ON the ninth of January, now four days ago, I received by the\u00a0evening delivery a registered envelope, addressed in the hand of\u00a0my colleague and old school-companion, Henry Jekyll. I was a good\u00a0deal surprised by this; for we were by no means in the habit of\u00a0correspondence; I had seen the man, dined with him, indeed, the\u00a0night before; and I could imagine nothing in our intercourse that\u00a0should justify formality of registration. The contents increased\u00a0my wonder; for this is how the letter ran:<\/p>\r\n
\"10th December, 18\u2014<\/p>\r\n
\"DEAR LANYON, You are one of my oldest friends; and although we\u00a0may have differed at times on scientific questions, I cannot\u00a0remember, at least on my side, any break in our affection. There\u00a0was never a day when, if you had said to me, 'Jekyll, my life, my\u00a0honour, my reason, depend upon you,' I would not have sacrificed\u00a0my left hand to help you. Lanyon, my life, my honour my reason,\u00a0are all at your mercy;\u00a0if you fail me to-night I am lost. You might suppose, after this\u00a0preface, that I am going to ask you for something dishonourable\u00a0to grant. Judge for yourself.<\/p>\r\n
\"I want you to postpone all other engagements for to-night\u2014ay,\u00a0even if you were summoned to the bedside of an emperor; to take a\u00a0cab, unless your carriage should be actually at the door; and\u00a0with this letter in your hand for consultation, to drive straight\u00a0to my house. Poole, my butler, has his orders; you will find, him\u00a0waiting your arrival with a locksmith. The door of my cabinet is\u00a0then to be forced: and you are to go in alone; to open the glazed\u00a0press (letter E) on the left hand, breaking the lock if it be\u00a0shut; and to draw out, with all its contents as they stand, the\u00a0fourth drawer from the top or (which is the same thing) the third\u00a0from the bottom. In my extreme distress of wind, I have a morbid\u00a0fear of misdirecting you; but even if I am in error, you may know\u00a0the right drawer by its contents: some powders, a phial and a\u00a0paper book. This drawer I beg of you to carry back with you to\u00a0Cavendish Square exactly as it stands.<\/p>\r\n
\"That is the first part of the service: now for the second. You\u00a0should be back, if you set out at once on the receipt of this,\u00a0long before midnight; but I will leave you that amount of margin,\u00a0not only in the fear of one of those obstacles that can neither\u00a0be prevented nor foreseen, but because an hour when your servants are in bed is to be\u00a0preferred for what will then remain to do. At midnight, then, I\u00a0have to ask you to be alone in your consulting-room, to admit\u00a0with your own hand into the house a man who will present himself\u00a0in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you will\u00a0have brought with you from my cabinet. Then you will have played\u00a0your part and earned my gratitude completely. Five minutes\u00a0afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have\u00a0understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and\u00a0that by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must\u00a0appear, you might have charged your conscience with my death or\u00a0the shipwreck of my reason.<\/p>\r\n
\"Confident as I am that you will not trifle with this appeal, my\u00a0heart sinks and my hand trembles at the bare thought of such a\u00a0possibility. Think of me at this hour, in a strange place,\u00a0labouring under a blackness of distress that no fancy can\u00a0exaggerate, and yet well aware that, if you will but punctually\u00a0serve me, my troubles will roll away like a story that is told.\u00a0Serve me, my dear Lanyon, and save\u00a0\"Your friend,<\/p>\r\n\"H. J.\r\n
\"P. S. I had already sealed this up when a fresh terror struck\u00a0upon my soul. It is possible that the postoffice may fail me, and\u00a0this letter\u00a0not come into your hands until to-morrow morning. In that case,\u00a0dear Lanyon, do my errand when it shall be most convenient for\u00a0you in the course of the day; and once more expect my messenger\u00a0at midnight. It may then already be too late; and if that night\u00a0passes without event, you will know that you have seen the last\u00a0of Henry Jekyll.\"<\/p>\r\n
