratefully to bed. on this night however, as soon as the clothwas taken away, he took up a candle and went into his business room. there he opened his safe, took from themost private part of it a document endorsed on the envelope as dr. jekyll's will andsat down with a clouded brow to study its contents. the will was holograph, for mr. uttersonthough he took charge of it now that it was

made, had refused to lend the leastassistance in the making of it; it provided not only that, in case of the decease of henry jekyll, m.d., d.c.l., l.l.d., f.r.s.,etc., all his possessions were to pass into the hands of his "friend and benefactoredward hyde," but that in case of dr. jekyll's "disappearance or unexplained absence for any period exceeding threecalendar months," the said edward hyde should step into the said henry jekyll'sshoes without further delay and free from any burthen or obligation beyond the payment of a few small sums to the membersof the doctor's household.

this document had long been the lawyer'seyesore. it offended him both as a lawyer and as alover of the sane and customary sides of life, to whom the fanciful was theimmodest. and hitherto it was his ignorance of mr.hyde that had swelled his indignation; now, by a sudden turn, it was his knowledge.it was already bad enough when the name was but a name of which he could learn no more. it was worse when it began to be clothedupon with detestable attributes; and out of the shifting, insubstantial mists that hadso long baffled his eye, there leaped up the sudden, definite presentment of afiend.

"i thought it was madness," he said, as hereplaced the obnoxious paper in the safe, "and now i begin to fear it is disgrace." with that he blew out his candle, put on agreatcoat, and set forth in the direction of cavendish square, that citadel ofmedicine, where his friend, the great dr. lanyon, had his house and received hiscrowding patients. "if anyone knows, it will be lanyon," hehad thought. the solemn butler knew and welcomed him; hewas subjected to no stage of delay, but ushered direct from the door to the dining-room where dr. lanyon sat alone over his wine.

this was a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white, and a boisterous anddecided manner. at sight of mr. utterson, he sprang up fromhis chair and welcomed him with both hands. the geniality, as was the way of the man,was somewhat theatrical to the eye; but it reposed on genuine feeling. for these two were old friends, old matesboth at school and college, both thorough respectors of themselves and of each other,and what does not always follow, men who thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. after a little rambling talk, the lawyerled up to the subject which so disagreeably

preoccupied his mind. "i suppose, lanyon," said he, "you and imust be the two oldest friends that henry jekyll has?""i wish the friends were younger," chuckled dr. lanyon. "but i suppose we are.and what of that? i see little of him now.""indeed?" said utterson. "i thought you had a bond of commoninterest." "we had," was the reply."but it is more than ten years since henry jekyll became too fanciful for me.

he began to go wrong, wrong in mind; andthough of course i continue to take an interest in him for old sake's sake, asthey say, i see and i have seen devilish little of the man. such unscientific balderdash," added thedoctor, flushing suddenly purple, "would have estranged damon and pythias."this little spirit of temper was somewhat of a relief to mr. utterson. "they have only differed on some point ofscience," he thought; and being a man of no scientific passions (except in the matterof conveyancing), he even added: "it is nothing worse than that!"

he gave his friend a few seconds to recoverhis composure, and then approached the question he had come to put."did you ever come across a protege of his- -one hyde?" he asked. "hyde?" repeated lanyon."no. never heard of him. since my time." that was the amount of information that thelawyer carried back with him to the great, dark bed on which he tossed to and fro,until the small hours of the morning began to grow large. it was a night of little ease to histoiling mind, toiling in mere darkness and

beseiged by questions. six o'clock struck on the bells of thechurch that was so conveniently near to mr. utterson's dwelling, and still he wasdigging at the problem. hitherto it had touched him on theintellectual side alone; but now his imagination also was engaged, or ratherenslaved; and as he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained room, mr. enfield's tale went bybefore his mind in a scroll of lighted pictures. he would be aware of the great field oflamps of a nocturnal city; then of the

figure of a man walking swiftly; then of achild running from the doctor's; and then these met, and that human juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless ofher screams. or else he would see a room in a richhouse, where his friend lay asleep, dreaming and smiling at his dreams; andthen the door of that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked apart, the sleeper recalled, and lo! there would standby his side a figure to whom power was given, and even at that dead hour, he mustrise and do its bidding. the figure in these two phases haunted thelawyer all night; and if at any time he

dozed over, it was but to see it glide morestealthily through sleeping houses, or move the more swiftly and still the more swiftly, even to dizziness, through widerlabyrinths of lamplighted city, and at every street corner crush a child and leaveher screaming. and still the figure had no face by whichhe might know it; even in his dreams, it had no face, or one that baffled him andmelted before his eyes; and thus it was that there sprang up and grew apace in the lawyer's mind a singularly strong, almostan inordinate, curiosity to behold the features of the real mr. hyde.

if he could but once set eyes on him, hethought the mystery would lighten and perhaps roll altogether away, as was thehabit of mysterious things when well examined. he might see a reason for his friend'sstrange preference or bondage (call it which you please) and even for thestartling clause of the will. at least it would be a face worth seeing:the face of a man who was without bowels of mercy: a face which had but to show itselfto raise up, in the mind of the unimpressionable enfield, a spirit ofenduring hatred. from that time forward, mr. utterson beganto haunt the door in the by-street of

shops. in the morning before office hours, at noonwhen business was plenty, and time scarce, at night under the face of the fogged citymoon, by all lights and at all hours of solitude or concourse, the lawyer was to befound on his chosen post. "if he be mr. hyde," he had thought, "ishall be mr. seek." and at last his patience was rewarded. it was a fine dry night; frost in the air;the streets as clean as a ballroom floor; the lamps, unshaken by any wind, drawing aregular pattern of light and shadow. by ten o'clock, when the shops were closedthe by-street was very solitary and, in

spite of the low growl of london from allround, very silent. small sounds carried far; domestic soundsout of the houses were clearly audible on either side of the roadway; and the rumourof the approach of any passenger preceded him by a long time. mr. utterson had been some minutes at hispost, when he was aware of an odd light footstep drawing near. in the course of his nightly patrols, hehad long grown accustomed to the quaint effect with which the footfalls of a singleperson, while he is still a great way off, suddenly spring out distinct from the vasthum and clatter of the city.

yet his attention had never before been sosharply and decisively arrested; and it was with a strong, superstitious prevision ofsuccess that he withdrew into the entry of the court. the steps drew swiftly nearer, and swelledout suddenly louder as they turned the end of the street. the lawyer, looking forth from the entry,could soon see what manner of man he had to deal with. he was small and very plainly dressed andthe look of him, even at that distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher'sinclination.

but he made straight for the door, crossingthe roadway to save time; and as he came, he drew a key from his pocket like oneapproaching home. mr. utterson stepped out and touched him onthe shoulder as he passed. "mr. hyde, i think?"mr. hyde shrank back with a hissing intake of the breath. but his fear was only momentary; and thoughhe did not look the lawyer in the face, he answered coolly enough: "that is my name.what do you want?" "i see you are going in," returned thelawyer. "i am an old friend of dr. jekyll's--mr.utterson of gaunt street--you must have

heard of my name; and meeting you soconveniently, i thought you might admit me." "you will not find dr. jekyll; he is fromhome," replied mr. hyde, blowing in the key. and then suddenly, but still withoutlooking up, "how did you know me?" he asked."on your side," said mr. utterson "will you do me a favour?" "with pleasure," replied the other."what shall it be?" "will you let me see your face?" asked thelawyer.

mr. hyde appeared to hesitate, and then, asif upon some sudden reflection, fronted about with an air of defiance; and the pairstared at each other pretty fixedly for a few seconds. "now i shall know you again," said mr.utterson. "it may be useful." "yes," returned mr. hyde, "it is as well wehave met; and apropos, you should have my address."and he gave a number of a street in soho. "good god!" thought mr. utterson, "can he,too, have been thinking of the will?" but he kept his feelings to himself andonly grunted in acknowledgment of the

address. "and now," said the other, "how did youknow me?" "by description," was the reply."whose description?" "we have common friends," said mr.utterson. "common friends," echoed mr. hyde, a littlehoarsely. "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 notfitting language."

the other snarled aloud into a savagelaugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlockedthe door and disappeared into the house. the lawyer stood awhile when mr. hyde hadleft him, the picture of disquietude. then he began slowly to mount the street,pausing every step or two and putting his hand to his brow like a man in mentalperplexity. the problem he was thus debating as hewalked, was one of a class that is rarely solved. mr. hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave animpression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasingsmile, he had borne himself to the lawyer

with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with ahusky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; all these were points against him,but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing andfear with which mr. utterson regarded him. "there must be something else," said theperplexed gentleman. "there is something more, if i could find aname for it. god bless me, the man seems hardly human! something troglodytic, shall we say? or canit be the old story of dr. fell? or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thustranspires through, and transfigures, its

clay continent? the last, i think; for, o my poor old harryjekyll, if ever i read satan's signature upon a face, it is on that of your newfriend." round the corner from the by-street, therewas a square of ancient, handsome houses, now for the most part decayed from theirhigh estate and let in flats and chambers to all sorts and conditions of men; map- engravers, architects, shady lawyers andthe agents of obscure enterprises. one house, however, second from the corner,was still occupied entire; and at the door of this, which wore a great air of wealthand comfort, though it was now plunged in

darkness except for the fanlight, mr.utterson stopped and knocked. a well-dressed, elderly servant opened thedoor. "is dr. jekyll at home, poole?" asked thelawyer. "i will see, mr. utterson," said poole,admitting the visitor, as he spoke, into a large, low-roofed, comfortable hall pavedwith flags, warmed (after the fashion of a country house) by a bright, open fire, andfurnished with costly cabinets of oak. "will you wait here by the fire, sir? orshall i give you a light in the dining- room?" "here, thank you," said the lawyer, and hedrew near and leaned on the tall fender.

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 ofit as the pleasantest room in london. but tonight there was a shudder in hisblood; the face of hyde sat heavy on his memory; he felt (what was rare with him) anausea and distaste of life; and in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed to read a menace in the flickering of the firelighton the polished cabinets and the uneasy starting of the shadow on the roof. he was ashamed of his relief, when poolepresently returned to announce that dr. jekyll was gone out."i saw mr. hyde go in by the old dissecting

room, poole," he said. "is that right, when dr. jekyll is fromhome?" "quite right, mr. utterson, sir," repliedthe servant. "mr. hyde has a key." "your master seems to repose a great dealof trust in that young man, poole," resumed the other musingly."yes, sir, he does indeed," said poole. "we have all orders to obey him." "i do not think i ever met mr. hyde?" askedutterson. "o, dear no, sir.he never dines here," replied the butler.

