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Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
→L’ÉTRANGE CAS DU DR JEKYLL ET DE MR HYDE

Robert Louis Stevenson

- I -

Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.
→Advokát pan Utterson byl muž s tváří zakaboněnou, jíž se nikdy nemihl paprsek úsměvu - chladný, málomluvný, v rozmluvě rozpačitý, citově netečný - hubený, vyčouhlý, ušmouraný, zasmušilý, a přece docela milý.

At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life.
→Dans les réunions amicales, et quand le vin était à son goût, quelque chose d’éminemment bienveillant jaillissait de son regard ; quelque chose qui à la vérité ne se faisait jamais jour en paroles, mais qui s’exprimait non seulement par ce muet symbole de la physionomie d’après-dîner, mais plus fréquemment et avec plus de force par les actes de sa vie.

He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years.
→Austère envers lui-même, il buvait du gin quand il était seul pour réfréner son goût des bons crus ; et bien qu’il aimât le théâtre, il n’y avait pas mis les pieds depuis vingt ans.

But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove.
→Mais il avait pour les autres une indulgence à toute épreuve; et il s’émerveillait parfois, presque avec envie, de l’intensité de désir réclamée par leurs dérèglements ; et en dernier ressort, inclinait à les secourir plutôt qu’à les blâmer.

‘I incline to Cain’s heresy,’¹ he used to say quaintly:
→« Je penche vers l’hérésie des caïnites, lui arrivait-il de dire pédamment.

‘I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.’
→Je laisse mes frères aller au diable à leur propre façon.

In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men.
→» En vertu de cette originalité, c’était fréquemment son lot d’être la dernière relation avouable et la dernière bonne influence dans la vie d’hommes en voie de perdition.

And to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.
→Et à l’égard de ceux-là, aussi longtemps qu’ils fréquentaient son logis, il ne montrait jamais l’ombre d’une modification dans sa manière d’être.

No doubt the feat was easy to Mr Utterson; for he was undemonstrative at the best, and even his friendships seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good-nature.
→Sans doute que cet héroïsme ne coûtait guère à M. Utterson ;car il était aussi peu démonstratif que possible, et ses amitiés mêmes semblaient fondées pareillement sur une bienveillance universelle.

It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyer’s way.
→C’est une preuve de modestie que de recevoir tout formé, des mains du hasard, le cercle de ses amitiés. Telle était la méthode du notaire,

His friends were those of his own blood or those whom he had known the longest;
→il avait pour amis les gens de sa parenté ou ceux qu’il connaissait depuis le plus longtemps ;

his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object.
→ ses liaisons, comme le lierre, devaient leur croissance au temps, et ne réclamaient de leur objet aucune qualité spéciale.

Hence, no doubt, the bond that united him to Mr Richard Enfield, his distant kinsman, the well-known man about town.
→De là, sans doute, le lien qui l’unissait à M. Richard Enfield son parent éloigné, un vrai Londonien honorablement connu.

It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other or what subject they could find in common.
→C’était pour la plupart des gens une énigme de se demander quel attrait ces deux-là pouvaient voir l’un en l’autre, ou quel intérêt commun ils avaient pu se découvrir.

It was reported by those who encountered them in their Sunday walks, that they said nothing, looked singularly dull, and would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend.
→Au dire de ceux qui les rencontraient faisant leur promenade dominicale, ils n’échangeaient pas un mot, avaient l’air de s’ennuyer prodigieusement, et accueillaient avec un soulagement visible la rencontre d’un ami.

For all that, the two men put the greatest store by these excursions, counted them the chief jewel of each week, and not only set aside occasions of pleasure, but even resisted the calls of business, that they might enjoy them uninterrupted.
→Malgré cela, tous deux faisaient le plus grand cas de ces sorties, qu’ils estimaient le plus beau fleuron de chaque semaine, et pour en jouir avec régularité il leur arrivait, non seulement de renoncer à d’autres occasions de plaisir, mais même de rester sourds à l’appel des affaires.

It chanced on one of these rambles that their way led them down a bystreet in a busy quarter of London.
→Ce fut au cours d’une de ces randonnées que le hasard les conduisit dans une petite rue détournée d’un quartier ouvrier de Londres.