Upon the reading of this letter, I made sure my colleague was\u00a0insane; but till that was proved beyond the possibility of doubt,\u00a0I felt bound to do as he requested. The less I understood of this\u00a0farrago, the less I was in a position to judge of its importance;\u00a0and an appeal so worded could not be set aside without a grave\u00a0responsibility. I rose accordingly from table, got into a hansom,\u00a0and drove straight to Jekyll's house. The butler was awaiting my\u00a0arrival; he had received by the same post as mine a registered\u00a0letter of instruction, and had sent at once for a locksmith and a\u00a0carpenter. The tradesmen came while we were yet speaking; and we\u00a0moved in a body to old Dr. Denman's surgical theatre, from which\u00a0(as you are doubtless aware) Jekyll's private cabinet is most\u00a0conveniently entered. The door was very strong, the lock\u00a0excellent; the carpenter avowed he would have great trouble and\u00a0have to do much damage, if force were to be used; and the\u00a0locksmith was near despair. But this last was a handy fellow,\u00a0and after two hours' work, the door stood open. The press marked\u00a0E was unlocked; and I took out the drawer, had it filled up with\u00a0straw and tied in a sheet, and returned with it to Cavendish\u00a0Square.<\/p>\r\n
Here I proceeded to examine its contents. The powders were neatly\u00a0enough made up, but not with the nicety of the dispensing\u00a0chemist; so that it was plain they were of Jekyll's private\u00a0manufacture; and when I opened one of the wrappers I found what\u00a0seemed to me a simple crystalline salt of a white colour. The\u00a0phial, to which I next turned my attention, might have been about\u00a0half-full of a blood-red liquor, which was highly pungent to the\u00a0sense of smell and seemed to me to contain phosphorus and some\u00a0volatile ether. At the other ingredients I could make no guess.\u00a0The book was an ordinary version-book and contained little but a\u00a0series of dates. These covered a period of many years, but I\u00a0observed that the entries ceased nearly a year ago and quite\u00a0abruptly. Here and there a brief remark was appended to a date,\u00a0usually no more than a single word: \"double\" occurring perhaps\u00a0six times in a total of several hundred entries; and once very\u00a0early in the list and followed by several marks of exclamation,\u00a0\"total failure!!!\" All this, though it whetted my curiosity, told\u00a0me little that was definite. Here were a phial of some tincture,\u00a0a paper of some salt, and the record of a series of experiments that had led (like too many of Jekyll's investigations) to\u00a0no end of practical usefulness. How could the presence of these\u00a0articles in my house affect either the honour, the sanity, or the\u00a0life of my flighty colleague? If his messenger could go to one\u00a0place, why could he not go to another? And even granting some\u00a0impediment, why was this gentleman to be received by me in\u00a0secret? The more I reflected the more convinced I grew that I was\u00a0dealing with a case of cerebral disease: and though I dismissed\u00a0my servants to bed, I loaded an old revolver, that I might be\u00a0found in some posture of self-defence.<\/p>\r\n
Twelve o'clock had scarce rung out over London, ere the knocker\u00a0sounded very gently on the door. I went myself at the summons,\u00a0and found a small man crouching against the pillars of the\u00a0portico.<\/p>\r\n
\"Are you come from Dr. Jekyll?\" I asked.<\/p>\r\n
He told me \"yes\" by a constrained gesture; and when I had bidden\u00a0him enter, he did not obey me without a searching backward glance\u00a0into the darkness of the square. There was a policeman not far\u00a0off, advancing with his bull's eye open; and at the sight, I\u00a0thought my visitor started and made greater haste.<\/p>\r\n
These particulars struck me, I confess, disagreeably; and as I\u00a0followed him into the bright light of the consulting-room, I kept\u00a0my hand ready on my weapon. Here, at last, I had a\u00a0chance of clearly seeing him. I had never set eyes on him before,\u00a0so much was certain. He was small, as I have said; I was struck\u00a0besides with the shocking expression of his face, with his\u00a0remarkable combination of great muscular activity and great\u00a0apparent debility of constitution, and\u2014last but not least\u2014\u00a0with the odd, subjective disturbance caused by his neighbourhood.\u00a0This bore some resemblance to incipient rigour, and was\u00a0accompanied by a marked sinking of the pulse. At the time, I set\u00a0it down to some idiosyncratic, personal distaste, and merely\u00a0wondered at the acuteness of the symptoms; but I have since had\u00a0reason to believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of\u00a0man, and to turn on some nobler hinge than the principle of\u00a0hatred.<\/p>\r\n