"indeed we see very little of him on thisside 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 veryheavy heart. "poor harry jekyll," he thought, "my mindmisgives me he is in deep waters! he was wild when he was young; a long whileago to be sure; but in the law of god, there is no statute of limitations. ay, it must be that; the ghost of some oldsin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace: punishment coming, pede claudo, years aftermemory 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, least by chancesome jack-in-the-box of an old iniquity should leap to light there. his past was fairly blameless; few mencould read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled tothe dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into a sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had comeso 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; secretscompared 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 hydesuspects the existence of the will, he may grow impatient to inherit. ay, i must put my shoulders 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 transparency, the strange clauses of the will. -chapter 3.dr. jekyll was quite at ease a fortnight later, by excellent goodfortune, the doctor gave one of his pleasant dinners to some five or six oldcronies, all intelligent, reputable men and all judges of good wine; and mr. utterson so contrived that he remained behind afterthe others had departed. this was no new arrangement, but a thingthat had befallen many scores of times. where utterson was liked, he was likedwell.

hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, whenthe light-hearted and loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; theyliked to sit a while in his unobtrusive company, practising for solitude, sobering their minds in the man's rich silence afterthe 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-facedman of fifty, with something of a stylish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness--you could see by his looksthat 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 doctorcarried it off gaily. "my poor utterson," said he, "you areunfortunate in such a client. i never saw a man so distressed as you wereby my will; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, lanyon, at what he called myscientific heresies. o, i know he's a good fellow--you needn'tfrown--an excellent fellow, and i always mean to see more of him; but a hide-boundpedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant pedant.

i was never more disappointed in any manthan lanyon." "you know i never approved of it," pursuedutterson, ruthlessly disregarding the fresh topic. "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 thelawyer. "i have been learning something of younghyde." the large handsome face of dr. jekyll grewpale 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 agreedto drop." "what i heard was abominable," saidutterson. "it can make no change. you do not understand my position,"returned the doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. "i am painfully situated, utterson; myposition 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 ama 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, "thisis very good of you, this is downright good of you, and i cannot find words to thankyou in. i believe you fully; i would trust youbefore any man alive, ay, before myself, if i could make the choice; but indeed itisn't what you fancy; it is not as bad as that; and just to put your good heart at rest, i will tell you one thing: the momenti choose, i can be rid of mr. hyde. i give you my hand upon that; and i thankyou again and again; and i will just add

one little word, utterson, that i'm sureyou'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 thefire. "i have no doubt you are perfectly right,"he said at last, getting to his feet. "well, but since we have touched upon thisbusiness, and for the last time i hope," continued the doctor, "there is one point ishould like you to understand. i have really a very great interest in poorhyde. i know you have seen him; he told me so;and i fear he was rude. but i do sincerely take a great, a verygreat interest in that young man; and if i

am taken away, utterson, i wish you topromise me that you will bear with him and get his rights for him. i think you would, if you knew all; and itwould be a weight off my mind if you would promise.""i can't pretend that i shall ever like him," said the lawyer. "i don't ask that," pleaded jekyll, layinghis hand upon the other's arm; "i only ask for justice; i only ask you to help him formy sake, when i am no longer here." utterson heaved an irrepressible sigh. "well," said he, "i promise."

> chapter 4.the carew murder case nearly a year later, in the month ofoctober, 18--, london was startled by a crime of singular ferocity and rendered allthe 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 tobed about eleven. although a fog rolled over the city in thesmall hours, the early part of the night was cloudless, and the lane, which themaid's window overlooked, was brilliantly

lit by the full moon. it seems she was romantically given, forshe sat down upon her box, which stood immediately under the window, and fell intoa dream of musing. never (she used to say, with streamingtears, when she narrated that experience), never had she felt more at peace with allmen or thought more kindly of the world. and as she so sat she became aware of anaged beautiful gentleman with white hair, drawing near along the lane; and advancingto meet him, another and very small gentleman, to whom at first she paid lessattention. when they had come within speech (which wasjust under the maid's eyes) the older man

bowed and accosted the other with a verypretty manner of politeness. it did not seem as if the subject of hisaddress were of great importance; indeed, from his pointing, it some times appearedas if he were only inquiring his way; but the moon shone on his face as he spoke, and the girl was pleased to watch it, it seemedto breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition, yet with somethinghigh too, as of a well-founded self- content. presently her eye wandered to the other,and she was surprised to recognise in him a certain mr. hyde, who had once visited hermaster and for whom she had conceived a

dislike. he had in his hand a heavy cane, with whichhe was trifling; but he answered never a word, and seemed to listen with an ill-contained impatience. and then all of a sudden he broke out in agreat flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on(as the maid described it) like a madman. the old gentleman took a step back, withthe air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that mr. hyde broke outof all bounds and clubbed him to the earth. and next moment, with ape-like fury, he wastrampling his victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which thebones were audibly shattered and the body

jumped upon the roadway. at the horror of these sights and sounds,the maid fainted. it was two o'clock when she came to herselfand called for the police. the murderer was gone long ago; but therelay his victim in the middle of the lane, incredibly mangled. the stick with which the deed had beendone, although it was of some rare and very tough and heavy wood, had broken in themiddle under the stress of this insensate cruelty; and one splintered half had rolled in the neighbouring gutter--the other,without doubt, had been carried away by the

murderer. a purse and gold watch were found upon thevictim: but no cards or papers, except a sealed and stamped envelope, which he hadbeen probably carrying to the post, and which bore the name and address of mr.utterson. this was brought to the lawyer the nextmorning, before he was out of bed; and he had no sooner seen it and been told thecircumstances, than he shot out a solemn lip. "i shall say nothing till i have seen thebody," said he; "this may be very serious. have the kindness to wait while i dress."

and with the same grave countenance hehurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body hadbeen carried. as soon as he came into the cell, henodded. "yes," said he, "i recognise him.i am sorry to say that this is sir danvers carew." "good god, sir," exclaimed the officer, "isit possible?" and the next moment his eye lighted up withprofessional ambition. "this will make a deal of noise," he said. "and perhaps you can help us to the man."and he briefly narrated what the maid had

seen, and showed the broken stick. mr. utterson had already quailed at thename of hyde; but when the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer;broken and battered as it was, he recognized it for one that he had himself presented many years before to henryjekyll. "is this mr. hyde a person of smallstature?" he inquired. "particularly small and particularlywicked-looking, is what the maid calls him," said the officer. mr. utterson reflected; and then, raisinghis head, "if you will come with me in my

cab," he said, "i think i can take you tohis house." it was by this time about nine in themorning, and the first fog of the season. a great chocolate-coloured pall loweredover heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these embattledvapours; so that as the cab crawled from street to street, mr. utterson beheld a marvelous number of degrees and hues oftwilight; for here it would be dark like the back-end of evening; and there would bea glow of a rich, lurid brown, like the light of some strange conflagration; and here, for a moment, the fog would be quitebroken up, and a haggard shaft of daylight

would glance in between the swirlingwreaths. the dismal quarter of soho seen under thesechanging glimpses, with its muddy ways, and slatternly passengers, and its lamps, whichhad never been extinguished or had been kindled afresh to combat this mournful reinvasion of darkness, seemed, in thelawyer's eyes, like a district of some city in a nightmare. the thoughts of his mind, besides, were ofthe gloomiest dye; and when he glanced at the companion of his drive, he wasconscious of some touch of that terror of the law and the law's officers, which mayat times assail the most honest.

as the cab drew up before the addressindicated, the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, alow french eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in thedoorways, and many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in hand, tohave a morning glass; and the next moment the fog settled down again upon that part, as brown as umber, and cut him off from hisblackguardly surroundings. this was the home of henry jekyll'sfavourite; of a man who was heir to a quarter of a million sterling.

an ivory-faced and silvery-haired old womanopened the door. she had an evil face, smoothed byhypocrisy: but her manners were excellent. yes, she said, this was mr. hyde's, but hewas not at home; he had been in that night very late, but he had gone away again inless than an hour; there was nothing strange in that; his habits were very irregular, and he was often absent; forinstance, it was nearly two months since she had seen him till yesterday. "very well, then, we wish to see hisrooms," said the lawyer; and when the woman began to declare it was impossible, "i hadbetter tell you who this person is," he

added. "this is inspector newcomen of scotlandyard." a flash of odious joy appeared upon thewoman's face. "ah!" said she, "he is in trouble! what has he done?"mr. utterson and the inspector exchanged glances."he don't seem a very popular character," observed the latter. "and now, my good woman, just let me andthis gentleman have a look about us." in the whole extent of the house, which butfor the old woman remained otherwise empty,

mr. hyde had only used a couple of rooms;but these were furnished with luxury and good taste. a closet was filled with wine; the platewas of silver, the napery elegant; a good picture hung upon the walls, a gift (asutterson supposed) from henry jekyll, who was much of a connoisseur; and the carpetswere of many plies and agreeable in colour. at this moment, however, the rooms boreevery mark of having been recently and hurriedly ransacked; clothes lay about thefloor, with their pockets inside out; lock- fast drawers stood open; and on the hearth there lay a pile of grey ashes, as thoughmany papers had been burned.

from these embers the inspector disinterredthe butt end of a green cheque book, which had resisted the action of the fire; theother half of the stick was found behind the door; and as this clinched his suspicions, the officer declared himselfdelighted. a visit to the bank, where several thousandpounds were found to be lying to the murderer's credit, completed hisgratification. "you may depend upon it, sir," he told mr.utterson: "i have him in my hand. he must have lost his head, or he neverwould have left the stick or, above all, burned the cheque book.

why, money's life to the man.we have nothing to do but wait for him at the bank, and get out the handbills." this last, however, was not so easy ofaccomplishment; for mr. hyde had numbered few familiars--even the master of theservant maid had only seen him twice; his family could nowhere be traced; he had never been photographed; and the few whocould describe him differed widely, as common observers will. only on one point were they agreed; andthat was the haunting sense of unexpressed deformity with which the fugitive impressedhis beholders.

-chapter 5.incident of the letter it was late in the afternoon, when mr.utterson found his way to dr. jekyll's door, where he was at once admitted bypoole, and carried down by the kitchen offices and across a yard which had once been a garden, to the building which wasindifferently known as the laboratory or dissecting rooms. the doctor had bought the house from theheirs of a celebrated surgeon; and his own tastes being rather chemical thananatomical, had changed the destination of the block at the bottom of the garden.

it was the first time that the lawyer hadbeen received in that part of his friend's quarters; and he eyed the dingy, windowlessstructure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre, once crowded witheager students and now lying gaunt and silent, the tables laden with chemicalapparatus, the floor strewn with crates and littered with packing straw, and the lightfalling dimly through the foggy cupola. at the further end, a flight of stairsmounted to a door covered with red baize; and through this, mr. utterson was at lastreceived into the doctor's cabinet. it was a large room fitted round with glasspresses, furnished, among other things,

with a cheval-glass and a business table,and looking out upon the court by three dusty windows barred with iron. the fire burned in the grate; a lamp wasset lighted on the chimney shelf, for even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly;and there, close up to the warmth, sat dr. jekyll, looking deathly sick. he did not rise to meet his visitor, butheld out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice. "and now," said mr. utterson, as soon aspoole had left them, "you have heard the news?"the doctor shuddered.

"they were crying it in the square," hesaid. "i heard them in my dining-room.""one word," said the lawyer. "carew was my client, but so are you, and iwant to know what i am doing. you have not been mad enough to hide thisfellow?" "utterson, i swear to god," cried thedoctor, "i swear to god i will never set eyes on him again.i bind my honour to you that i am done with him in this world. it is all at an end.and indeed he does not want my help; you do not know him as i do; he is safe, he isquite safe; mark my words, he will never

more be heard of." the lawyer listened gloomily; he did notlike his friend's feverish manner. "you seem pretty sure of him," said he;"and for your sake, i hope you may be right. if it came to a trial, your name mightappear." "i am quite sure of him," replied jekyll;"i have grounds for certainty that i cannot share with any one. but there is one thing on which you mayadvise me. i have--i have received a letter; and i amat a loss whether i should show it to the

police. i should like to leave it in your hands,utterson; you would judge wisely, i am sure; i have so great a trust in you.""you fear, i suppose, that it might lead to his detection?" asked the lawyer. "no," said the other."i cannot say that i care what becomes of hyde; i am quite done with him.i was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed." utterson ruminated awhile; he was surprisedat his friend's selfishness, and yet relieved by it."well," said he, at last, "let me see the

letter." the letter was written in an odd, uprighthand and signed "edward hyde": and it signified, briefly enough, that thewriter's benefactor, dr. jekyll, whom he had long so unworthily repaid for a thousand generosities, need labour under noalarm for his safety, as he had means of escape on which he placed a suredependence. the lawyer liked this letter well enough;it put a better colour on the intimacy than he had looked for; and he blamed himselffor some of his past suspicions. "have you the envelope?" he asked.

