Chapter 2
Mr Utterson returned to the lonely home, not feeling very good. He decided to skip over dinner due to the lack of apetite. Like every other Sunday, he sat by the hearth and read. He waited for the church clock next door to strike twelve after which he would quietly go to bed. But on this night he made his way to the business room with a candle in his hand just after he had dinner. He pulled out the document bearing Dr. Jekyll’s will. As he went through its contents; In case of Henry Jekyll, M.D, LL.d, F.R.S., all his belongings would be inherited to, Edward Hyde, and in case Dr. Jekyll went missing for a span of more than ninety days, Edward Hyde should take hold, and was due for a payment of a small sum to the members of doctor’s family. Aggravated by the ignorance of Mr. Hyde, this document had always irritated him but now the reason of his anger was the knowledge of his existence. It offended him both as a lawyer and as a lover of the sane and customary sides of life, to whom the fanciful was the immodest.
“I wonder if it was an act of Insanity,” he said, replacing the documents in the vault, “and now I feel it is a disgrace.”
He immediately dressed up and left for his friend,
Dr Lanyon’ residence, Cavendish Square, that citadel of medicine. “There is not a single thing unknown to Lanyon,” Utterson had thought.
The house servant welcomed Mr. Utterson and led him straight to the dining room where Dr. Lanyon sat holding a glass of wine and lost in his own thoughts. His personality was a bit loud, he was red faced and had freshly whitened hair. He gently welcomed Mr. Utterson with a dramatic show of friendliness, but it was not fake. They both were childhood friends and respected each other. Before mentioning Jekyll, the lawyer talked about some other things. Finally he asked what was on his mind.
“We are Henry Jekyll’s oldest friends, right?” he said.
“Yes we are, but what made you remember his name. I seldom see him now.” said Dr. Lanyon.
“I thought you thought you shared his interests,” said Utterson.
“Indeed,” he replied, “But it’s been over ten years since he started to behave in a strange manner. He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake’s sake, as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man. I still am concerened about him, yet I seldom see him. Science can make anyone reach the point of insanity!”
Mr. Utterson took a sigh of relief after this reply. “They just had contradictory views over a point of science.” he told himself, “nothing more than that!” He finally asked the question popping up in his mind froma long time.
“Did you know his associate by the name Hyde?” he asked. “I haven’t heard of that name before,” said Lanyon.
Mr. Utterson could not get any more information from him. He returned to his home but could not sleep. All the doubts and questions in his mind made him have a restless night. It was a night of little ease to his toiling mind, toiling in mere darkness and beseiged by questions.
It was six in the morning but Utterson was still messed up in his problem. He imagined the whole incident on that night. He would either see the collision of the cruel man and the child, or else he would see a room in a rich house, where his friend lay asleep, dreaming and smiling at his dreams; and then the door of that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked apart, the sleeper recalled, and lo! there would stand by his side a figure to whom power was given, and even at that dead hour, he must rise and do its bidding. He developed a strong urge to catch sight of Mr Hyde once. He thought if he saw him once, the whole mystery could be solved. If he could but once set eyes on him, he thought the mystery would lighten and perhaps vanish at once as was the habit of mysterious things when well examined. He could then understand Jekyll’s relation with Mr. Hyde. He thought it would be worth seeing the man who filled rage in the mind of Enfield.
Since then Mr. Utterson started to keep a waych on the door in the by street. From dusk to dawn, almost every hour of his free time he could be seen watching the door.
“It looks like Hyde wants me to seek,” he thought.
Finally all his efforts paid off. It was a dry and a cold night. 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 a regular pattern of light and shadow. Small sounds carried far; domestic sounds out of the houses were clearly audible on either side of the roadway; and the rumour of the approach of any passenger preceded him by a long time. Amidst the silence post the shut down of street shops he heard certain footsteps of a person. He could make out them to be the footsteps of a single person and he quickly hid behind the entry of the court.
As the footsteps came nearer, and became suddenly louder as they reached the end of the street, the man was visible to the lawyer. He was short, and simply dressed. The look of him, even at that distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher’s inclination. He reached the door and took out a key from his pocket. He pretended as if a person had reached his home.
Mr Utterson immediately approached the man.
“Mr. Hyde, I think?”
Mr. Hyde was taken aback but he gathered himself and without looking at lawyer’s face, he coolly replied.
“Right!” he said, “that’s me, what do you want?”
“I am Utterson, an old friend of Dr Jekyll’s. You might have heard about me. Can I come in?”
“Dr. Jekyll is not present inside,” replied Mr Hyde. And still not facing him, he further asked, “How do you know me?”
“I need a favour from you,” said Mr Utterson.
“And what would it be?” he replied.
“I need to see your face,” said the lawyer.
Mr. Hyde hesitated, then turned towards Mr. Utterson and they looked at each other for a few moments. “This shall help me recognize you in the future,” said Mr. Utterson.
Mr Hyde nodded in agreement and gave him his address for any future reference. Mr Utterson wondered if he too was thinking about the will but he never mentioned it.
“Now tell me; how did you know me?” asked Mr Hyde.
“From the description by our commond friend,” replied Mr. Utterson.
“Who are the common friends?”
“Take Jekyll for example,” said the lawyer.
“He never told you!” said Hyde in a tone of anger. “I don’t think there is a need for you to tell lies.”
He then opened up the door and went into the house disappearing from the sight.
Then lawyer walked back lost in deep thought. He was consumed with mental perplexity. The problem he was thus debating as he walked, was one of a class that is rarely solved. Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice He wondered despite all his the negative aspects of his appearance; Mr Hyde must hav something else that could explain the hatred of Mr. Utterson for that man. He was perplexed on his way.
Round the corner from the by-street, there was a square of ancient, beautiful houses, now meant for the people decayed from their high estate and let in flats and chambers to all sorts of men. As he walked down the by-street, he saw a fully occupied house which reflected wealth and comfort. The lawyer knocked the door and was received by a servant.
“Is Dr Jekyll there?” the lawyer asked.
“I will chek, sir,” said the servant, and led him into a large hall heated by an open fire, and well furnished.
It was a pleasant room and was doctor’s favourite too. Mr Utterson was consumed by the sight of Hyde before his eyes when suddenly the servant returned to inform that Dr. Jekyll had gone out. “I saw Mr Hyde enter the house on the by-street, Poole,” he said to the servant. “Is there a problem with that when Dr. Jekyll is away?”
“Yes sir, Mr. Hyde has a duplicate key,” replied Poole.
“Dr. Jekyll trusts him a lot it seems,” Utterson said.
“Indeed sir!” said Poole, “We all are told to obey Mr Hyde.”
“I don’t believe I have met him yet, right?” asked Mr. Utterson.
“Oh no sir, He never dines here,” replied the servant. “We rarely see him here; he visists the laboratory often.”
The lawyer finally made his way back to home. “I think doctor is in trouble!” he thought, “he must have been caught up by the wildness of youth.” He was worried about Jekyll. If this Mr Hyde gets to know about the existence of the will, he will be keen to claim it. I have to help Dr. Jekyll if he lets me help him for I fear this man Hyde could have purposes beyond friendship with Jekyll who has been a dear friend to me for so many years. I feel this Mr Hyde has hidden black secrets and most obviously he is not willing to share those secrets with the rest of the world. I am keen to enlighten myself over the suspicion about this man. Somehow, I cannot trust over the character of this person. I have to do everything that it takes to protect my friend from this man.