The street was small and what is called quiet, but it drove a thriving trade on the weekdays.
→C’était ce qui s’appelle une petite rue tranquille, bien qu’elle charriât en semaine un trafic intense.

The inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed, and all emulously hoping to do better still, and laying out the surplus of their gains in coquetry; so that the shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen.
→Ses habitants, qui semblaient tous à leur aise, cultivaient à l’envi l’espoir de s’enrichir encore, et étalaient en embellissements le superflu de leurs gains ; de sorte que les devantures des boutiques, telles deux rangées d’accortes marchandes, offraient le long de cette artère un aspect engageant.

Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest;
→Même le dimanche, alors qu’elle voilait ses plus florissants appas et demeurait comparativement vide de circulation, cette rue faisait avec son terne voisinage un contraste brillant, comme un feu dans une forêt;

and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.
→et par ses volets repeints de frais, ses cuivres bien fourbis, sa propreté générale et son air de gaieté, elle attirait et charmait aussitôt le regard du passant.

Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east, the line was broken by the entry of a court; and just at that point,
→À deux portes d’un coin, sur la gauche en allant vers l’est, l’entrée d’une cour interrompait l’alignement,

a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street.
→et à cet endroit même, la masse rébarbative d’un bâtiment projetait en saillie son pignon sur la rue.

It was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper;
→Haut d’un étage, sans fenêtres, il n’offrait rien qu’une porte au rez-de-chaussée, et à l’étage la façade aveugle d’un mur décrépit.

and bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence.
→Il présentait dans tous ses détails les symptômes d’une négligence sordide et prolongée.

The door which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained.
→La porte, dépourvue de sonnette ou de heurtoir, était écaillée et décolorée.

Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps;
→Les vagabonds gîtaient dans l’embrasure et frottaient des allumettes sur les panneaux ; les enfants tenaient boutique sur le seuil ;

the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; and for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages.
→un écolier avait essayé son canif sur les moulures ; et depuis près d’une génération, personne n’était venu chasser ces indiscrets visiteurs ni réparer leurs déprédations.

Mr Enfield and the lawyer were on the other side of the bystreet;
→M. Enfield et le notaire passaient de l’autre côté de la petite rue;

but when they came abreast of the entry, the former lifted up his cane and pointed.
→mais quand ils arrivèrent à hauteur de l’entrée, le premier leva sa canne et la désigna:

‘Did you ever remark that door?’ he asked; and when his companion had replied in the affirmative,
→– Avez-vous déjà remarqué cette porte ? demanda-t-il ; et quand son compagnon lui eut répondu par l’affirmative :

‘it is connected in my mind,’ added he, ‘with a very odd story.’
→Elle se rattache dans mon souvenir,

‘Indeed?’ said Mr Utterson, with a slight change of voice, ‘and what was that?’
→– Vraiment ? fit M. Utterson, d’une voix légèrement altérée. Et quelle était-elle ?

‘Well, it was this way,’ returned Mr Enfield:
→– Eh bien, voici la chose, répliqua M. Enfield.

‘I was coming home from some place at the end of the world, about three o’clock of a black winter morning, and my way lay through a part of town where there was literally nothing to be seen but lamps.
→C’était vers trois heures du matin, par une sombre nuit d’hiver. Je m’en retournais chez moi, d’un endroit au bout du monde, et mon chemin traversait une partie de la ville où l’on ne rencontrait absolument que des réverbères.

Street after street, and all the folks asleep – street after street, all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a church
→Les rues se succédaient, et tout le monde dormait… Les rues se succédaient, toutes illuminées comme pour une procession et toutes aussi désertes qu’une église…

– till at last I got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman.
→si bien que finalement j’en arrivai à cet état d’esprit du monsieur qui dresse l’oreille de plus en plus et commence d’aspirer à l’apparition d’un agent de police.

All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk,
→Tout à coup je vis deux silhouettes, d’une part un petit homme qui d’un bon pas trottinait vers l’est,

and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street.
→et de l’autre une fillette de peut-être huit ou dix ans qui s’en venait par une rue transversale en courant de toutes ses forces.

Well, sir, the two ran into one another at the corner;
→Eh bien, monsieur, arrivés au coin, tous deux se jetèrent l’un contre l’autre;

and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground.
→mais ensuite advint l’horrible de la chose, car l’homme foula froidement aux pieds le corps de la fillette et s’éloigna, la laissant sur le pavé, hurlante.