This person (who had thus, from the first moment of his entrance,\u00a0struck in me what I can only describe as a disgustful curiosity)\u00a0was dressed in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person\u00a0laughable; his clothes, that is to say, although they were of\u00a0rich and sober fabric, were enormously too large for him in every\u00a0measurement\u2014the trousers hanging on his legs and rolled up to\u00a0keep them from the ground, the waist of the coat below his\u00a0haunches, and the collar sprawling wide upon his shoulders.\u00a0Strange to relate, this ludicrous accoutrement was far from\u00a0moving me to laughter. Rather, as there was something abnormal\u00a0and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature that now faced me\u2014something seizing, surprising, and revolting\u2014this fresh\u00a0disparity seemed but to fit in with and to reinforce it; so that\u00a0to my interest in the man's nature and character, there was added\u00a0a curiosity as to his origin, his life, his fortune and status in\u00a0the world.<\/p>\r\n
These observations, though they have taken so great a space to be\u00a0set down in, were yet the work of a few seconds. My visitor was,\u00a0indeed, on fire with sombre excitement.<\/p>\r\n
\"Have you got it?\" he cried. \"Have you got it?\" And so lively was\u00a0his impatience that he even laid his hand upon my arm and sought\u00a0to shake me.<\/p>\r\n
I put him back, conscious at his touch of a certain icy pang\u00a0along my blood. \"Come, sir,\" said I. \"You forget that I have not\u00a0yet the pleasure of your acquaintance. Be seated, if you please.\"\u00a0And I showed him an example, and sat down myself in my customary\u00a0seat and with as fair an imitation of my ordinary manner to a\u00a0patient, as the lateness of the hour, the nature of my\u00a0pre-occupations, and the horror I had of my visitor, would suffer\u00a0me to muster.<\/p>\r\n
\"I beg your pardon, Dr. Lanyon,\" he replied civilly enough. \"What\u00a0you say is very well founded; and my impatience has shown its\u00a0heels to my politeness. I come here at the instance of your\u00a0colleague, Dr. Henry Jekyll, on a piece of business of some\u00a0moment; and I understood\u2026\" He paused and put his hand to his throat, and I could\u00a0see, in spite of his collected manner, that he was wrestling\u00a0against the approaches of the hysteria\u2014\"I understood, a\u00a0drawer\u2026\"<\/p>\r\n
But here I took pity on my visitor's suspense, and some perhaps\u00a0on my own growing curiosity.<\/p>\r\n
\"There it is, sir,\" said I, pointing to the drawer, where it lay\u00a0on the floor behind a table and still covered with the sheet.<\/p>\r\n
He sprang to it, and then paused, and laid his hand upon his\u00a0heart: I could hear his teeth grate with the convulsive action of\u00a0his jaws; and his face was so ghastly to see that I grew alarmed\u00a0both for his life and reason.<\/p>\r\n
\"Compose yourself,\" said I.<\/p>\r\n
He turned a dreadful smile to me, and as if with the decision of\u00a0despair, plucked away the sheet. At sight of the contents, he\u00a0uttered one loud sob of such immense relief that I sat petrified.\u00a0And the next moment, in a voice that was already fairly well\u00a0under control, \"Have you a graduated glass?\" he asked.<\/p>\r\n
I rose from my place with something of an effort and gave him\u00a0what he asked.<\/p>\r\n
He thanked me with a smiling nod, measured out a few minims of\u00a0the red tincture and added one of the powders. The mixture, which\u00a0was at first of a reddish hue, began, in proportion as the\u00a0crystals melted, to brighten in colour, to effervesce audibly,\u00a0and to throw off small\u00a0fumes of vapour. Suddenly and at the same moment, the ebullition\u00a0ceased and the compound changed to a dark purple, which faded\u00a0again more slowly to a watery green. My visitor, who had watched\u00a0these metamorphoses with a keen eye, smiled, set down the glass\u00a0upon the table, and then turned and looked upon me with an air of\u00a0scrutiny.<\/p>\r\n
\"And now,\" said he, \"to settle what remains. Will you be wise?\u00a0will you be guided? will you suffer me to take this glass in my\u00a0hand and to go forth from your house without further parley? or\u00a0has the greed of curiosity too much command of you? Think before\u00a0you answer, for it shall be done as you decide. As you decide,\u00a0you shall be left as you were before, and neither richer nor\u00a0wiser, unless the sense of service rendered to a man in mortal\u00a0distress may be counted as a kind of riches of the soul. Or, if\u00a0you shall so prefer to choose, a new province of knowledge and\u00a0new avenues to fame and power shall be laid open to you, here, in\u00a0this room, upon the instant; and your sight shall be blasted by a\u00a0prodigy to stagger the unbelief of Satan.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Sir,\" said I, affecting a coolness that I was far from truly\u00a0possessing, \"you speak enigmas, and you will perhaps not wonder\u00a0that I hear you with no very strong impression of belief. But I\u00a0have gone too far in the way of inexplicable services to pause\u00a0before I see the end.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"It is well,\" replied my visitor. \"Lanyon,\u00a0you remember your vows: what follows is under the seal of our\u00a0profession. And now, you who have so long been bound to the most\u00a0narrow and material views, you who have denied the virtue of\u00a0transcendental medicine, you who have derided your superiors\u2014behold!\"<\/p>\r\n
