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.
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 slyish 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
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