Quite right, Mr. Utterson, sir, replied the servant. Mr. Hyde has a
key.
Your master seems to repose a great deal of trust in that young man,
Poole, resumed the other musingly.
Yes, sir, he does indeed, said Poole. We have all orders to obey
him.
I do not think I ever met Mr. Hyde? asked Utterson.
O, dear no, sir. He never _dines_ here, replied the butler. Indeed
we see very little of him on this side of the house; he mostly comes
and goes by the laboratory.
Well, good-night, Poole.
Good-night, Mr. Utterson.
And the lawyer set out homeward with a very heavy heart. Poor Harry
Jekyll, he thought, my mind misgives me he is in deep waters! He was
wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of
God, there is no statute of limitations. Ah, it must be that; the ghost
of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace: punishment
coming, _pede claudo_, years after memory has forgotten and self-love
condoned the fault. And the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded
awhile on his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by
chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light
there. His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of
their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by
the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into a sober and
fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing yet avoided.
And then by a return on his former subject, he conceived a spark of
hope. This Master Hyde, if he were studied, thought he, must have
secrets of his own; black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared
to which poor Jekyll s worst would be like sunshine. Things cannot
continue as they are. It turns me cold to think of this creature
stealing like a thief to Harry s bedside; poor Harry, what a wakening!
And the danger of it; for if this Hyde suspects the existence of the
will, he may grow impatient to inherit. Ah, I must put my shoulder to
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