He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry\u00a0followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held\u00a0on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I\u00a0looked there came, I thought, a change\u2014he seemed to swell\u2014\u00a0his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt\u00a0and alter\u2014and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and\u00a0leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to shield me from\u00a0that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.<\/p>\r\n
\"O God!\" I screamed, and \"O God!\" again and again; for there\u00a0before my eyes\u2014pale and shaken, and half-fainting, and groping\u00a0before him with his hands, like a man restored from death\u2014there stood Henry Jekyll!<\/p>\r\n
What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set\u00a0on paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul\u00a0sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my\u00a0eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer. My life\u00a0is shaken to its roots; sleep has left me; the deadliest terror\u00a0sits by me at all hours of the day and night; I feel that my days\u00a0are numbered, and that I\u00a0must die; and yet I shall die incredulous. As for the moral\u00a0turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence,\u00a0I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror.\u00a0I will say but one thing, Utterson, and that (if you can bring\u00a0your mind to credit it) will be more than enough. The creature\u00a0who crept into my house that night was, on Jekyll's own\u00a0confession, known by the name of Hyde and hunted for in every\u00a0corner of the land as the murderer of Carew.\u00a0HASTIE LANYON<\/p>","rendered":"
ON the ninth of January, now four days ago, I received by the\u00a0evening delivery a registered envelope, addressed in the hand of\u00a0my colleague and old school-companion, Henry Jekyll. I was a good\u00a0deal surprised by this; for we were by no means in the habit of\u00a0correspondence; I had seen the man, dined with him, indeed, the\u00a0night before; and I could imagine nothing in our intercourse that\u00a0should justify formality of registration. The contents increased\u00a0my wonder; for this is how the letter ran:<\/p>\n
“10th December, 18\u2014<\/p>\n
“DEAR LANYON, You are one of my oldest friends; and although we\u00a0may have differed at times on scientific questions, I cannot\u00a0remember, at least on my side, any break in our affection. There\u00a0was never a day when, if you had said to me, ‘Jekyll, my life, my\u00a0honour, my reason, depend upon you,’ I would not have sacrificed\u00a0my left hand to help you. Lanyon, my life, my honour my reason,\u00a0are all at your mercy;\u00a0if you fail me to-night I am lost. You might suppose, after this\u00a0preface, that I am going to ask you for something dishonourable\u00a0to grant. Judge for yourself.<\/p>\n
“I want you to postpone all other engagements for to-night\u2014ay,\u00a0even if you were summoned to the bedside of an emperor; to take a\u00a0cab, unless your carriage should be actually at the door; and\u00a0with this letter in your hand for consultation, to drive straight\u00a0to my house. Poole, my butler, has his orders; you will find, him\u00a0waiting your arrival with a locksmith. The door of my cabinet is\u00a0then to be forced: and you are to go in alone; to open the glazed\u00a0press (letter E) on the left hand, breaking the lock if it be\u00a0shut; and to draw out, with all its contents as they stand, the\u00a0fourth drawer from the top or (which is the same thing) the third\u00a0from the bottom. In my extreme distress of wind, I have a morbid\u00a0fear of misdirecting you; but even if I am in error, you may know\u00a0the right drawer by its contents: some powders, a phial and a\u00a0paper book. This drawer I beg of you to carry back with you to\u00a0Cavendish Square exactly as it stands.<\/p>\n
