The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde / Странная история доктора Джекила и мистера Хайда. Книга для чтения на английском языке

‘Will you let me see your face?’ asked the lawyer.

Mr. Hyde appeared to hesitate, and then, as if upon some sudden reflection, fronted about with an air of defiance; and the pair stared at each other pretty fixedly for a few seconds. ‘Now I shall know you again,’ said Mr. Utterson.’ It may be useful.’

‘Yes,’ returned Mr. Hyde, ‘it is as well we have met; and à propos[25], you should have my address.’ And he gave a number of a street in Soho.

‘Good God!’ thought Mr. Utterson, ‘can he, too, have been thinking of the will?’ But he kept his feelings to himself and only grunted in acknowledgment of the address.

‘And now,’ said the other, ‘how did you know me?’

‘By description,’ was the reply.

‘Whose description?’

‘We have common friends’, said Mr. Utterson.

‘Common friends?’ echoed Mr. Hyde, a little hoarsely. ‘Who are they?’

‘Jekyll, for instance,’ said the lawyer.

‘He never told you[26],’ cried Mr. Hyde, with a flush of anger. ‘I did not think you would have lied.’

‘Come,’ said Mr. Utterson, ‘that is not fitting language[27].’

The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared into the house.

The lawyer stood a while when Mr. Hyde had left him, the picture of disquietude. Then he began slowly to mount the street, pausing every step or two and putting his hand to his brow like a man in 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; all these were points against him[28], but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing, and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him. ‘There must be something else,’ said the perplexed gentleman. ‘There is something more, if I could find a name for it. God bless me, the man seems hardly human! Something troglodytic, shall we say? or can it be the old story of Dr. Fell? or Is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent? The last, I think; for, O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.’

Round the corner from the by-street, there was a square of ancient, handsome houses, now for the most part decayed from their high estate and let in flats and chambers to all sorts and conditions of men: map-engravers, architects, shady lawyers, and the agents of obscure enterprises. One house, however, second from the corner, was still occupied entire; and at the door of this, which wore a great air of wealth and comfort, though it was now plunged in darkness except for the fan-light, Mr. Utterson stopped and knocked. A well-dressed, elderly servant opened the door.

‘Is Dr. Jekyll at home, Poole?’ asked the lawyer.

‘I will see, Mr. Utterson,’ said Poole, admitting the visitor, as he spoke, into a large, low-roofed, comfortable hall, paved with flags, warmed (after the fashion of a country house) by a bright, open fire, and furnished with costly cabinets of oak. ‘Will you wait here by the fire, sir? or shall I give you a light in the dining-room?’

‘Here, thank you,’ said the lawyer, and he drew near and leaned on the tall fender. This hall, in which he was now left alone, was a pet fancy of his friend the doctor’s; and Utterson himself was wont to speak of it as the pleasantest room in London. But to-night there was a shudder in his blood; the face of Hyde sat heavy on his memory; he felt (what was rare with him[29]) a nausea and distaste of life; and in the gloom of his spirits, he seemed to read a menace in the flickering of the firelight on the polished cabinets and the uneasy starting of the shadow on the roof. He was ashamed of his relief, when Poole presently returned to announce that Dr. Jekyll was gone out.

‘I saw Mr. Hyde go in by the old dissecting-room door, Poole,’ he said. ‘Is that right, when Dr. Jekyll is from home?’

‘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 do 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.’