"i burned it," replied jekyll, "before ithought what i was about. but it bore no postmark.the note was handed in." "shall i keep this and sleep upon it?"asked utterson. "i wish you to judge for me entirely," wasthe reply. "i have lost confidence in myself." "well, i shall consider," returned thelawyer. "and now one word more: it was hyde whodictated the terms in your will about that disappearance?" the doctor seemed seized with a qualm offaintness; he shut his mouth tight and

nodded."i knew it," said utterson. "he meant to murder you. you had a fine escape.""i have had what is far more to the purpose," returned the doctor solemnly: "ihave had a lesson--o god, utterson, what a lesson i have had!" and he covered his face for a moment withhis hands. on his way out, the lawyer stopped and hada word or two with poole. "by the bye," said he, "there was a letterhanded in to-day: what was the messenger like?"

but poole was positive nothing had comeexcept by post; "and only circulars by that," he added.this news sent off the visitor with his fears renewed. plainly the letter had come by thelaboratory door; possibly, indeed, it had been written in the cabinet; and if thatwere so, it must be differently judged, and handled with the more caution. the newsboys, as he went, were cryingthemselves hoarse along the footways: "special edition.shocking murder of an m.p." that was the funeral oration of one friendand client; and he could not help a certain

apprehension lest the good name of anothershould be sucked down in the eddy of the scandal. it was, at least, a ticklish decision thathe had to make; and self-reliant as he was by habit, he began to cherish a longing foradvice. it was not to be had directly; but perhaps,he thought, it might be fished for. presently after, he sat on one side of hisown hearth, with mr. guest, his head clerk, upon the other, and midway between, at anicely calculated distance from the fire, a bottle of a particular old wine that had long dwelt unsunned in the foundations ofhis house.

the fog still slept on the wing above thedrowned city, where the lamps glimmered like carbuncles; and through the muffle andsmother of these fallen clouds, the procession of the town's life was still rolling in through the great arteries witha sound as of a mighty wind. but the room was gay with firelight. in the bottle the acids were long agoresolved; the imperial dye had softened with time, as the colour grows richer instained windows; and the glow of hot autumn afternoons on hillside vineyards, was ready to be set free and to disperse the fogs oflondon.

insensibly the lawyer melted. there was no man from whom he kept fewersecrets than mr. guest; and he was not always sure that he kept as many as hemeant. guest had often been on business to thedoctor's; he knew poole; he could scarce have failed to hear of mr. hyde'sfamiliarity about the house; he might draw conclusions: was it not as well, then, that he should see a letter which put thatmystery to right? and above all since guest, being a great student and critic ofhandwriting, would consider the step natural and obliging?

the clerk, besides, was a man of counsel;he could scarce read so strange a document without dropping a remark; and by thatremark mr. utterson might shape his future course. "this is a sad business about sir danvers,"he said. "yes, sir, indeed.it has elicited a great deal of public feeling," returned guest. "the man, of course, was mad.""i should like to hear your views on that," replied utterson. "i have a document here in his handwriting;it is between ourselves, for i scarce know

what to do about it; it is an ugly businessat the best. but there it is; quite in your way: amurderer's autograph." guest's eyes brightened, and he sat down atonce and studied it with passion. "no sir," he said: "not mad; but it is anodd hand." "and by all accounts a very odd writer,"added the lawyer. just then the servant entered with a note. "is that from dr. jekyll, sir?" inquiredthe clerk. "i thought i knew the writing.anything private, mr. utterson?" "only an invitation to dinner.

why? do you want to see it?""one moment. i thank you, sir;" and the clerk laid thetwo sheets of paper alongside and sedulously compared their contents. "thank you, sir," he said at last,returning both; "it's a very interesting autograph."there was a pause, during which mr. utterson struggled with himself. "why did you compare them, guest?" heinquired suddenly. "well, sir," returned the clerk, "there's arather singular resemblance; the two hands are in many points identical: onlydifferently sloped."

"rather quaint," said utterson. "it is, as you say, rather quaint,"returned guest. "i wouldn't speak of this note, you know,"said the master. "no, sir," said the clerk. "i understand."but no sooner was mr. utterson alone that night, than he locked the note into hissafe, where it reposed from that time forward. "what!" he thought."henry jekyll forge for a murderer!" and his blood ran cold in his veins.

-chapter 6.incident of dr. lanyon time ran on; thousands of pounds wereoffered in reward, for the death of sir danvers was resented as a public injury;but mr. hyde had disappeared out of the ken of the police as though he had neverexisted. much of his past was unearthed, indeed, andall disreputable: tales came out of the man's cruelty, at once so callous andviolent; of his vile life, of his strange associates, of the hatred that seemed to have surrounded his career; but of hispresent whereabouts, not a whisper. from the time he had left the house in sohoon the morning of the murder, he was simply

blotted out; and gradually, as time drewon, mr. utterson began to recover from the hotness of his alarm, and to grow more atquiet with himself. the death of sir danvers was, to his way ofthinking, more than paid for by the disappearance of mr. hyde. now that that evil influence had beenwithdrawn, a new life began for dr. jekyll. he came out of his seclusion, renewedrelations with his friends, became once more their familiar guest and entertainer;and whilst he had always been known for charities, he was now no less distinguishedfor religion. he was busy, he was much in the open air,he did good; his face seemed to open and

brighten, as if with an inwardconsciousness of service; and for more than two months, the doctor was at peace. on the 8th of january utterson had dined atthe doctor's with a small party; lanyon had been there; and the face of the host hadlooked from one to the other as in the old days when the trio were inseparablefriends. on the 12th, and again on the 14th, thedoor was shut against the lawyer. "the doctor was confined to the house,"poole said, "and saw no one." on the 15th, he tried again, and was againrefused; and having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almostdaily, he found this return of solitude to

weigh upon his spirits. the fifth night he had in guest to dinewith him; and the sixth he betook himself to dr. lanyon's. there at least he was not deniedadmittance; but when he came in, he was shocked at the change which had taken placein the doctor's appearance. he had his death-warrant written legiblyupon his face. the rosy man had grown pale; his flesh hadfallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much thesetokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer's notice, as a look in

the eye and quality of manner that seemedto testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind. it was unlikely that the doctor should feardeath; and yet that was what utterson was tempted to suspect. "yes," he thought; "he is a doctor, he mustknow his own state and that his days are counted; and the knowledge is more than hecan bear." and yet when utterson remarked on his ill-looks, it was with an air of great firmness that lanyon declared himself a doomed man."i have had a shock," he said, "and i shall never recover.

it is a question of weeks.well, life has been pleasant; i liked it; yes, sir, i used to like it.i sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away." "jekyll is ill, too," observed utterson."have you seen him?" but lanyon's face changed, and he held up atrembling hand. "i wish to see or hear no more of dr.jekyll," he said in a loud, unsteady voice. "i am quite done with that person; and ibeg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom i regard as dead." "tut-tut," said mr. utterson; and thenafter a considerable pause, "can't i do

anything?" he inquired."we are three very old friends, lanyon; we shall not live to make others." "nothing can be done," returned lanyon;"ask himself." "he will not see me," said the lawyer."i am not surprised at that," was the reply. "some day, utterson, after i am dead, youmay perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this.i cannot tell you. and in the meantime, if you can sit andtalk with me of other things, for god's sake, stay and do so; but if you cannotkeep clear of this accursed topic, then in

god's name, go, for i cannot bear it." as soon as he got home, utterson sat downand wrote to jekyll, complaining of his exclusion from the house, and asking thecause of this unhappy break with lanyon; and the next day brought him a long answer, often very pathetically worded, andsometimes darkly mysterious in drift. the quarrel with lanyon was incurable. "i do not blame our old friend," jekyllwrote, "but i share his view that we must never meet. i mean from henceforth to lead a life ofextreme seclusion; you must not be

surprised, nor must you doubt myfriendship, if my door is often shut even to you. you must suffer me to go my own dark way.i have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that i cannot name.if i am the chief of sinners, i am the chief of sufferers also. i could not think that this earth containeda place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning; and you can do but one thing,utterson, to lighten this destiny, and that is to respect my silence." utterson was amazed; the dark influence ofhyde had been withdrawn, the doctor had

returned to his old tasks and amities; aweek ago, the prospect had smiled with every promise of a cheerful and an honoured age; and now in a moment, friendship, andpeace of mind, and the whole tenor of his life were wrecked. so great and unprepared a change pointed tomadness; but in view of lanyon's manner and words, there must lie for it some deeperground. a week afterwards dr. lanyon took to hisbed, and in something less than a fortnight he was dead. the night after the funeral, at which hehad been sadly affected, utterson locked

the door of his business room, and sittingthere by the light of a melancholy candle, drew out and set before him an envelope addressed by the hand and sealed with theseal of his dead friend. "private: for the hands of g. j. uttersonalone, and in case of his predecease to be destroyed unread," so it was emphaticallysuperscribed; and the lawyer dreaded to behold the contents. "i have buried one friend to-day," hethought: "what if this should cost me another?"and then he condemned the fear as a disloyalty, and broke the seal.

within there was another enclosure,likewise sealed, and marked upon the cover as "not to be opened till the death ordisappearance of dr. henry jekyll." utterson could not trust his eyes. yes, it was disappearance; here again, asin the mad will which he had long ago restored to its author, here again were theidea of a disappearance and the name of henry jekyll bracketted. but in the will, that idea had sprung fromthe sinister suggestion of the man hyde; it was set there with a purpose all too plainand horrible. written by the hand of lanyon, what shouldit mean?

a great curiosity came on the trustee, todisregard the prohibition and dive at once to the bottom of these mysteries; butprofessional honour and faith to his dead friend were stringent obligations; and the packet slept in the inmost corner of hisprivate safe. it is one thing to mortify curiosity,another to conquer it; and it may be doubted if, from that day forth, uttersondesired the society of his surviving friend with the same eagerness. he thought of him kindly; but his thoughtswere disquieted and fearful. he went to call indeed; but he was perhapsrelieved to be denied admittance; perhaps,

in his heart, he preferred to speak withpoole upon the doorstep and surrounded by the air and sounds of the open city, rather than to be admitted into that house ofvoluntary bondage, and to sit and speak with its inscrutable recluse.poole had, indeed, no very pleasant news to communicate. the doctor, it appeared, now more than everconfined himself to the cabinet over the laboratory, where he would sometimes evensleep; he was out of spirits, he had grown very silent, he did not read; it seemed asif he had something on his mind. utterson became so used to the unvaryingcharacter of these reports, that he fell

off little by little in the frequency ofhis visits. -chapter 7.incident at the window it chanced on sunday, when mr. utterson wason his usual walk with mr. enfield, that their way lay once again through the by-street; and that when they came in front of the door, both stopped to gaze on it. "well," said enfield, "that story's at anend at least. we shall never see more of mr. hyde.""i hope not," said utterson. "did i ever tell you that i once saw him,and shared your feeling of repulsion?" "it was impossible to do the one withoutthe other," returned enfield.

"and by the way, what an ass you must havethought me, not to know that this was a back way to dr. jekyll's!it was partly your own fault that i found it out, even when i did." "so you found it out, did you?" saidutterson. "but if that be so, we may step into thecourt and take a look at the windows. to tell you the truth, i am uneasy aboutpoor jekyll; and even outside, i feel as if the presence of a friend might do himgood." the court was very cool and a little damp,and full of premature twilight, although the sky, high up overhead, was still brightwith sunset.

the middle one of the three windows washalf-way open; and sitting close beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness ofmien, like some disconsolate prisoner, utterson saw dr. jekyll. "what!jekyll!" he cried. "i trust you are better.""i am very low, utterson," replied the doctor drearily, "very low. it will not last long, thank god.""you stay too much indoors," said the lawyer."you should be out, whipping up the circulation like mr. enfield and me.