“That is the first part of the service: now for the second. You\u00a0should be back, if you set out at once on the receipt of this,\u00a0long before midnight; but I will leave you that amount of margin,\u00a0not only in the fear of one of those obstacles that can neither\u00a0be prevented nor foreseen, but because an hour when your servants are in bed is to be\u00a0preferred for what will then remain to do. At midnight, then, I\u00a0have to ask you to be alone in your consulting-room, to admit\u00a0with your own hand into the house a man who will present himself\u00a0in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you will\u00a0have brought with you from my cabinet. Then you will have played\u00a0your part and earned my gratitude completely. Five minutes\u00a0afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have\u00a0understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and\u00a0that by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must\u00a0appear, you might have charged your conscience with my death or\u00a0the shipwreck of my reason.<\/p>\n
“Confident as I am that you will not trifle with this appeal, my\u00a0heart sinks and my hand trembles at the bare thought of such a\u00a0possibility. Think of me at this hour, in a strange place,\u00a0labouring under a blackness of distress that no fancy can\u00a0exaggerate, and yet well aware that, if you will but punctually\u00a0serve me, my troubles will roll away like a story that is told.\u00a0Serve me, my dear Lanyon, and save\u00a0“Your friend,<\/p>\n
“H. J.<\/p>\n
“P. S. I had already sealed this up when a fresh terror struck\u00a0upon my soul. It is possible that the postoffice may fail me, and\u00a0this letter\u00a0not come into your hands until to-morrow morning. In that case,\u00a0dear Lanyon, do my errand when it shall be most convenient for\u00a0you in the course of the day; and once more expect my messenger\u00a0at midnight. It may then already be too late; and if that night\u00a0passes without event, you will know that you have seen the last\u00a0of Henry Jekyll.”<\/p>\n
Upon the reading of this letter, I made sure my colleague was\u00a0insane; but till that was proved beyond the possibility of doubt,\u00a0I felt bound to do as he requested. The less I understood of this\u00a0farrago, the less I was in a position to judge of its importance;\u00a0and an appeal so worded could not be set aside without a grave\u00a0responsibility. I rose accordingly from table, got into a hansom,\u00a0and drove straight to Jekyll’s house. The butler was awaiting my\u00a0arrival; he had received by the same post as mine a registered\u00a0letter of instruction, and had sent at once for a locksmith and a\u00a0carpenter. The tradesmen came while we were yet speaking; and we\u00a0moved in a body to old Dr. Denman’s surgical theatre, from which\u00a0(as you are doubtless aware) Jekyll’s private cabinet is most\u00a0conveniently entered. The door was very strong, the lock\u00a0excellent; the carpenter avowed he would have great trouble and\u00a0have to do much damage, if force were to be used; and the\u00a0locksmith was near despair. But this last was a handy fellow,\u00a0and after two hours’ work, the door stood open. The press marked\u00a0E was unlocked; and I took out the drawer, had it filled up with\u00a0straw and tied in a sheet, and returned with it to Cavendish\u00a0Square.<\/p>\n
Here I proceeded to examine its contents. The powders were neatly\u00a0enough made up, but not with the nicety of the dispensing\u00a0chemist; so that it was plain they were of Jekyll’s private\u00a0manufacture; and when I opened one of the wrappers I found what\u00a0seemed to me a simple crystalline salt of a white colour. The\u00a0phial, to which I next turned my attention, might have been about\u00a0half-full of a blood-red liquor, which was highly pungent to the\u00a0sense of smell and seemed to me to contain phosphorus and some\u00a0volatile ether. At the other ingredients I could make no guess.\u00a0The book was an ordinary version-book and contained little but a\u00a0series of dates. These covered a period of many years, but I\u00a0observed that the entries ceased nearly a year ago and quite\u00a0abruptly. Here and there a brief remark was appended to a date,\u00a0usually no more than a single word: “double” occurring perhaps\u00a0six times in a total of several hundred entries; and once very\u00a0early in the list and followed by several marks of exclamation,\u00a0“total failure!!!” All this, though it whetted my curiosity, told\u00a0me little that was definite. Here were a phial of some tincture,\u00a0a paper of some salt, and the record of a series of experiments that had led (like too many of Jekyll’s investigations) to\u00a0no end of practical usefulness. How could the presence of these\u00a0articles in my house affect either the honour, the sanity, or the\u00a0life of my flighty colleague? If his messenger could go to one\u00a0place, why could he not go to another? And even granting some\u00a0impediment, why was this gentleman to be received by me in\u00a0secret? The more I reflected the more convinced I grew that I was\u00a0dealing with a case of cerebral disease: and though I dismissed\u00a0my servants to bed, I loaded an old revolver, that I might be\u00a0found in some posture of self-defence.<\/p>\n
