Chapter 3

Dr. Jekyll Was Quite at Ease

A fortnight later, by excellent good fortune, the doctor gave
one of his pleasant dinners to some five or six old cronies, all
intelligent, reputable men and all judges of good wine; and Mr.
Utterson so contrived that he remained behind after the others had
departed. This was no new arrangement, but a thing that had
befallen many scores of times. Where Utterson was liked, he was
liked well. Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the
light-hearted and loose-tongued had already their foot on the
threshold; they liked to sit a while in his unobtrusive company,
practising for solitude, sobering their minds in the man's rich
silence after the expense and strain of gaiety. To this rule, Dr.
Jekyll was no exception; and as he now sat on the opposite side of
the fire--a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with
something of a stylish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity
and kindness--you could see by his looks that he cherished for
Mr. Utterson a sincere and warm affection.

"I have been wanting to speak to you, Jekyll," began the
latter. "You know that will of yours?"

A close observer might have gathered that the topic was
distasteful; but the doctor carried it off gaily. "My poor
Utterson," said he, "you are unfortunate in such a client. I
never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will; unless it
were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my
scientific heresies. O, I know he's a good fellow--you needn't
frown--an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of
him; but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant
pedant. I was never more disappointed in any man than Lanyon."

"You know I never approved of it," pursued Utterson,
ruthlessly disregarding the fresh topic.

"My will? Yes, certainly, I know that," said the doctor, a
trifle sharply. "You have told me so."

"Well, I tell you so again," continued the lawyer. "I have
been learning something of young Hyde."

The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very
lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes. "I do not care
to hear more," said he. "This is a matter I thought we had agreed
to drop."

"What I heard was abominable," said Utterson.

"It can make no change. You do not understand my position,"
returned the doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. "I am
painfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange--a
very strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be
mended by talking."

"Jekyll," said Utterson, "you know me: I am a man to be
trusted. Make a clean breast of this in confidence; and I make no
doubt I can get you out of it."

"My good Utterson," said the