(this is my cousin--mr. enfield--dr.jekyll.) come now; get your hat and take a quickturn with us." "you are very good," sighed the other. "i should like to very much; but no, no,no, it is quite impossible; i dare not. but indeed, utterson, i am very glad to seeyou; this is really a great pleasure; i would ask you and mr. enfield up, but theplace is really not fit." "why, then," said the lawyer, good-naturedly, "the best thing we can do is to stay down here and speak with you fromwhere we are." "that is just what i was about to ventureto propose," returned the doctor with a

smile. but the words were hardly uttered, beforethe smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abjectterror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below. they saw it but for a glimpse for thewindow was instantly thrust down; but that glimpse had been sufficient, and theyturned and left the court without a word. in silence, too, they traversed the by-street; and it was not until they had come into a neighbouring thoroughfare, whereeven upon a sunday there were still some stirrings of life, that mr. utterson atlast turned and looked at his companion.

they were both pale; and there was ananswering horror in their eyes. "god forgive us, god forgive us," said mr.utterson. but mr. enfield only nodded his head veryseriously, and walked on once more in silence. chapter 8.the last night mr. utterson was sitting by his firesideone evening after dinner, when he was surprised to receive a visit from poole. "bless me, poole, what brings you here?" hecried; and then taking a second look at him, "what ails you?" he added; "is thedoctor ill?"

"mr. utterson," said the man, "there issomething wrong." "take a seat, and here is a glass of winefor you," said the lawyer. "now, take your time, and tell me plainlywhat you want." "you know the doctor's ways, sir," repliedpoole, "and how he shuts himself up. well, he's shut up again in the cabinet;and i don't like it, sir--i wish i may die if i like it.mr. utterson, sir, i'm afraid." "now, my good man," said the lawyer, "beexplicit. what are you afraid of?" "i've been afraid for about a week,"returned poole, doggedly disregarding the

question, "and i can bear it no more." the man's appearance amply bore out hiswords; his manner was altered for the worse; and except for the moment when hehad first announced his terror, he had not once looked the lawyer in the face. even now, he sat with the glass of wineuntasted on his knee, and his eyes directed to a corner of the floor."i can bear it no more," he repeated. "come," said the lawyer, "i see you havesome good reason, poole; i see there is something seriously amiss.try to tell me what it is." "i think there's been foul play," saidpoole, hoarsely.

"foul play!" cried the lawyer, a good dealfrightened and rather inclined to be irritated in consequence. "what foul play!what does the man mean?" "i daren't say, sir," was the answer; "butwill you come along with me and see for yourself?" mr. utterson's only answer was to rise andget his hat and greatcoat; but he observed with wonder the greatness of the reliefthat appeared upon the butler's face, and perhaps with no less, that the wine was still untasted when he set it down tofollow.

it was a wild, cold, seasonable night ofmarch, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, andflying wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture. the wind made talking difficult, andflecked the blood into the face. it seemed to have swept the streetsunusually bare of passengers, besides; for mr. utterson thought he had never seen thatpart of london so deserted. he could have wished it otherwise; never inhis life had he been conscious of so sharp a wish to see and touch his fellow-creatures; for struggle as he might, there was borne in upon his mind a crushinganticipation of calamity.

the square, when they got there, was fullof wind and dust, and the thin trees in the garden were lashing themselves along therailing. poole, who had kept all the way a pace ortwo ahead, now pulled up in the middle of the pavement, and in spite of the bitingweather, took off his hat and mopped his brow with a red pocket-handkerchief. but for all the hurry of his coming, thesewere not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the moisture of some stranglinganguish; for his face was white and his voice, when he spoke, harsh and broken. "well, sir," he said, "here we are, and godgrant there be nothing wrong."

"amen, poole," said the lawyer. thereupon the servant knocked in a veryguarded manner; the door was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, "isthat you, poole?" "it's all right," said poole. "open the door." the hall, when they entered it, wasbrightly lighted up; the fire was built high; and about the hearth the whole of theservants, men and women, stood huddled together like a flock of sheep. at the sight of mr. utterson, the housemaidbroke into hysterical whimpering; and the

cook, crying out "bless god! it's mr.utterson," ran forward as if to take him in her arms. "what, what?are you all here?" said the lawyer peevishly."very irregular, very unseemly; your master would be far from pleased." "they're all afraid," said poole.blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted her voice and now weptloudly. "hold your tongue!" poole said to her, with a ferocity ofaccent that testified to his own jangled

nerves; and indeed, when the girl had sosuddenly raised the note of her lamentation, they had all started and turned towards the inner door with faces ofdreadful expectation. "and now," continued the butler, addressingthe knife-boy, "reach me a candle, and we'll get this through hands at once."and then he begged mr. utterson to follow him, and led the way to the back garden. "now, sir," said he, "you come as gently asyou can. i want you to hear, and i don't want you tobe heard. and see here, sir, if by any chance he wasto ask you in, don't go."

mr. utterson's nerves, at this unlooked-fortermination, gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance; but he recollectedhis courage and followed the butler into the laboratory building through the surgical theatre, with its lumber of cratesand bottles, to the foot of the stair. here poole motioned him to stand on oneside and listen; while he himself, setting down the candle and making a great andobvious call on his resolution, mounted the steps and knocked with a somewhat uncertainhand on the red baize of the cabinet door. "mr. utterson, sir, asking to see you," hecalled; and even as he did so, once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear.

a voice answered from within: "tell him icannot see anyone," it said complainingly. "thank you, sir," said poole, with a noteof something like triumph in his voice; and taking up his candle, he led mr. uttersonback across the yard and into the great kitchen, where the fire was out and thebeetles were leaping on the floor. "sir," he said, looking mr. utterson in theeyes, "was that my master's voice?" "it seems much changed," replied thelawyer, very pale, but giving look for look."changed? well, yes, i think so," said the butler. "have i been twenty years in this man'shouse, to be deceived about his voice?

no, sir; master's made away with; he wasmade away with eight days ago, when we heard him cry out upon the name of god; andwho's in there instead of him, and why it stays there, is a thing that cries toheaven, mr. utterson!" "this is a very strange tale, poole; thisis rather a wild tale my man," said mr. utterson, biting his finger. "suppose it were as you suppose, supposingdr. jekyll to have been--well, murdered what could induce the murderer to stay?that won't hold water; it doesn't commend itself to reason." "well, mr. utterson, you are a hard man tosatisfy, but i'll do it yet," said poole.

"all this last week (you must know) him, orit, whatever it is that lives in that cabinet, has been crying night and day forsome sort of medicine and cannot get it to his mind. it was sometimes his way--the master's,that is--to write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair. we've had nothing else this week back;nothing but papers, and a closed door, and the very meals left there to be smuggled inwhen nobody was looking. well, sir, every day, ay, and twice andthrice in the same day, there have been orders and complaints, and i have been sentflying to all the wholesale chemists in

town. every time i brought the stuff back, therewould be another paper telling me to return it, because it was not pure, and anotherorder to a different firm. this drug is wanted bitter bad, sir,whatever for." "have you any of these papers?" asked mr.utterson. poole felt in his pocket and handed out acrumpled note, which the lawyer, bending nearer to the candle, carefully examined.its contents ran thus: "dr. jekyll presents his compliments to messrs. maw. he assures them that their last sample isimpure and quite useless for his present

purpose.in the year 18--, dr. j. purchased a somewhat large quantity from messrs. m. he now begs them to search with mostsedulous care, and should any of the same quality be left, forward it to him at once.expense is no consideration. the importance of this to dr. j. can hardlybe exaggerated." so far the letter had run composedlyenough, but here with a sudden splutter of the pen, the writer's emotion had brokenloose. "for god's sake," he added, "find me someof the old." "this is a strange note," said mr.utterson; and then sharply, "how do you

come to have it open?" "the man at maw's was main angry, sir, andhe threw it back to me like so much dirt," returned poole."this is unquestionably the doctor's hand, do you know?" resumed the lawyer. "i thought it looked like it," said theservant rather sulkily; and then, with another voice, "but what matters hand ofwrite?" he said. "i've seen him!" "seen him?" repeated mr. utterson."well?" "that's it!" said poole."it was this way.

i came suddenly into the theater from thegarden. it seems he had slipped out to look forthis drug or whatever it is; for the cabinet door was open, and there he was atthe far end of the room digging among the crates. he looked up when i came in, gave a kind ofcry, and whipped upstairs into the cabinet. it was but for one minute that i saw him,but the hair stood upon my head like quills. sir, if that was my master, why had he amask upon his face? if it was my master, why did he cry outlike a rat, and run from me?

i have served him long enough. and then..."the man paused and passed his hand over his face. "these are all very strange circumstances,"said mr. utterson, "but i think i begin to see daylight. your master, poole, is plainly seized withone of those maladies that both torture and deform the sufferer; hence, for aught iknow, the alteration of his voice; hence the mask and the avoidance of his friends; hence his eagerness to find this drug, bymeans of which the poor soul retains some

hope of ultimate recovery--god grant thathe be not deceived! there is my explanation; it is sad enough,poole, ay, and appalling to consider; but it is plain and natural, hangs welltogether, and delivers us from all exorbitant alarms." "sir," said the butler, turning to a sortof mottled pallor, "that thing was not my master, and there's the truth. my master"--here he looked round him andbegan to whisper--"is a tall, fine build of a man, and this was more of a dwarf."utterson attempted to protest. "o, sir," cried poole, "do you think i donot know my master after twenty years?

do you think i do not know where his headcomes to in the cabinet door, where i saw him every morning of my life? no, sir, that thing in the mask was neverdr. jekyll--god knows what it was, but it was never dr. jekyll; and it is the beliefof my heart that there was murder done." "poole," replied the lawyer, "if you saythat, it will become my duty to make certain. much as i desire to spare your master'sfeelings, much as i am puzzled by this note which seems to prove him to be still alive,i shall consider it my duty to break in that door."

"ah, mr. utterson, that's talking!" criedthe butler. "and now comes the second question,"resumed utterson: "who is going to do it?" "why, you and me, sir," was the undauntedreply. "that's very well said," returned thelawyer; "and whatever comes of it, i shall make it my business to see you are noloser." "there is an axe in the theatre," continuedpoole; "and you might take the kitchen poker for yourself."the lawyer took that rude but weighty instrument into his hand, and balanced it. "do you know, poole," he said, looking up,"that you and i are about to place

ourselves in a position of some peril?""you may say so, sir, indeed," returned the butler. "it is well, then that we should be frank,"said the other. "we both think more than we have said; letus make a clean breast. this masked figure that you saw, did yourecognise it?" "well, sir, it went so quick, and thecreature was so doubled up, that i could hardly swear to that," was the answer. "but if you mean, was it mr. hyde?--why,yes, i think it was! you see, it was much of the same bigness;and it had the same quick, light way with

it; and then who else could have got in bythe laboratory door? you have not forgot, sir, that at the timeof the murder he had still the key with him?but that's not all. i don't know, mr. utterson, if you ever metthis mr. hyde?" "yes," said the lawyer, "i once spoke withhim." "then you must know as well as the rest ofus that there was something queer about that gentleman--something that gave a man aturn--i don't know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond this: that you felt in yourmarrow kind of cold and thin." "i own i felt something of what youdescribe," said mr. utterson.