Twelve o’clock had scarce rung out over London, ere the knocker\u00a0sounded very gently on the door. I went myself at the summons,\u00a0and found a small man crouching against the pillars of the\u00a0portico.<\/p>\n
“Are you come from Dr. Jekyll?” I asked.<\/p>\n
He told me “yes” by a constrained gesture; and when I had bidden\u00a0him enter, he did not obey me without a searching backward glance\u00a0into the darkness of the square. There was a policeman not far\u00a0off, advancing with his bull’s eye open; and at the sight, I\u00a0thought my visitor started and made greater haste.<\/p>\n
These particulars struck me, I confess, disagreeably; and as I\u00a0followed him into the bright light of the consulting-room, I kept\u00a0my hand ready on my weapon. Here, at last, I had a\u00a0chance of clearly seeing him. I had never set eyes on him before,\u00a0so much was certain. He was small, as I have said; I was struck\u00a0besides with the shocking expression of his face, with his\u00a0remarkable combination of great muscular activity and great\u00a0apparent debility of constitution, and\u2014last but not least\u2014\u00a0with the odd, subjective disturbance caused by his neighbourhood.\u00a0This bore some resemblance to incipient rigour, and was\u00a0accompanied by a marked sinking of the pulse. At the time, I set\u00a0it down to some idiosyncratic, personal distaste, and merely\u00a0wondered at the acuteness of the symptoms; but I have since had\u00a0reason to believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of\u00a0man, and to turn on some nobler hinge than the principle of\u00a0hatred.<\/p>\n
This person (who had thus, from the first moment of his entrance,\u00a0struck in me what I can only describe as a disgustful curiosity)\u00a0was dressed in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person\u00a0laughable; his clothes, that is to say, although they were of\u00a0rich and sober fabric, were enormously too large for him in every\u00a0measurement\u2014the trousers hanging on his legs and rolled up to\u00a0keep them from the ground, the waist of the coat below his\u00a0haunches, and the collar sprawling wide upon his shoulders.\u00a0Strange to relate, this ludicrous accoutrement was far from\u00a0moving me to laughter. Rather, as there was something abnormal\u00a0and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature that now faced me\u2014something seizing, surprising, and revolting\u2014this fresh\u00a0disparity seemed but to fit in with and to reinforce it; so that\u00a0to my interest in the man’s nature and character, there was added\u00a0a curiosity as to his origin, his life, his fortune and status in\u00a0the world.<\/p>\n
These observations, though they have taken so great a space to be\u00a0set down in, were yet the work of a few seconds. My visitor was,\u00a0indeed, on fire with sombre excitement.<\/p>\n
“Have you got it?” he cried. “Have you got it?” And so lively was\u00a0his impatience that he even laid his hand upon my arm and sought\u00a0to shake me.<\/p>\n
I put him back, conscious at his touch of a certain icy pang\u00a0along my blood. “Come, sir,” said I. “You forget that I have not\u00a0yet the pleasure of your acquaintance. Be seated, if you please.”\u00a0And I showed him an example, and sat down myself in my customary\u00a0seat and with as fair an imitation of my ordinary manner to a\u00a0patient, as the lateness of the hour, the nature of my\u00a0pre-occupations, and the horror I had of my visitor, would suffer\u00a0me to muster.<\/p>\n
“I beg your pardon, Dr. Lanyon,” he replied civilly enough. “What\u00a0you say is very well founded; and my impatience has shown its\u00a0heels to my politeness. I come here at the instance of your\u00a0colleague, Dr. Henry Jekyll, on a piece of business of some\u00a0moment; and I understood\u2026” He paused and put his hand to his throat, and I could\u00a0see, in spite of his collected manner, that he was wrestling\u00a0against the approaches of the hysteria\u2014”I understood, a\u00a0drawer\u2026”<\/p>\n
But here I took pity on my visitor’s suspense, and some perhaps\u00a0on my own growing curiosity.<\/p>\n
“There it is, sir,” said I, pointing to the drawer, where it lay\u00a0on the floor behind a table and still covered with the sheet.<\/p>\n