It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.
→ Ce n’était plus un homme que j’avais devant moi, c’était je ne sais quel monstre satanique et impitoyable.

I gave a view halloa, took to my heels, collared my gentleman, and brought him back to where there was already quite a group about the screaming child.
→J’appelai à l’aide, me mis à courir, saisis au collet notre citoyen, et le ramenai auprès de la fillette hurlante qu’entourait déjà un petit rassemblement.

He was perfectly cool and made no resistance, but gave me one look, so ugly that it brought out the sweat on me like running.
→Il garda un parfait sang-froid et ne tenta aucune résistance, mais me décocha un regard si atroce que je me sentis inondé d’une sueur froide.

The people who had turned out were the girl’s own family; and pretty soon, the doctor, for whom she had been sent, put in his appearance.
→Les gens qui avaient surgi étaient les parents mêmes de la petite ; et presque aussitôt on vit paraître le docteur, chez qui elle avait été envoyée.

Well, the child was not much the worse, more frightened, according to the Sawbones; and there you might have supposed would be an end to it.
→En somme, la fillette, au dire du morticole, avait eu plus de peur que de mal ; et on eût pu croire que les choses en resteraient là.

But there was one curious circumstance. I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight. So had the child’s family, which was only natural.
→Mais il se produisit un phénomène singulier. J’avais pris en aversion à première vue notre citoyen. Les parents de la petite aussi, comme il était trop naturel.

But the doctor’s case was what struck me.
→Mais ce qui me frappa ce fut la conduite du docteur.

He was the usual cut and dry apothecary, of no particular age and colour, with a strong Edinburgh accent, and about as emotional as a bagpipe.
→C’était le classique praticien routinier, d’âge et de caractère indéterminé, doué d’un fort accent d’Édimbourg, et sentimental à peu près autant qu’une cornemuse.

Well, sir, he was like the rest of us;
→Eh bien, monsieur, il en fut de lui comme de nous autres tous :

every time he looked at my prisoner, I saw that Sawbones turn sick and white with the desire to kill him.
→à chaque fois qu’il jetait les yeux sur mon prisonnier, je voyais le morticole se crisper et pâlir d’une envie de le tuer.

I knew what was in his mind, just as he knew what was in mine;
→Je devinai sa pensée, de même qu’il devina la mienne,

and killing being out of the question, we did the next best.
→et comme on ne tue pas ainsi les gens, nous fîmes ce qui en approchait le plus.

We told the man we could and would make such a scandal out of this, as should make his name stink from one end of London to the other.
→S’il avait des amis ou de la réputation à Londres, nous nous chargions de les lui faire perdre.

If he had any friends or any credit, we undertook that he should lose them.
→S’il avait des amis ou de la réputation, nous nous chargions de les lui faire perdre.

And all the time, as we were pitching it in red hot, we were keeping the women off him as best we could, for they were as wild as harpies.
→Et pendant tout le temps que nous fûmes à le retourner sur le gril, nous avions fort à faire pour écarter de lui les femmes, qui étaient comme des harpies en fureur.

I never saw a circle of such hateful faces;
→Jamais je n’ai vu pareille réunion de faces haineuses.

and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of black, sneering coolness – frightened too, I could see that
→-Au milieu d’elles se tenait l’individu, affectant un sang-froid sinistre et ricaneur ; il avait peur aussi, je le voyais bien,

– but carrying it off, sir, really like Satan.
→mais il montrait bonne contenance, monsieur, comme un véritable démon.

‘‘If you choose to make capital out of this accident,’’ said he, ‘‘I am naturally helpless.
→Il nous dit : « Si vous tenez à faire un drame de cet incident, je suis évidemment à votre merci.

No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene,’’ says he. ‘‘Name your figure.’’
→Tout gentleman ne demande qu’à éviter le scandale. Fixez votre chiffre.

Well, we screwed him up to a hundred pounds for the child’s family;
→» Eh bien, nous le taxâmes à cent livres, destinées aux parents de la fillette.

he would have clearly liked to stick out; but there was something about the lot of us that meant mischief, and at last he struck.
→D’évidence il était tenté de se rebiffer, mais nous avions tous un air qui promettait du vilain, et il finit par céder.