"quite so, sir," returned poole. "well, when that masked thing like a monkeyjumped from among the chemicals and whipped into the cabinet, it went down my spinelike ice. o, i know it's not evidence, mr. utterson;i'm book-learned enough for that; but a man has his feelings, and i give you my bible-word it was mr. hyde!" "ay, ay," said the lawyer. "my fears incline to the same point.evil, i fear, founded--evil was sure to come--of that connection. ay truly, i believe you; i believe poorharry is killed; and i believe his murderer

(for what purpose, god alone can tell) isstill lurking in his victim's room. well, let our name be vengeance. call bradshaw."the footman came at the summons, very white and nervous."put yourself together, bradshaw," said the lawyer. "this suspense, i know, is telling upon allof you; but it is now our intention to make an end of it.poole, here, and i are going to force our way into the cabinet. if all is well, my shoulders are broadenough to bear the blame.

meanwhile, lest anything should really beamiss, or any malefactor seek to escape by the back, you and the boy must go round thecorner with a pair of good sticks and take your post at the laboratory door. we give you ten minutes, to get to yourstations." as bradshaw left, the lawyer looked at hiswatch. "and now, poole, let us get to ours," hesaid; and taking the poker under his arm, led the way into the yard.the scud had banked over the moon, and it was now quite dark. the wind, which only broke in puffs anddraughts into that deep well of building,

tossed the light of the candle to and froabout their steps, until they came into the shelter of the theatre, where they sat downsilently to wait. london hummed solemnly all around; butnearer at hand, the stillness was only broken by the sounds of a footfall movingto and fro along the cabinet floor. "so it will walk all day, sir," whisperedpoole; "ay, and the better part of the night.only when a new sample comes from the chemist, there's a bit of a break. ah, it's an ill conscience that's such anenemy to rest! ah, sir, there's blood foully shed in everystep of it!

but hark again, a little closer--put yourheart in your ears, mr. utterson, and tell me, is that the doctor's foot?" the steps fell lightly and oddly, with acertain swing, for all they went so slowly; it was different indeed from the heavycreaking tread of henry jekyll. utterson sighed. "is there never anything else?" he asked.poole nodded. "once," he said."once i heard it weeping!" "weeping? how that?" said the lawyer,conscious of a sudden chill of horror. "weeping like a woman or a lost soul," saidthe butler.

"i came away with that upon my heart, thati could have wept too." but now the ten minutes drew to an end. poole disinterred the axe from under astack of packing straw; the candle was set upon the nearest table to light them to theattack; and they drew near with bated breath to where that patient foot was still going up and down, up and down, in thequiet of the night. "jekyll," cried utterson, with a loudvoice, "i demand to see you." he paused a moment, but there came noreply. "i give you fair warning, our suspicionsare aroused, and i must and shall see you,"

he resumed; "if not by fair means, then byfoul--if not of your consent, then by brute force!" "utterson," said the voice, "for god'ssake, have mercy!" "ah, that's not jekyll's voice--it'shyde's!" cried utterson. "down with the door, poole!" poole swung the axe over his shoulder; theblow shook the building, and the red baize door leaped against the lock and hinges.a dismal screech, as of mere animal terror, rang from the cabinet. up went the axe again, and again the panelscrashed and the frame bounded; four times

the blow fell; but the wood was tough andthe fittings were of excellent workmanship; and it was not until the fifth, that the lock burst and the wreck of the door fellinwards on the carpet. the besiegers, appalled by their own riotand the stillness that had succeeded, stood back a little and peered in. there lay the cabinet before their eyes inthe quiet lamplight, a good fire glowing and chattering on the hearth, the kettlesinging its thin strain, a drawer or two open, papers neatly set forth on the business table, and nearer the fire, thethings laid out for tea; the quietest room,

you would have said, and, but for theglazed presses full of chemicals, the most commonplace that night in london. right in the middle there lay the body of aman sorely contorted and still twitching. they drew near on tiptoe, turned it on itsback and beheld the face of edward hyde. he was dressed in clothes far too large forhim, clothes of the doctor's bigness; the cords of his face still moved with asemblance of life, but life was quite gone: and by the crushed phial in the hand and the strong smell of kernels that hung uponthe air, utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer."we have come too late," he said sternly,

"whether to save or punish. hyde is gone to his account; and it onlyremains for us to find the body of your master." the far greater proportion of the buildingwas occupied by the theatre, which filled almost the whole ground storey and waslighted from above, and by the cabinet, which formed an upper story at one end andlooked upon the court. a corridor joined the theatre to the dooron the by-street; and with this the cabinet communicated separately by a second flightof stairs. there were besides a few dark closets and aspacious cellar.

all these they now thoroughly examined. each closet needed but a glance, for allwere empty, and all, by the dust that fell from their doors, had stood long unopened. the cellar, indeed, was filled with crazylumber, mostly dating from the times of the surgeon who was jekyll's predecessor; buteven as they opened the door they were advertised of the uselessness of further search, by the fall of a perfect mat ofcobweb which had for years sealed up the entrance.no where was there any trace of henry jekyll dead or alive.

poole stamped on the flags of the corridor."he must be buried here," he said, hearkening to the sound. "or he may have fled," said utterson, andhe turned to examine the door in the by- street. it was locked; and lying near by on theflags, they found the key, already stained with rust."this does not look like use," observed the "use!" echoed poole."do you not see, sir, it is broken? much as if a man had stamped on it.""ay," continued utterson, "and the fractures, too, are rusty."

the two men looked at each other with ascare. "this is beyond me, poole," said thelawyer. "let us go back to the cabinet." they mounted the stair in silence, andstill with an occasional awestruck glance at the dead body, proceeded more thoroughlyto examine the contents of the cabinet. at one table, there were traces of chemicalwork, various measured heaps of some white salt being laid on glass saucers, as thoughfor an experiment in which the unhappy man had been prevented. "that is the same drug that i was alwaysbringing him," said poole; and even as he

spoke, the kettle with a startling noiseboiled over. this brought them to the fireside, wherethe easy-chair was drawn cosily up, and the tea things stood ready to the sitter'selbow, the very sugar in the cup. there were several books on a shelf; onelay beside the tea things open, and utterson was amazed to find it a copy of apious work, for which jekyll had several times expressed a great esteem, annotated,in his own hand with startling blasphemies. next, in the course of their review of thechamber, the searchers came to the cheval- glass, into whose depths they looked withan involuntary horror. but it was so turned as to show themnothing but the rosy glow playing on the

roof, the fire sparkling in a hundredrepetitions along the glazed front of the presses, and their own pale and fearfulcountenances stooping to look in. "this glass has seen some strange things,sir," whispered poole. "and surely none stranger than itself,"echoed the lawyer in the same tones. "for what did jekyll"--he caught himself upat the word with a start, and then conquering the weakness--"what could jekyllwant with it?" he said. "you may say that!" said poole. next they turned to the business table.on the desk, among the neat array of papers, a large envelope was uppermost, andbore, in the doctor's hand, the name of mr.

utterson. the lawyer unsealed it, and severalenclosures fell to the floor. the first was a will, drawn in the sameeccentric terms as the one which he had returned six months before, to serve as atestament in case of death and as a deed of gift in case of disappearance; but in place of the name of edward hyde, the lawyer,with indescribable amazement read the name of gabriel john utterson. he looked at poole, and then back at thepaper, and last of all at the dead malefactor stretched upon the carpet."my head goes round," he said.

"he has been all these days in possession;he had no cause to like me; he must have raged to see himself displaced; and he hasnot destroyed this document." he caught up the next paper; it was a briefnote in the doctor's hand and dated at the top."o poole!" the lawyer cried, "he was alive and here this day. he cannot have been disposed of in so shorta space; he must be still alive, he must have fled! and then, why fled? and how? and in thatcase, can we venture to declare this suicide?o, we must be careful.

i foresee that we may yet involve yourmaster in some dire catastrophe." "why don't you read it, sir?" asked poole."because i fear," replied the lawyer solemnly. "god grant i have no cause for it!"and with that he brought the paper to his eyes and read as follows: "my dear utterson,--when this shall fallinto your hands, i shall have disappeared, under what circumstances i have not thepenetration to foresee, but my instinct and all the circumstances of my nameless situation tell me that the end is sure andmust be early.

go then, and first read the narrative whichlanyon warned me he was to place in your hands; and if you care to hear more, turnto the confession of "your unworthy and unhappy friend, "henry jekyll.""there was a third enclosure?" asked "here, sir," said poole, and gave into hishands a considerable packet sealed in several places.the lawyer put it in his pocket. "i would say nothing of this paper. if your master has fled or is dead, we mayat least save his credit. it is now ten; i must go home and readthese documents in quiet; but i shall be

back before midnight, when we shall sendfor the police." they went out, locking the door of thetheatre behind them; and utterson, once more leaving the servants gathered aboutthe fire in the hall, trudged back to his office to read the two narratives in whichthis mystery was now to be explained. -chapter 9.dr. lanyon's narrative on the ninth of january, now four days ago,i received by the evening delivery a registered envelope, addressed in the handof my colleague and old school companion, henry jekyll. i was a good deal surprised by this; for wewere by no means in the habit of

correspondence; i had seen the man, dinedwith him, indeed, the night before; and i could imagine nothing in our intercourse that should justify formality ofregistration. the contents increased my wonder; for thisis how the letter ran: "10th december, 18--. "dear lanyon,--you are one of my oldestfriends; and although we may have differed at times on scientific questions, i cannotremember, at least on my side, any break in our affection. there was never a day when, if you had saidto me, `jekyll, my life, my honour, my

reason, depend upon you,' i would not havesacrificed my left hand to help you. lanyon my life, my honour, my reason, areall at your mercy; if you fail me to-night, i am lost. you might suppose, after this preface, thati am going to ask you for something dishonourable to grant.judge for yourself. "i want you to postpone all otherengagements for to-night--ay, even if you were summoned to the bedside of an emperor;to take a cab, unless your carriage should be actually at the door; and with this letter in your hand for consultation, todrive straight to my house.

poole, my butler, has his orders; you willfind him waiting your arrival with a locksmith. the door of my cabinet is then to beforced: and you are to go in alone; to open the glazed press (letter e) on the lefthand, breaking the lock if it be shut; and to draw out, with all its contents as they stand, the fourth drawer from the top or(which is the same thing) the third from the bottom. in my extreme distress of mind, i have amorbid fear of misdirecting you; but even if i am in error, you may know the rightdrawer by its contents: some powders, a

phial and a paper book. this drawer i beg of you to carry back withyou to cavendish square exactly as it stands."that is the first part of the service: now for the second. you should be back, if you set out at onceon the receipt of this, long before midnight; but i will leave you that amountof margin, not only in the fear of one of those obstacles that can neither be prevented nor foreseen, but because an hourwhen your servants are in bed is to be preferred for what will then remain to do.

at midnight, then, i have to ask you to bealone in your consulting room, to admit with your own hand into the house a man whowill present himself in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you willhave brought with you from my cabinet. then you will have played your part andearned my gratitude completely. five minutes afterwards, if you insist uponan explanation, you will have understood that these arrangements are of capitalimportance; and that by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience with mydeath or the shipwreck of my reason. "confident as i am that you will not triflewith this appeal, my heart sinks and my

hand trembles at the bare thought of such apossibility. think of me at this hour, in a strangeplace, labouring under a blackness of distress that no fancy can exaggerate, andyet well aware that, if you will but punctually serve me, my troubles will rollaway like a story that is told. serve me, my dear lanyon and save"your friend, "h.j. "p.s.--i had already sealed this up when afresh terror struck upon my soul. it is possible that the post-office mayfail me, and this letter not come into your hands until to-morrow morning.

in that case, dear lanyon, do my errandwhen it shall be most convenient for you in the course of the day; and once more expectmy messenger at midnight. it may then already be too late; and ifthat night passes without event, you will know that you have seen the last of henryjekyll." upon the reading of this letter, i madesure my colleague was insane; but till that was proved beyond the possibility of doubt,i felt bound to do as he requested. the less i understood of this farrago, theless i was in a position to judge of its importance; and an appeal so worded couldnot be set aside without a grave responsibility.

