INCIDENT OF DR. LANYON
Time ran on; thousands of pounds were offered in reward, for thedeath of Sir Danvers was resented as a public injury; but Mr. Hyde haddisappeared out of the ken of the police as though he had never existed.Much of his past was unearthed, indeed, and all disreputable: tales cameout of the man's cruelty, at once so callous and violent; of his vilelife, of his strange associates, of the hatred that seemed to havesurrounded his career; but of his present whereabouts, not a whisper.From the time he had left the house in Soho on the morning of themurder, he was simply blotted out; and gradually, as time drew on, Mr.Utterson began to recover from the hotness of his alarm, and to growmore at quiet with himself. The death of Sir Danvers was, to his way ofthinking, more than paid for by the disappearance of Mr. Hyde. Now thatthat evil influence had been withdrawn, a new life began for Dr. Jekyll.He came out of his seclusion, renewed relations with his friends, becameonce more their familiar guest and entertainer; and whilst he had alwaysbeen known for charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion.He was busy, he was much in the open air, he did good; his face seemedto open and brighten, as if with an inward consciousness of service; andfor more than two months, the doctor was at peace.
On the 8th of January Utterson had dined at the doctor's with a smallparty; Lanyon had been there; and the face of the host had looked fromone to the other as in the old days when the trio were inseparablefriends. On the 12th, and again on the 14th, the door was shut againstthe lawyer. "The doctor was confined to the house," Poole said, "and sawno one." On the 15th, he tried again, and was again refused; and havingnow been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, hefound this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits. The fifth nighthe had in Guest to dine with him; and the sixth he betook himself to Dr.Lanyon's.
There at least he was not denied admittance; but when he came in, he wasshocked at the change which had taken place in the doctor's appearance.He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man hadgrown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older;and yet it was not so much these tokens of a swift physical decay thatarrested the lawyer's notice, as a look in the eye and quality of mannerthat seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind. Itwas unlikely that the doctor should fear death; and yet that was whatUtterson was tempted to suspect. "Yes," he thought; "he is a doctor, hemust know his own state and that his days are counted; and the knowledgeis more than he can bear." And yet when Utterson remarked on hisill-looks, it was with an air of great firmness that Lanyon declaredhimself a doomed man.
"I have had a shock," he said, "and I shall never recover. It is aquestion of weeks. Well, life has been pleasant; I liked it; yes, sir,I used to like it. I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be moreglad to get away."
"Jekyll is ill, too," observed Utterson. "Have you seen him?"
But Lanyon's face changed, and he held up a trembling hand. "I wish tosee or hear no more of Dr. Jekyll," he said in a loud, unsteady voice."I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me anyallusion to one whom I regard as dead."
"Tut-tut," said Mr. Utterson; and then after a considerable pause,"Can't I do anything?" he inquired. "We are three very old friends,Lanyon; we shall not live to make others."
"Nothing can be done," returned Lanyon; "ask himself."
"He will not see me," said the lawyer.
"I am not surprised at that," was the reply. "Some day, Utterson, afterI am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. Icannot tell you. And in the meantime, if you can sit and talk with meof other things, for God's sake, stay and do so; but if you cannot keepclear of this accursed topic, then in God's name, go, for I cannot bearit."
As soon as he got home, Utterson sat down and wrote to Jekyll,complaining of his exclusion from the house, and asking the cause ofthis unhappy break with Lanyon; and the next day brought him a longanswer, often very pathetically worded, and sometimes darkly mysteriousin drift. The quarrel with Lanyon was incurable. "I do not blame our oldfriend," Jekyll wrote, "but I share his view that we must never meet. Imean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion; you must notbe surprised, nor must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shuteven to you. You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought onmyself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chiefof sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also. I could not think thatthis earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning;and you can do but one thing, Utterson, to lighten this destiny, andthat is to respect my silence." Utterson was amazed; the dark influenceof Hyde had been withdrawn, the doctor had returned to his old tasksand amities; a week ago, the prospect had smiled with every promise of acheerful and an honoured age; and now in a moment, friendship, and peaceof mind, and the whole tenor of his life were wrecked. So great andunprepared a change pointed to madness; but in view of Lanyon's mannerand words, there must lie for it some deeper ground.
A week afterwards Dr. Lanyon took to his bed, and in something less thana fortnight he was dead. The night after the funeral, at which he hadbeen sadly affected, Utterson locked the door of his business room,and sitting there by the light of a melancholy candle, drew out and setbefore him an envelope addressed by the hand and sealed with the seal ofhis dead friend. "PRIVATE: for the hands of G. J. Utterson ALONE, and incase of his predecease to be destroyed unread," so it was emphaticallysuperscribed; and the lawyer dreaded to behold the contents. "I haveburied one friend to-day," he thought: "what if this should cost meanother?" And then he condemned the fear as a disloyalty, and broke theseal. Within there was another enclosure, likewise sealed, and markedupon the cover as "not to be opened till the death or disappearanceof Dr. Henry Jekyll." Utterson could not trust his eyes. Yes, it wasdisappearance; here again, as in the mad will which he had long agorestored to its author, here again were the idea of a disappearanceand the name of Henry Jekyll bracketted. But in the will, that idea hadsprung from the sinister suggestion of the man Hyde; it was set therewith a purpose all too plain and horrible. Written by the hand ofLanyon, what should it mean? A great curiosity came on the trustee,to disregard the prohibition and dive at once to the bottom of thesemysteries; but professional honour and faith to his dead friend werestringent obligations; and the packet slept in the inmost corner of hisprivate safe.
It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it; and it maybe doubted if, from that day forth, Utterson desired the society of hissurviving friend with the same eagerness. He thought of him kindly; buthis thoughts were disquieted and fearful. He went to call indeed; but hewas perhaps relieved to be denied admittance; perhaps, in his heart, hepreferred to speak with Poole upon the doorstep and surrounded by theair and sounds of the open city, rather than to be admitted into thathouse of voluntary bondage, and to sit and speak with its inscrutablerecluse. Poole had, indeed, no very pleasant news to communicate. Thedoctor, it appeared, now more than ever confined himself to the cabinetover the laboratory, where he would sometimes even sleep; he was out ofspirits, he had grown very silent, he did not read; it seemed as ifhe had something on his mind. Utterson became so used to the unvaryingcharacter of these reports, that he fell off little by little in thefrequency of his visits.