The next thing was to get the money; and where do you think he carried us but to that place with the door?
→Il lui fallut alors se procurer l’argent ; et où croyez-vous qu’il nous conduisit ?

– whipped out a key, went in, and presently came back with the matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on Coutts’s, drawn payable to bearer
→Tout simplement à cet endroit où il y a la porte. Il tira de sa poche une clef, entra, et revint bientôt, muni de quelque dix livres en or et d’un chèque pour le surplus, sur la banque Coutts, libellé payable au porteur

and signed with a name that can’t mention, though it’s one of the points of my story, but it was a name at least very well known and often printed.
→et signé d’un nom que je ne puis vous dire, bien qu’il constitue l’un des points essentiels de mon histoire ; mais c’était un nom honorablement connu et souvent imprimé.

The figure was stiff; but the signature was good for more than that, if it was only genuine.
→ Le chiffre était salé, mais la signature valait pour plus que cela, à condition toutefois qu’elle fût authentique.

I took the liberty of pointing out to my gentleman that the whole business looked apocryphal,⁷ and that a man does not, in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out of it with another man’s cheque for close upon a hundred pounds.
→ Je pris la liberté de faire observer à notre citoyen que tout son procédé me paraissait peu vraisemblable, et que, dans la vie réelle, on ne pénètre pas à quatre heures du matin par une porte de cave pour en ressortir avec un chèque d’autrui valant près de cent livres.

But he was quite easy and sneering.
→Mais d’un ton tout à fait dégagé et railleur, il me répondit :

‘‘Set your mind at rest,’’ says he, ‘‘I will stay with you till the banks open and cash the cheque myself.’’
→« Soyez sans crainte, je ne vous quitterai pas jusqu’à l’ouverture de la banque et je toucherai le chèque moi-même.

So we all set off, the doctor, and the child’s father, and our friend and myself, and passed the rest of the night in my chambers; the next day, when we had breakfasted, went in a body to the bank.
→ » Nous nous en allâmes donc tous, le docteur, le père de l’enfant, notre homme et moi, passer le reste de la nuit dans mon appartement ; et le matin venu, après avoir déjeuné, nous nous rendîmes en choeur à la banque.

I gave in the cheque myself, and said I had every reason to believe it was a forgery. Not a bit of it. The cheque was genuine.’
→Je présentai le chèque moi-même, en disant que j’avais toutes raisons de le croire faux. Pas du tout. Le chèque était régulier.

‘Tut-tut,’ said Mr Utterson.
→M. Utterson émit un clappement de langue désapprobateur.

‘I see you feel as I do,’ said Mr Enfield. ‘Yes, it’s a bad story.
→– Je vois que vous pensez comme moi, reprit M. Enfield. Oui, c’est une fâcheuse histoire.

→For my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties, celebrated too, and (what makes it worse) one of your fellows who do what they call good.
→Car notre homme était un individu avec qui nul ne voudrait avoir rien de commun, un vraiment sinistre individu, et la personne au contraire qui tira le chèque est la fleur même des convenances, une célébrité en outre, et (qui pis est) l’un de ces citoyens qui font, comme ils disent, le bien.

Blackmail, I suppose; an honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers of his youth.
→Chantage, je suppose, un honnête homme qui paye sans y regarder pour quelque fredaine de jeunesse.

Blackmail House is what I call that place with the door, in consequence.

Though even that, you know, is far from explaining all,’ he added, and with the words fell into a vein of musing.
→Quoique cette hypothèse même, voyez-vous, soit loin de tout expliquer, ajouta-t-il. Et sur ces mots il tomba dans une profonde rêverie.

From this he was recalled by Mr Utterson asking rather suddenly: ‘And you don’t know if the drawer of the cheque lives there?’
→Il en fut tiré par M. Utterson, qui lui demandait assez brusquement: – Et vous ne savez pas si le tireur du chèque habite là ?

‘A likely place isn’t it?’ returned Mr Enfield. ‘But I happen to have noticed his address; he lives in some square or other.’
→– Un endroit bien approprié, n’est-ce pas ? répliqua M. Enfield. Mais j’ai eu l’occasion de noter son adresse : il habite sur une place quelconque.