i rose accordingly from table, got into ahansom, and drove straight to jekyll's house. the butler was awaiting my arrival; he hadreceived by the same post as mine a registered letter of instruction, and hadsent at once for a locksmith and a carpenter. the tradesmen came while we were yetspeaking; and we moved in a body to old dr. denman's surgical theatre, from which (asyou are doubtless aware) jekyll's private cabinet is most conveniently entered. the door was very strong, the lockexcellent; the carpenter avowed he would

have great trouble and have to do muchdamage, if force were to be used; and the locksmith was near despair. but this last was a handy fellow, and aftertwo hour's work, the door stood open. the press marked e was unlocked; and i tookout the drawer, had it filled up with straw and tied in a sheet, and returned with itto cavendish square. here i proceeded to examine its contents. the powders were neatly enough made up, butnot with the nicety of the dispensing chemist; so that it was plain they were ofjekyll's private manufacture: and when i opened one of the wrappers i found what

seemed to me a simple crystalline salt of awhite colour. the phial, to which i next turned myattention, might have been about half full of a blood-red liquor, which was highlypungent to the sense of smell and seemed to me to contain phosphorus and some volatileether. at the other ingredients i could make noguess. the book was an ordinary version book andcontained little but a series of dates. these covered a period of many years, but iobserved that the entries ceased nearly a year ago and quite abruptly. here and there a brief remark was appendedto a date, usually no more than a single

word: "double" occurring perhaps six timesin a total of several hundred entries; and once very early in the list and followed by several marks of exclamation, "totalfailure!!!" all this, though it whetted my curiosity,told me little that was definite. here were a phial of some salt, and therecord of a series of experiments that had led (like too many of jekyll'sinvestigations) to no end of practical usefulness. how could the presence of these articles inmy house affect either the honour, the sanity, or the life of my flightycolleague?

if his messenger could go to one place, whycould he not go to another? and even granting some impediment, why wasthis gentleman to be received by me in secret? the more i reflected the more convinced igrew that i was dealing with a case of cerebral disease; and though i dismissed myservants to bed, i loaded an old revolver, that i might be found in some posture ofself-defence. twelve o'clock had scarce rung out overlondon, ere the knocker sounded very gently on the door. i went myself at the summons, and found asmall man crouching against the pillars of

the portico."are you come from dr. jekyll?" i asked. he told me "yes" by a constrained gesture;and when i had bidden him enter, he did not obey me without a searching backward glanceinto the darkness of the square. there was a policeman not far off,advancing with his bull's eye open; and at the sight, i thought my visitor started andmade greater haste. these particulars struck me, i confess,disagreeably; and as i followed him into the bright light of the consulting room, ikept my hand ready on my weapon. here, at last, i had a chance of clearlyseeing him.

i had never set eyes on him before, so muchwas certain. he was small, as i have said; i was struckbesides with the shocking expression of his face, with his remarkable combination ofgreat muscular activity and great apparent debility of constitution, and--last but not least--with the odd, subjective disturbancecaused by his neighbourhood. this bore some resemblance to incipientrigour, and was accompanied by a marked sinking of the pulse. at the time, i set it down to someidiosyncratic, personal distaste, and merely wondered at the acuteness of thesymptoms; but i have since had reason to

believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of man, and to turn on some noblerhinge than the principle of hatred. this person (who had thus, from the firstmoment of his entrance, struck in me what i can only, describe as a disgustfulcuriosity) was dressed in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person laughable; his clothes, that is to say,although they were of rich and sober fabric, were enormously too large for himin every measurement--the trousers hanging on his legs and rolled up to keep them from the ground, the waist of the coat below hishaunches, and the collar sprawling wide

upon his shoulders. strange to relate, this ludicrousaccoutrement was far from moving me to laughter. rather, as there was something abnormal andmisbegotten in the very essence of the creature that now faced me--somethingseizing, surprising and revolting--this fresh disparity seemed but to fit in with and to reinforce it; so that to my interestin the man's nature and character, there was added a curiosity as to his origin, hislife, his fortune and status in the world. these observations, though they have takenso great a space to be set down in, were

yet the work of a few seconds.my visitor was, indeed, on fire with sombre excitement. "have you got it?" he cried."have you got it?" and so lively was his impatience that heeven laid his hand upon my arm and sought to shake me. i put him back, conscious at his touch of acertain icy pang along my blood. "come, sir," said i."you forget that i have not yet the pleasure of your acquaintance. be seated, if you please."

and i showed him an example, and sat downmyself in my customary seat and with as fair an imitation of my ordinary manner toa patient, as the lateness of the hour, the nature of my preoccupations, and the horror i had of my visitor, would suffer me tomuster. "i beg your pardon, dr. lanyon," he repliedcivilly enough. "what you say is very well founded; and myimpatience has shown its heels to my politeness. i come here at the instance of yourcolleague, dr. henry jekyll, on a piece of business of some moment; and iunderstood..."

he paused and put his hand to his throat,and i could see, in spite of his collected manner, that he was wrestling against theapproaches of the hysteria--"i understood, a drawer..." but here i took pity on my visitor'ssuspense, and some perhaps on my own growing curiosity. "there it is, sir," said i, pointing to thedrawer, where it lay on the floor behind a table and still covered with the sheet. he sprang to it, and then paused, and laidhis hand upon his heart: i could hear his teeth grate with the convulsive action ofhis jaws; and his face was so ghastly to

see that i grew alarmed both for his lifeand reason. "compose yourself," said i. he turned a dreadful smile to me, and as ifwith the decision of despair, plucked away the sheet. at sight of the contents, he uttered oneloud sob of such immense relief that i sat petrified. and the next moment, in a voice that wasalready fairly well under control, "have you a graduated glass?" he asked.i rose from my place with something of an effort and gave him what he asked.

he thanked me with a smiling nod, measuredout a few minims of the red tincture and added one of the powders. the mixture, which was at first of areddish hue, began, in proportion as the crystals melted, to brighten in colour, toeffervesce audibly, and to throw off small fumes of vapour. suddenly and at the same moment, theebullition ceased and the compound changed to a dark purple, which faded again moreslowly to a watery green. my visitor, who had watched thesemetamorphoses with a keen eye, smiled, set down the glass upon the table, and thenturned and looked upon me with an air of

scrutiny. "and now," said he, "to settle whatremains. will you be wise? will you be guided? willyou suffer me to take this glass in my hand and to go forth from your house withoutfurther parley? or has the greed of curiosity too much command of you? think before you answer, for it shall bedone as you decide. as you decide, you shall be left as youwere before, and neither richer nor wiser, unless the sense of service rendered to aman in mortal distress may be counted as a kind of riches of the soul.

or, if you shall so prefer to choose, a newprovince of knowledge and new avenues to fame and power shall be laid open to you,here, in this room, upon the instant; and your sight shall be blasted by a prodigy tostagger the unbelief of satan." "sir," said i, affecting a coolness that iwas far from truly possessing, "you speak enigmas, and you will perhaps not wonderthat i hear you with no very strong impression of belief. but i have gone too far in the way ofinexplicable services to pause before i see the end.""it is well," replied my visitor. "lanyon, you remember your vows: whatfollows is under the seal of our

profession. and now, you who have so long been bound tothe most narrow and material views, you who have denied the virtue of transcendentalmedicine, you who have derided your superiors--behold!" he put the glass to his lips and drank atone gulp. a cry followed; he reeled, staggered,clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with openmouth; and as i looked there came, i thought, a change--he seemed to swell--his face became suddenly black and the featuresseemed to melt and alter--and the next

moment, i had sprung to my feet and leapedback against the wall, my arms raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mindsubmerged in terror. "o god!" i screamed, and "o god!" again and again;for there before my eyes--pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before himwith his hands, like a man restored from death--there stood henry jekyll! what he told me in the next hour, i cannotbring my mind to set on paper. i saw what i saw, i heard what i heard, andmy soul sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my eyes, i askmyself if i believe it, and i cannot

answer. my life is shaken to its roots; sleep hasleft me; the deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the day and night; and i feelthat my days are numbered, and that i must die; and yet i shall die incredulous. as for the moral turpitude that manunveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, i can not, even in memory, dwellon it without a start of horror. i will say but one thing, utterson, andthat (if you can bring your mind to credit it) will be more than enough. the creature who crept into my house thatnight was, on jekyll's own confession,

known by the name of hyde and hunted for inevery corner of the land as the murderer of carew. hastie lanyon chapter 10.henry jekyll's full statement of the case i was born in the year 18-- to a largefortune, endowed besides with excellent parts, inclined by nature to industry, fondof the respect of the wise and good among my fellowmen, and thus, as might have been supposed, with every guarantee of anhonourable and distinguished future. and indeed the worst of my faults was acertain impatient gaiety of disposition,

such as has made the happiness of many, butsuch as i found it hard to reconcile with my imperious desire to carry my head high, and wear a more than commonly gravecountenance before the public. hence it came about that i concealed mypleasures; and that when i reached years of reflection, and began to look round me andtake stock of my progress and position in the world, i stood already committed to aprofound duplicity of me. many a man would have even blazoned suchirregularities as i was guilty of; but from the high views that i had set before me, iregarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame.

it was thus rather the exacting nature ofmy aspirations than any particular degradation in my faults, that made me whati was, and, with even a deeper trench than in the majority of men, severed in me those provinces of good and ill which divide andcompound man's dual nature. in this case, i was driven to reflectdeeply and inveterately on that hard law of life, which lies at the root of religionand is one of the most plentiful springs of distress. though so profound a double-dealer, i wasin no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest; i was no more myselfwhen i laid aside restraint and plunged in

shame, than when i laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or therelief of sorrow and suffering. and it chanced that the direction of myscientific studies, which led wholly towards the mystic and the transcendental,reacted and shed a strong light on this consciousness of the perennial war among mymembers. with every day, and from both sides of myintelligence, the moral and the intellectual, i thus drew steadily nearerto that truth, by whose partial discovery i have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, buttruly two.

i say two, because the state of my ownknowledge does not pass beyond that point. others will follow, others will outstrip meon the same lines; and i hazard the guess that man will be ultimately known for amere polity of multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens. i, for my part, from the nature of my life,advanced infallibly in one direction and in one direction only. it was on the moral side, and in my ownperson, that i learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; isaw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if i

could rightly be said to be either, it wasonly because i was radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of myscientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle, i had learned to dwell withpleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of theseelements. if each, i told myself, could be housed inseparate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjustmight go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastlyand securely on his upward path, doing the

good things in which he found his pleasure,and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneousevil. it was the curse of mankind that theseincongruous faggots were thus bound together--that in the agonised womb ofconsciousness, these polar twins should be continuously struggling. how, then were they dissociated?i was so far in my reflections when, as i have said, a side light began to shine uponthe subject from the laboratory table. i began to perceive more deeply than it hasever yet been stated, the trembling immateriality, the mistlike transience, ofthis seemingly so solid body in which we

walk attired. certain agents i found to have the power toshake and pluck back that fleshly vestment, even as a wind might toss the curtains of apavilion. for two good reasons, i will not enterdeeply into this scientific branch of my confession. first, because i have been made to learnthat the doom and burthen of our life is bound for ever on man's shoulders, and whenthe attempt is made to cast it off, it but returns upon us with more unfamiliar andmore awful pressure. second, because, as my narrative will make,alas! too evident, my discoveries were

incomplete. enough then, that i not only recognised mynatural body from the mere aura and effulgence of certain of the powers thatmade up my spirit, but managed to compound a drug by which these powers should be dethroned from their supremacy, and asecond form and countenance substituted, none the less natural to me because theywere the expression, and bore the stamp of lower elements in my soul. i hesitated long before i put this theoryto the test of practice. i knew well that i risked death; for anydrug that so potently controlled and shook

the very fortress of identity, might, bythe least scruple of an overdose or at the least inopportunity in the moment of exhibition, utterly blot out thatimmaterial tabernacle which i looked to it to change. but the temptation of a discovery sosingular and profound at last overcame the suggestions of alarm. i had long since prepared my tincture; ipurchased at once, from a firm of wholesale chemists, a large quantity of a particularsalt which i knew, from my experiments, to be the last ingredient required; and late

one accursed night, i compounded theelements, watched them boil and smoke together in the glass, and when theebullition had subsided, with a strong glow of courage, drank off the potion. the most racking pangs succeeded: agrinding in the bones, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot beexceeded at the hour of birth or death. then these agonies began swiftly tosubside, and i came to myself as if out of a great sickness. there was something strange in mysensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incrediblysweet.