He sprang to it, and then paused, and laid his hand upon his\u00a0heart: I could hear his teeth grate with the convulsive action of\u00a0his jaws; and his face was so ghastly to see that I grew alarmed\u00a0both for his life and reason.<\/p>\n
“Compose yourself,” said I.<\/p>\n
He turned a dreadful smile to me, and as if with the decision of\u00a0despair, plucked away the sheet. At sight of the contents, he\u00a0uttered one loud sob of such immense relief that I sat petrified.\u00a0And the next moment, in a voice that was already fairly well\u00a0under control, “Have you a graduated glass?” he asked.<\/p>\n
I rose from my place with something of an effort and gave him\u00a0what he asked.<\/p>\n
He thanked me with a smiling nod, measured out a few minims of\u00a0the red tincture and added one of the powders. The mixture, which\u00a0was at first of a reddish hue, began, in proportion as the\u00a0crystals melted, to brighten in colour, to effervesce audibly,\u00a0and to throw off small\u00a0fumes of vapour. Suddenly and at the same moment, the ebullition\u00a0ceased and the compound changed to a dark purple, which faded\u00a0again more slowly to a watery green. My visitor, who had watched\u00a0these metamorphoses with a keen eye, smiled, set down the glass\u00a0upon the table, and then turned and looked upon me with an air of\u00a0scrutiny.<\/p>\n
“And now,” said he, “to settle what remains. Will you be wise?\u00a0will you be guided? will you suffer me to take this glass in my\u00a0hand and to go forth from your house without further parley? or\u00a0has the greed of curiosity too much command of you? Think before\u00a0you answer, for it shall be done as you decide. As you decide,\u00a0you shall be left as you were before, and neither richer nor\u00a0wiser, unless the sense of service rendered to a man in mortal\u00a0distress may be counted as a kind of riches of the soul. Or, if\u00a0you shall so prefer to choose, a new province of knowledge and\u00a0new avenues to fame and power shall be laid open to you, here, in\u00a0this room, upon the instant; and your sight shall be blasted by a\u00a0prodigy to stagger the unbelief of Satan.”<\/p>\n
“Sir,” said I, affecting a coolness that I was far from truly\u00a0possessing, “you speak enigmas, and you will perhaps not wonder\u00a0that I hear you with no very strong impression of belief. But I\u00a0have gone too far in the way of inexplicable services to pause\u00a0before I see the end.”<\/p>\n
“It is well,” replied my visitor. “Lanyon,\u00a0you remember your vows: what follows is under the seal of our\u00a0profession. And now, you who have so long been bound to the most\u00a0narrow and material views, you who have denied the virtue of\u00a0transcendental medicine, you who have derided your superiors\u2014behold!”<\/p>\n
He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry\u00a0followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held\u00a0on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I\u00a0looked there came, I thought, a change\u2014he seemed to swell\u2014\u00a0his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt\u00a0and alter\u2014and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and\u00a0leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to shield me from\u00a0that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.<\/p>\n
“O God!” I screamed, and “O God!” again and again; for there\u00a0before my eyes\u2014pale and shaken, and half-fainting, and groping\u00a0before him with his hands, like a man restored from death\u2014there stood Henry Jekyll!<\/p>\n
What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set\u00a0on paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul\u00a0sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my\u00a0eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer. My life\u00a0is shaken to its roots; sleep has left me; the deadliest terror\u00a0sits by me at all hours of the day and night; I feel that my days\u00a0are numbered, and that I\u00a0must die; and yet I shall die incredulous. As for the moral\u00a0turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence,\u00a0I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror.\u00a0I will say but one thing, Utterson, and that (if you can bring\u00a0your mind to credit it) will be more than enough. The creature\u00a0who crept into my house that night was, on Jekyll’s own\u00a0confession, known by the name of Hyde and hunted for in every\u00a0corner of the land as the murderer of Carew.\u00a0HASTIE LANYON<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":9,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-94","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/94\/revisions\/102"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/94\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}