‘And you never asked about – the place with the door?’ said Mr Utterson. ‘No, sir: I had a delicacy,’ was the reply.
→– Et vous n’avez jamais pris de renseignements… sur cet endroit où il y a la porte ? reprit M. Utterson. – Non, monsieur ; j’ai eu un scrupule.

‘I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgment. You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone.
→ Je répugne beaucoup à poser des questions; c’est là un genre qui rappelle trop le jour du Jugement. On lance une question, et c’est comme si on lançait une pierre.

You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stones goes, starting others; and presently some bland old bird (the last you would have thought of ) is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the family have to change their name.
→On est tranquillement assis au haut d’une montagne ; et la pierre déroule, qui en entraîne d’autres ; et pour finir, un sympathique vieillard (le dernier auquel on aurait pensé) reçoit l’avalanche sur le crâne au beau milieu de son jardin privé, et ses parents n’ont plus qu’à changer de nom.

No, sir, I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.’
→Non, monsieur, je m’en suis fait une règle : plus une histoire sent le louche, moins je m’informe.

‘A very good rule, too,’ said the lawyer.
→– Une très bonne règle, en effet, répliqua le notaire.

‘But I have studied the place for myself,’ continued Mr Enfield.
→– Mais j’ai examiné l’endroit par moi-même, continua M. Enfield.

‘It seems scarcely a house. There is no other door, and nobody goes in or out of that one but, once in a great while, the gentleman of my adventure.
→On dirait à peine une habitation. Il n’y a pas d’autre porte, et personne n’entre ni ne sort par celle-ci, sauf, à de longs intervalles, le citoyen de mon aventure.

There are three windows looking on the court on the first floor; none below. The windows are always shut but they’re clean.
→Il y a trois fenêtres donnant sur la cour au premier étage, et pas une au rez-dechaussée. Jamais ces fenêtres ne s’ouvrent, mais leurs carreaux sont nettoyés.

And then there is a chimney which is generally smoking; so somebody must live there.
→Et puis il y a une cheminée qui fume en général. Quelqu’un doit habiter là.

And yet it’s not so sure; for the buildings are so packed together about that court, that it’s hard to say where one ends and another begins.’
→Et encore ce n’est pas absolument certain, car les immeubles s’enchevêtrent si bien autour de cette cour qu’il est difficile de dire où l’un finit et où l’autre commence.

The pair walked on again for a while in silence; and then ‘Enfield,’ said Mr Utterson, ‘that’s a good rule of yours.’
→Les deux amis firent de nouveau quelques pas en silence, puis M. Utterson déclara "Enfield, c’est une bonne règle que vous avez adoptée."

‘Yes, I think it is,’ returned Enfield. ‘And for all that,’ continued the lawyer, ‘there’s one point I want to ask:
→– Je le crois en effet, répliqua Enfield. – Mais malgré cela, poursuivit le notaire, il y a une chose que je veux vous demander.

I want to ask the name of that man who walked over the child.’
→C’est le nom de l’homme qui a foulé aux pieds l’enfant?

‘Well,’ said Mr Enfield, ‘I can’t see what harm it would do. It was a man of the name of Hyde.’
→– Ma foi, répondit Enfield, je ne vois pas quel mal cela pourrait faire de vous le dire. Cet homme se nommait Hyde.

‘Hm,’ said Mr Utterson. ‘What sort of a man is he to see?’
→– Hum, fit M. Utterson. Et quel est son aspect physique ?

‘He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable.
→– Il n’est pas facile à décrire. Il y a dans son extérieur quelque chose de faux, quelque chose de désagréable, d’absolument odieux.

I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why.
→ Je n’ai jamais vu personne qui me fût aussi antipathique et cependant je sais à peine pourquoi.

He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point.
→Il doit être contrefait de quelque part, il donne tout à fait l’impression d’avoir une difformité mais je n’en saurais préciser le siège.

He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way.
→Cet homme a un air extraordinaire, et malgré cela je ne peux réellement indiquer en lui quelque chose qui sorte de la normale.

No, sir; I can make no hand of it; I can’t describe him.
→Non, monsieur, j’y renonce ; je suis incapable de le décrire.

And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.’
→Et ce n’est pas faute de mémoire. En vérité, je me le représente comme s’il était là.

Mr Utterson again walked some way in silence and obviously under a weight of consideration.
→M. Utterson fit de nouveau quelques pas en silence et visiblement sous le poids d’une préoccupation.