i felt younger, lighter, happier in body;within i was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disorderedsensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocentfreedom of the soul. i knew myself, at the first breath of thisnew life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil;and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine. i stretched out my hands, exulting in thefreshness of these sensations; and in the act, i was suddenly aware that i had lostin stature.

there was no mirror, at that date, in myroom; that which stands beside me as i write, was brought there later on and forthe very purpose of these transformations. the night however, was far gone into themorning--the morning, black as it was, was nearly ripe for the conception of the day--the inmates of my house were locked in the most rigorous hours of slumber; and i determined, flushed as i was with hope andtriumph, to venture in my new shape as far as to my bedroom. i crossed the yard, wherein theconstellations looked down upon me, i could have thought, with wonder, the firstcreature of that sort that their unsleeping

vigilance had yet disclosed to them; i stole through the corridors, a stranger inmy own house; and coming to my room, i saw for the first time the appearance of edwardhyde. i must here speak by theory alone, sayingnot that which i know, but that which i suppose to be most probable. the evil side of my nature, to which i hadnow transferred the stamping efficacy, was less robust and less developed than thegood which i had just deposed. again, in the course of my life, which hadbeen, after all, nine tenths a life of effort, virtue and control, it had beenmuch less exercised and much less

exhausted. and hence, as i think, it came about thatedward hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger than henry jekyll. even as good shone upon the countenance ofthe one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other. evil besides (which i must still believe tobe the lethal side of man) had left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay. and yet when i looked upon that ugly idolin the glass, i was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome.this, too, was myself.

it seemed natural and human. in my eyes it bore a livelier image of thespirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenancei had been hitherto accustomed to call mine. and in so far i was doubtless right.i have observed that when i wore the semblance of edward hyde, none could comenear to me at first without a visible misgiving of the flesh. this, as i take it, was because all humanbeings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and edward hyde, alone inthe ranks of mankind, was pure evil.

i lingered but a moment at the mirror: thesecond and conclusive experiment had yet to be attempted; it yet remained to be seen ifi had lost my identity beyond redemption and must flee before daylight from a house that was no longer mine; and hurrying backto my cabinet, i once more prepared and drank the cup, once more suffered the pangsof dissolution, and came to myself once more with the character, the stature andthe face of henry jekyll. that night i had come to the fatal cross-roads. had i approached my discovery in a morenoble spirit, had i risked the experiment while under the empire of generous or piousaspirations, all must have been otherwise,

and from these agonies of death and birth, i had come forth an angel instead of afiend. the drug had no discriminating action; itwas neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prisonhouse of mydisposition; and like the captives of philippi, that which stood within ranforth. at that time my virtue slumbered; my evil,kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion; and the thing thatwas projected was edward hyde. hence, although i had now two characters aswell as two appearances, one was wholly evil, and the other was still the old henryjekyll, that incongruous compound of whose

reformation and improvement i had alreadylearned to despair. the movement was thus wholly toward theworse. even at that time, i had not conquered myaversions to the dryness of a life of study. i would still be merrily disposed at times;and as my pleasures were (to say the least) undignified, and i was not only well knownand highly considered, but growing towards the elderly man, this incoherency of mylife was daily growing more unwelcome. it was on this side that my new powertempted me until i fell in slavery. i had but to drink the cup, to doff at oncethe body of the noted professor, and to

assume, like a thick cloak, that of edwardhyde. i smiled at the notion; it seemed to me atthe time to be humourous; and i made my preparations with the most studious care. i took and furnished that house in soho, towhich hyde was tracked by the police; and engaged as a housekeeper a creature whom iknew well to be silent and unscrupulous. on the other side, i announced to myservants that a mr. hyde (whom i described) was to have full liberty and power about myhouse in the square; and to parry mishaps, i even called and made myself a familiarobject, in my second character. i next drew up that will to which you somuch objected; so that if anything befell

me in the person of dr. jekyll, i couldenter on that of edward hyde without pecuniary loss. and thus fortified, as i supposed, on everyside, i began to profit by the strange immunities of my position. men have before hired bravos to transacttheir crimes, while their own person and reputation sat under shelter.i was the first that ever did so for his pleasures. i was the first that could plod in thepublic eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment, like aschoolboy, strip off these lendings and

spring headlong into the sea of liberty. but for me, in my impenetrable mantle, thesafety was complete. think of it--i did not even exist! let me but escape into my laboratory door,give me but a second or two to mix and swallow the draught that i had alwaysstanding ready; and whatever he had done, edward hyde would pass away like the stain of breath upon a mirror; and there in hisstead, quietly at home, trimming the midnight lamp in his study, a man who couldafford to laugh at suspicion, would be the pleasures which i made haste to seek inmy disguise were, as i have said,

undignified; i would scarce use a harderterm. but in the hands of edward hyde, they soonbegan to turn toward the monstrous. when i would come back from theseexcursions, i was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity. this familiar that i called out of my ownsoul, and sent forth alone to do his good pleasure, was a being inherently malign andvillainous; his every act and thought centered on self; drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of tortureto another; relentless like a man of stone. henry jekyll stood at times aghast beforethe acts of edward hyde; but the situation

was apart from ordinary laws, andinsidiously relaxed the grasp of conscience. it was hyde, after all, and hyde alone,that was guilty. jekyll was no worse; he woke again to hisgood qualities seemingly unimpaired; he would even make haste, where it waspossible, to undo the evil done by hyde. and thus his conscience slumbered. into the details of the infamy at which ithus connived (for even now i can scarce grant that i committed it) i have no designof entering; i mean but to point out the warnings and the successive steps withwhich my chastisement approached.

i met with one accident which, as itbrought on no consequence, i shall no more than mention. an act of cruelty to a child arousedagainst me the anger of a passer-by, whom i recognised the other day in the person ofyour kinsman; the doctor and the child's family joined him; there were moments when i feared for my life; and at last, in orderto pacify their too just resentment, edward hyde had to bring them to the door, and paythem in a cheque drawn in the name of henry jekyll. but this danger was easily eliminated fromthe future, by opening an account at

another bank in the name of edward hydehimself; and when, by sloping my own hand backward, i had supplied my double with a signature, i thought i sat beyond the reachof fate. some two months before the murder of sirdanvers, i had been out for one of my adventures, had returned at a late hour,and woke the next day in bed with somewhat odd sensations. it was in vain i looked about me; in vain isaw the decent furniture and tall proportions of my room in the square; invain that i recognised the pattern of the bed curtains and the design of the mahogany

frame; something still kept insisting thati was not where i was, that i had not wakened where i seemed to be, but in thelittle room in soho where i was accustomed to sleep in the body of edward hyde. i smiled to myself, and in my psychologicalway, began lazily to inquire into the elements of this illusion, occasionally,even as i did so, dropping back into a comfortable morning doze. i was still so engaged when, in one of mymore wakeful moments, my eyes fell upon my hand. now the hand of henry jekyll (as you haveoften remarked) was professional in shape

and size: it was large, firm, white andcomely. but the hand which i now saw, clearlyenough, in the yellow light of a mid-london morning, lying half shut on the bedclothes,was lean, corder, knuckly, of a dusky pallor and thickly shaded with a swartgrowth of hair. it was the hand of edward hyde. i must have stared upon it for near half aminute, sunk as i was in the mere stupidity of wonder, before terror woke up in mybreast as sudden and startling as the crash of cymbals; and bounding from my bed irushed to the mirror. at the sight that met my eyes, my blood waschanged into something exquisitely thin and

icy. yes, i had gone to bed henry jekyll, i hadawakened edward hyde. how was this to be explained?i asked myself; and then, with another bound of terror--how was it to be remedied? it was well on in the morning; the servantswere up; all my drugs were in the cabinet-- a long journey down two pairs of stairs,through the back passage, across the open court and through the anatomical theatre, from where i was then standing horror-struck. it might indeed be possible to cover myface; but of what use was that, when i was

unable to conceal the alteration in mystature? and then with an overpowering sweetness ofrelief, it came back upon my mind that the servants were already used to the comingand going of my second self. i had soon dressed, as well as i was able,in clothes of my own size: had soon passed through the house, where bradshaw staredand drew back at seeing mr. hyde at such an hour and in such a strange array; and ten minutes later, dr. jekyll had returned tohis own shape and was sitting down, with a darkened brow, to make a feint ofbreakfasting. small indeed was my appetite.

this inexplicable incident, this reversalof my previous experience, seemed, like the babylonian finger on the wall, to bespelling out the letters of my judgment; and i began to reflect more seriously than ever before on the issues and possibilitiesof my double existence. that part of me which i had the power ofprojecting, had lately been much exercised and nourished; it had seemed to me of lateas though the body of edward hyde had grown in stature, as though (when i wore that form) i were conscious of a more generoustide of blood; and i began to spy a danger that, if this were much prolonged, thebalance of my nature might be permanently

overthrown, the power of voluntary change be forfeited, and the character of edwardhyde become irrevocably mine. the power of the drug had not been alwaysequally displayed. once, very early in my career, it hadtotally failed me; since then i had been obliged on more than one occasion todouble, and once, with infinite risk of death, to treble the amount; and these rare uncertainties had cast hitherto the soleshadow on my contentment. now, however, and in the light of thatmorning's accident, i was led to remark that whereas, in the beginning, thedifficulty had been to throw off the body

of jekyll, it had of late gradually but decidedly transferred itself to the otherside. all things therefore seemed to point tothis; that i was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becomingslowly incorporated with my second and worse. between these two, i now felt i had tochoose. my two natures had memory in common, butall other faculties were most unequally shared between them. jekyll (who was composite) now with themost sensitive apprehensions, now with a

greedy gusto, projected and shared in thepleasures and adventures of hyde; but hyde was indifferent to jekyll, or but remembered him as the mountain banditremembers the cavern in which he conceals himself from pursuit.jekyll had more than a father's interest; hyde had more than a son's indifference. to cast in my lot with jekyll, was to dieto those appetites which i had long secretly indulged and had of late begun topamper. to cast it in with hyde, was to die to athousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and forever, despised andfriendless.

the bargain might appear unequal; but therewas still another consideration in the scales; for while jekyll would suffersmartingly in the fires of abstinence, hyde would be not even conscious of all that hehad lost. strange as my circumstances were, the termsof this debate are as old and commonplace as man; much the same inducements andalarms cast the die for any tempted and trembling sinner; and it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of myfellows, that i chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keepto it. yes, i preferred the elderly anddiscontented doctor, surrounded by friends

and cherishing honest hopes; and bade aresolute farewell to the liberty, the comparative youth, the light step, leaping impulses and secret pleasures, that i hadenjoyed in the disguise of hyde. i made this choice perhaps with someunconscious reservation, for i neither gave up the house in soho, nor destroyed theclothes of edward hyde, which still lay ready in my cabinet. for two months, however, i was true to mydetermination; for two months, i led a life of such severity as i had never beforeattained to, and enjoyed the compensations of an approving conscience.

but time began at last to obliterate thefreshness of my alarm; the praises of conscience began to grow into a thing ofcourse; i began to be tortured with throes and longings, as of hyde struggling after freedom; and at last, in an hour of moralweakness, i once again compounded and swallowed the transforming draught. i do not suppose that, when a drunkardreasons with himself upon his vice, he is once out of five hundred times affected bythe dangers that he runs through his brutish, physical insensibility; neither had i, long as i had considered myposition, made enough allowance for the

complete moral insensibility and insensatereadiness to evil, which were the leading characters of edward hyde. yet it was by these that i was punished.my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring. i was conscious, even when i took thedraught, of a more unbridled, a more furious propensity to ill. it must have been this, i suppose, thatstirred in my soul that tempest of impatience with which i listened to thecivilities of my unhappy victim; i declare, at least, before god, no man morally sane

could have been guilty of that crime uponso pitiful a provocation; and that i struck in no more reasonable spirit than that inwhich a sick child may break a plaything. but i had voluntarily stripped myself ofall those balancing instincts by which even the worst of us continues to walk with somedegree of steadiness among temptations; and in my case, to be tempted, howeverslightly, was to fall. instantly the spirit of hell awoke in meand raged. with a transport of glee, i mauled theunresisting body, tasting delight from every blow; and it was not till wearinesshad begun to succeed, that i was suddenly, in the top fit of my delirium, struck

through the heart by a cold thrill ofterror. a mist dispersed; i saw my life to beforfeit; and fled from the scene of these excesses, at once glorying and trembling,my lust of evil gratified and stimulated, my love of life screwed to the topmost peg. i ran to the house in soho, and (to makeassurance doubly sure) destroyed my papers; thence i set out through the lamplitstreets, in the same divided ecstasy of mind, gloating on my crime, light-headedly devising others in the future, and yetstill hastening and still hearkening in my wake for the steps of the avenger.

