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 the loose-tongued had
already their foot on the threshold; they liked to sit awhile 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. Oh, 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
sharply. "You have told me so."

"Well, I tell you so again," continued the lawyer. "I have been learning
something of young Hyde."

The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and
there came a blackness about his eyes. "I do not care to hear more,"
said he. "This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop."

"What I heard was abominable," said Utterson.

"It can make no change. You do not understand my position," returned the
doctor, with a certain incoherency of manner. "I am painfully situated,
Utterson; my position is a very strange--a very strange one. It is one
of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking."

"Jekyll," said Utterson, "you know me: I am a man to be trusted. Make a
clean breast of this in confidence; and I make no doubt I can get you
out of it."

"My go