‘You are sure he used a key?’ he inquired at last.
→ Il demanda enfin: – Vous êtes sûr qu’il s’est servi d’une clef ?

‘My dear sir . . .’ began Enfield, surprised out of himself.
→– Mon cher monsieur… commença Enfield, au comble de la surprise.

‘Yes, I know,’ said Utterson; ‘I know it must seem strange.
→– Oui je sais, dit Utterson, je sais que ma question doit vous sembler bizarre.

The fact is, if I do not ask you the name of the other party, it is because I know it already.
→ Mais de fait, si je ne vous demande pas le nom de l’autre personnage, c’est parce que je le connais déjà.

You see, Richard, your tale has gone home.
→Votre histoire, croyez-le bien, Richard, est allée à bonne adresse.

If you have been inexact in my point, you had better correct it.’
→Si vous avez été inexact en quelque détail, vous ferez mieux de le rectifier.

‘I think you might have warned me,’ returned the other with a touch of sullenness.
→"Také jsi mi mohl dát předem výstrahu," odpověděl druhý trochu zlostně.

‘But I have been pedantically exact, as you call it
→Mais j’ai été d’une exactitude pédantesque, comme vous dites.

The fellow had a key; and what’s more, he has it still. I saw him use it, not a week ago.’
→L’individu avait une clef, et qui plus est, il l’a encore. Je l’ai vu s’en servir, il n’y a pas huit jours.

Mr Utterson sighed deeply but said never a word; and the young man presently resumed.
→M. Utterson poussa un profond soupir, mais s’abstint de tout commentaire et bientôt son cadet reprit :

‘Here is another lesson to say nothing,’ said he.
→– Voilà une nouvelle leçon qui m’apprendra à me taire.

‘I am ashamed of my long tongue. Let us make a bargain never to refer to this again.’
→Je rougis d’avoir eu la langue si longue. Convenons, voulez-vous, de ne plus jamais reparler de cette histoire.

‘With all my heart,’ said the lawyer. ‘I shake hands on that, Richard.’
→– Bien volontiers, répondit le notaire. Voici ma main, Richard.

II.



That evening, Mr Utterson came home to his bachelor house in sombre spirits and sat down to dinner without relish.
→Ce soir-là, M. Utterson regagna mélancoliquement son logis de célibataire et se mit à table sans appétit.

It was his custom of a Sunday, when this meal was over, to sit close by the fire, a volume of some dry divinity on his reading desk, until the clock of the neighbouring church rang out the hour of twelve, when he would go soberly and gratefully to bed.
→Il avait l’habitude, le dimanche, après son repas, de s’asseoir au coin du feu, avec un aride volume de théologie sur son pupitre à lecture, jusqu’à l’heure où minuit sonnait à l’horloge de l’église voisine, après quoi il allait sagement se mettre au lit, satisfait de sa journée.

On this night, however, as soon as the cloth was taken away, he took up a candle and went into his business room.
→Mais ce soir-là, sitôt la table desservie, il prit un flambeau et passa dans son cabinet de travail.

There he opened his safe, took from the most private part of it a document endorsed on the envelope as Dr Jekyll’s Will,
→ Là, il ouvrit son coffre-fort, retira du compartiment le plus secret un dossier portant sur sa chemise la mention : « Testament du Dr Jekyll »,

and sat down with a clouded brow to study its contents.
→et se mit à son bureau, les sourcils froncés, pour en étudier le contenu.

The will was holograph, for Mr Utterson, though he took charge of it now that it was made, had refused to lend the least assistance in the making of it;
→Le testament était olographe, car M. Utterson, bien qu’il en acceptât la garde à présent que c’était fait, avait refusé de coopérer le moins du monde à sa rédaction.

it provided not only that, in case of the decease of Henry Jekyll, MD, DCL, LLD, FRS, &c., all his possessions were to pass into the hands of his ‘friend and benefactor Edward Hyde’,
→Il stipulait non seulement que, en cas de décès de Henry Jekyll, docteur en médecine, docteur en droit civil, docteur légiste, membre de la Société Royale, etc., tous ses biens devaient passer en la possession de son « ami et bienfaiteur Edward Hyde » ;

but that in case of Dr Jekyll’s ‘disappearance or unexplained absence for any period exceeding three calendar months’, the said Edward Hyde should step into the said Henry Jekyll’s shoes
→mais en outre que, dans le cas où ledit Dr Jekyll viendrait à « disparaître ou faire une absence inexpliquée d’une durée excédant trois mois pleins », ledit Edward Hyde serait sans plus de délai substitué à Henry Jekyll,

without further delay and free from any burden or obligation, beyond the payment of a few small sums to the members of the doctor’s household.
→étant libre de toute charge ou obligation autre que le paiement de quelques petits legs aux membres de la domesticité du docteur.