hyde had a song upon his lips as hecompounded the draught, and as he drank it, pledged the dead man. the pangs of transformation had not donetearing him, before henry jekyll, with streaming tears of gratitude and remorse,had fallen upon his knees and lifted his clasped hands to god. the veil of self-indulgence was rent fromhead to foot. i saw my life as a whole: i followed it upfrom the days of childhood, when i had walked with my father's hand, and throughthe self-denying toils of my professional life, to arrive again and again, with the

same sense of unreality, at the damnedhorrors of the evening. i could have screamed aloud; i sought withtears and prayers to smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds with which mymemory swarmed against me; and still, between the petitions, the ugly face of myiniquity stared into my soul. as the acuteness of this remorse began todie away, it was succeeded by a sense of joy. the problem of my conduct was solved. hyde was thenceforth impossible; whether iwould or not, i was now confined to the better part of my existence; and o, how irejoiced to think of it! with what willing

humility i embraced anew the restrictions of natural life! with what sincererenunciation i locked the door by which i had so often gone and come, and ground thekey under my heel! the next day, came the news that the murderhad not been overlooked, that the guilt of hyde was patent to the world, and that thevictim was a man high in public estimation. it was not only a crime, it had been atragic folly. i think i was glad to know it; i think iwas glad to have my better impulses thus buttressed and guarded by the terrors ofthe scaffold. jekyll was now my city of refuge; let buthyde peep out an instant, and the hands of

all men would be raised to take and slayhim. i resolved in my future conduct to redeemthe past; and i can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good. you know yourself how earnestly, in thelast months of the last year, i laboured to relieve suffering; you know that much wasdone for others, and that the days passed quietly, almost happily for myself. nor can i truly say that i wearied of thisbeneficent and innocent life; i think instead that i daily enjoyed it morecompletely; but i was still cursed with my duality of purpose; and as the first edge

of my penitence wore off, the lower side ofme, so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl for licence. not that i dreamed of resuscitating hyde;the bare idea of that would startle me to frenzy: no, it was in my own person that iwas once more tempted to trifle with my conscience; and it was as an ordinary secret sinner that i at last fell beforethe assaults of temptation. there comes an end to all things; the mostcapacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finallydestroyed the balance of my soul. and yet i was not alarmed; the fall seemednatural, like a return to the old days

before i had made my discovery. it was a fine, clear, january day, wetunder foot where the frost had melted, but cloudless overhead; and the regent's parkwas full of winter chirrupings and sweet with spring odours. i sat in the sun on a bench; the animalwithin me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promisingsubsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin. after all, i reflected, i was like myneighbours; and then i smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my activegood-will with the lazy cruelty of their

neglect. and at the very moment of that vaingloriousthought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering. these passed away, and left me faint; andthen as in its turn faintness subsided, i began to be aware of a change in the temperof my thoughts, a greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the bondsof obligation. i looked down; my clothes hung formlesslyon my shrunken limbs; the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy. i was once more edward hyde.

a moment before i had been safe of allmen's respect, wealthy, beloved--the cloth laying for me in the dining-room at home;and now i was the common quarry of mankind, hunted, houseless, a known murderer, thrallto the gallows. my reason wavered, but it did not fail meutterly. i have more than once observed that in mysecond character, my faculties seemed sharpened to a point and my spirits moretensely elastic; thus it came about that, where jekyll perhaps might have succumbed,hyde rose to the importance of the moment. my drugs were in one of the presses of mycabinet; how was i to reach them? that was the problem that (crushing mytemples in my hands) i set myself to solve.

the laboratory door i had closed.if i sought to enter by the house, my own servants would consign me to the gallows. i saw i must employ another hand, andthought of lanyon. how was he to be reached? how persuaded? supposing that i escaped capture in thestreets, how was i to make my way into his presence? and how should i, an unknown anddispleasing visitor, prevail on the famous physician to rifle the study of hiscolleague, dr. jekyll? then i remembered that of my originalcharacter, one part remained to me: i could write my own hand; and once i had conceivedthat kindling spark, the way that i must

follow became lighted up from end to end. thereupon, i arranged my clothes as best icould, and summoning a passing hansom, drove to an hotel in portland street, thename of which i chanced to remember. at my appearance (which was indeed comicalenough, however tragic a fate these garments covered) the driver could notconceal his mirth. i gnashed my teeth upon him with a gust ofdevilish fury; and the smile withered from his face--happily for him--yet more happilyfor myself, for in another instant i had certainly dragged him from his perch. at the inn, as i entered, i looked about mewith so black a countenance as made the

attendants tremble; not a look did theyexchange in my presence; but obsequiously took my orders, led me to a private room,and brought me wherewithal to write. hyde in danger of his life was a creaturenew to me; shaken with inordinate anger, strung to the pitch of murder, lusting toinflict pain. yet the creature was astute; mastered hisfury with a great effort of the will; composed his two important letters, one tolanyon and one to poole; and that he might receive actual evidence of their being posted, sent them out with directions thatthey should be registered. thenceforward, he sat all day over the firein the private room, gnawing his nails;

there he dined, sitting alone with hisfears, the waiter visibly quailing before his eye; and thence, when the night was fully come, he set forth in the corner of aclosed cab, and was driven to and fro about the streets of the city.he, i say--i cannot say, i. that child of hell had nothing human;nothing lived in him but fear and hatred. and when at last, thinking the driver hadbegun to grow suspicious, he discharged the cab and ventured on foot, attired in hismisfitting clothes, an object marked out for observation, into the midst of the nocturnal passengers, these two basepassions raged within him like a tempest.

he walked fast, hunted by his fears,chattering to himself, skulking through the less frequented thoroughfares, counting theminutes that still divided him from midnight. once a woman spoke to him, offering, ithink, a box of lights. he smote her in the face, and she fled. when i came to myself at lanyon's, thehorror of my old friend perhaps affected me somewhat: i do not know; it was at leastbut a drop in the sea to the abhorrence with which i looked back upon these hours. a change had come over me.it was no longer the fear of the gallows,

it was the horror of being hyde that rackedme. i received lanyon's condemnation partly ina dream; it was partly in a dream that i came home to my own house and got into bed. i slept after the prostration of the day,with a stringent and profound slumber which not even the nightmares that wrung me couldavail to break. i awoke in the morning shaken, weakened,but refreshed. i still hated and feared the thought of thebrute that slept within me, and i had not of course forgotten the appalling dangersof the day before; but i was once more at home, in my own house and close to my

drugs; and gratitude for my escape shone sostrong in my soul that it almost rivalled the brightness of hope. i was stepping leisurely across the courtafter breakfast, drinking the chill of the air with pleasure, when i was seized againwith those indescribable sensations that heralded the change; and i had but the time to gain the shelter of my cabinet, before iwas once again raging and freezing with the passions of hyde. it took on this occasion a double dose torecall me to myself; and alas! six hours after, as i sat looking sadly in the fire,the pangs returned, and the drug had to be

re-administered. in short, from that day forth it seemedonly by a great effort as of gymnastics, and only under the immediate stimulation ofthe drug, that i was able to wear the countenance of jekyll. at all hours of the day and night, i wouldbe taken with the premonitory shudder; above all, if i slept, or even dozed for amoment in my chair, it was always as hyde that i awakened. under the strain of this continuallyimpending doom and by the sleeplessness to which i now condemned myself, ay, evenbeyond what i had thought possible to man,

i became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidlyweak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of myother self. but when i slept, or when the virtue of themedicine wore off, i would leap almost without transition (for the pangs oftransformation grew daily less marked) into the possession of a fancy brimming with images of terror, a soul boiling withcauseless hatreds, and a body that seemed not strong enough to contain the ragingenergies of life. the powers of hyde seemed to have grownwith the sickliness of jekyll.

and certainly the hate that now dividedthem was equal on each side. with jekyll, it was a thing of vitalinstinct. he had now seen the full deformity of thatcreature that shared with him some of the phenomena of consciousness, and was co-heirwith him to death: and beyond these links of community, which in themselves made the most poignant part of his distress, hethought of hyde, for all his energy of life, as of something not only hellish butinorganic. this was the shocking thing; that the slimeof the pit seemed to utter cries and voices; that the amorphous dustgesticulated and sinned; that what was

dead, and had no shape, should usurp theoffices of life. and this again, that that insurgent horrorwas knit to him closer than a wife, closer than an eye; lay caged in his flesh, wherehe heard it mutter and felt it struggle to be born; and at every hour of weakness, and in the confidence of slumber, prevailedagainst him, and deposed him out of life. the hatred of hyde for jekyll was of adifferent order. his terror of the gallows drove himcontinually to commit temporary suicide, and return to his subordinate station of apart instead of a person; but he loathed the necessity, he loathed the despondency

into which jekyll was now fallen, and heresented the dislike with which he was himself regarded. hence the ape-like tricks that he wouldplay me, scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of my books,burning the letters and destroying the portrait of my father; and indeed, had it not been for his fear of death, he wouldlong ago have ruined himself in order to involve me in the ruin. but his love of me is wonderful; i gofurther: i, who sicken and freeze at the mere thought of him, when i recall theabjection and passion of this attachment,

and when i know how he fears my power to cut him off by suicide, i find it in myheart to pity him. it is useless, and the time awfully failsme, to prolong this description; no one has ever suffered such torments, let thatsuffice; and yet even to these, habit brought--no, not alleviation--but a certain callousness of soul, a certain acquiescenceof despair; and my punishment might have gone on for years, but for the lastcalamity which has now fallen, and which has finally severed me from my own face andnature. my provision of the salt, which had neverbeen renewed since the date of the first

experiment, began to run low. i sent out for a fresh supply and mixed thedraught; the ebullition followed, and the first change of colour, not the second; idrank it and it was without efficiency. you will learn from poole how i have hadlondon ransacked; it was in vain; and i am now persuaded that my first supply wasimpure, and that it was that unknown impurity which lent efficacy to thedraught. about a week has passed, and i am nowfinishing this statement under the influence of the last of the old powders. this, then, is the last time, short of amiracle, that henry jekyll can think his

own thoughts or see his own face (now howsadly altered!) in the glass. nor must i delay too long to bring mywriting to an end; for if my narrative has hitherto escaped destruction, it has beenby a combination of great prudence and great good luck. should the throes of change take me in theact of writing it, hyde will tear it in pieces; but if some time shall have elapsedafter i have laid it by, his wonderful selfishness and circumscription to the moment will probably save it once againfrom the action of his ape-like spite. and indeed the doom that is closing on usboth has already changed and crushed him.

half an hour from now, when i shall againand forever reindue that hated personality, i know how i shall sit shuddering andweeping in my chair, or continue, with the most strained and fearstruck ecstasy of listening, to pace up and down this room(my last earthly refuge) and give ear to every sound of menace. will hyde die upon the scaffold? or will hefind courage to release himself at the last moment? god knows; i am careless; this is my truehour of death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself.

here then, as i lay down the pen andproceed to seal up my confession, i bring the life of that unhappy henry jekyll to anend.

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