This document had long been the lawyer’s eyesore.
→Ce document faisait depuis longtemps le désespoir du notaire.

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.
→Il s’en affligeait aussi bien comme notaire que comme partisan des côtés sains et traditionnels de l’existence, pour qui le fantaisiste égalait l’inconvenant.

And hitherto it was his ignorance of Mr Hyde that had swelled his indignation; now, by a sudden turn, it was his knowledge.
→Jusque-là c’était son ignorance au sujet de M. Hyde qui suscitait son indignation : désormais, par un brusque revirement, ce fut ce qu’il en savait.

It was already bad enough when the name was but a name of which he could learn no more.
→ Cela n’avait déjà pas bonne allure lorsque ce nom n’était pour lui qu’un nom vide de sens.

It was worse when it began to be clothed upon with detestable attributes;
→ Cela devenait pire depuis qu’il s’était paré de fâcheux attributs ;

and out of the shifting, insubstantial mists that had so long baffled his eye, there leaped up the sudden, definite presentment of a fiend.
→et hors des brumes onduleuses et inconsistantes qui avaient si longtemps offusqué son regard, le notaire vit surgir la brusque et nette apparition d’un démon.

‘I thought it was madness,’ he said, as he replaced the obnoxious paper in the safe, ‘and now I begin to fear it is disgrace.’
→« J’ai cru que c’était de la folie », se dit-il, en replaçant le malencontreux papier dans le coffre-fort, « mais à cette heure je commence à craindre que ce ne soit de l’opprobre. »

With that he blew out his candle, put on a great coat and set forth in the direction of Cavendish Square, that citadel of medicine, where his friend, the great Dr Lanyon, had his house and received his crowding patients.
→Là-dessus il souffla sa bougie, endossa un pardessus, et se mit en route dans la direction de Cavendish square, cette citadelle de la médecine, où son ami, le fameux Dr Lanyon, avait son habitation et recevait la foule de ses malades.

‘If anyone knows, it will be Lanyon,’ he had thought.
→Si quelqu’un est au courant, songeait-il, ce doit être Lanyon.

The solemn butler knew and welcomed him; he was subjected to no stage of delay, but ushered direct from the door to the dining room where Dr Lanyon sat alone over his wine.
→Le majestueux maître d’hôtel le reconnut et le fit entrer : sans subir aucun délai d’attente, il fut introduit directement dans la salle à manger où le Dr Lanyon, qui dînait seul, en était aux liqueurs.

This was a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white.
→C’était un gentleman cordial, plein de, santé, actif, rubicond, avec une mèche de cheveux prématurément blanchie.

At sight of Mr Utterson, he sprang up from his chair and welcomed him with both hands.
→À la vue de M. Utterson, il se leva d’un bond et s’avança au-devant de lui, les deux mains tendues.

The geniality, as was the way of the man, was somewhat theatrical to the eye; but it reposed on genuine feeling.
→Cette affabilité, qui était dans les habitudes du personnage, avait l’air un peu théâtrale ; mais elle procédait de sentiments réels.

For these two were old friends, old mates both at school and college, both thorough respecters of themselves and of each other, and, what does not always follow, men who thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.
→Car tous deux étaient de vieux amis, d’anciens camarades de classe et d’université, pleins l’un et l’autre de la meilleure opinion réciproque, et, ce qui ne s’ensuit pas toujours, ils se plaisaient tout à fait dans leur mutuelle société.

After a little rambling talk, the lawyer led up to the subject which so disagreeably preoccupied his mind.
→Après quelques phrases sur la pluie et le beau temps, le notaire en vint au sujet qui lui préoccupait si fâcheusement l’esprit.

‘I suppose, Lanyon,’ said he, ‘you and I must be the two oldest friends that Henry Jekyll has?’ ‘I wish the friends were younger,’ chuckled Dr Lanyon.
→– Il me semble, Lanyon, dit-il, que nous devons être, vous et moi, les deux plus vieux amis du Dr Jekyll ? – Je préférerais que ces amis fussent plus jeunes ! plaisanta le Dr Lanyon.

‘But I suppose we are. And what of that? I see little of him now.’ ‘Indeed?’ said Utterson. ‘I thought you had a bond of common interest.’
→Admettons-le cependant. Mais qu’importe ? Je le vois si peu à présent. – En vérité ? fit Utterson. Je vous croyais très liés par des recherches communes ?

‘We had,’ was the reply. ‘But it is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me.
→– Autrefois, répliqua l’autre. Mais voici plus de dix ans que Henry Jekyll est devenu trop fantaisiste pour moi.

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.
→Il a commencé à tourner mal, en esprit s’entend ; et j’ai beau toujours m’intéresser à lui en souvenir du passé comme on dit, je le vois et l’ai vu diantrement peu depuis lors.

Such unscientific balderdash,’ added the doctor, flushing suddenly purple, ‘would have estranged Damon and Pythias.’
→De pareilles billevesées scientifiques, ajouta le docteur, devenu soudain rouge pourpre, auraient suffi à brouiller Damon et Pythias.

This little spirt of temper was somewhat of a relief to Mr Utterson.
→Cette petite bouffée d’humeur apporta comme un baume à M. Utterson.

‘They have only differed on some point of science,’ he thought; and being a man of no scientific passions (except in the matter of conveyancing) he even added: ‘It is nothing worse than that!’
→«Они поссорились из-за ка-ких-то научных теорий, — подумал он, и, так как науки его нисколько не интересовали (если только речь не шла о теориях передачи права собственности), он даже с облегчением добавил про себя:

He gave his friend a few seconds to recover his composure, and then approached the question he had come to put.
→Puis, ayant laissé quelques secondes à son ami pour reprendre son calme, il aborda la question qui faisait le but de sa visite, en demandant :

‘Did you ever come across a protégé of his – one Hyde?’ he asked.
→– Avez-vous jamais rencontré un sien protégé, un nommé Hyde ?

‘Hyde?’ repeated Lanyon. ‘No. Never heard of him.
→– Hyde ? répéta Lanyon. Non. Jamais entendu parler de lui.

That was the amount of information that the lawyer carried back with him to the great, dark bed on which he tossed to and fro, until the small hours of the morning began to grow large.
→Telle fut la somme de renseignements que le notaire remporta avec lui dans son grand lit obscur où il resta à se retourner sans répit jusque bien avant dans la nuit.

It was a night of little ease to his toiling mind, toiling in mere darkness and besieged by questions.
→Ce ne fut guère une nuit de repos pour son esprit qui travaillait, perdu en pleines ténèbres et assiégé de questions.

Six o’clock struck on the bells of the church that was so conveniently near to Mr Utterson’s dwelling, and still he was digging at the problem.
→Six heures sonnèrent au clocher de l’église qui se trouvait si commodément proche du logis de M. Utterson, et il creusait toujours le problème.

Hitherto it had touched him on the intellectual side alone; but now his imagination also was engaged or rather enslaved;
→Au début celui-ci ne l’avait touché que par son côté intellectuel ; mais à présent son imagination était, elle aussi, occupée ou pour mieux dire asservie ;

and as he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained room, Mr Enfield’s tale went by before his mind in a scroll of lighted pictures.
→et tandis qu’il restait à se retourner dans les opaques ténèbres de la nuit et de sa chambre aux rideaux clos, le récit de M. Enfield repassait devant sa mémoire en un déroulement de tableaux lucides.

He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly;
→Il croyait voir l’immense champ de réverbères d’une ville nocturne ; puis un personnage qui s’avançait à pas rapides ;

then of a child running from the doctor’s; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams.
→puis une fillette qui sortait en courant de chez le docteur, et puis tous les deux se rencontraient, et le monstre inhumain foulait aux pieds l’enfant et s’éloignait sans prendre garde à ses cris.

Or else he would see a room in a rich house, where his friend lay asleep, dreaming and smiling at his dreams;
→Ou encore il voyait dans une somptueuse maison une chambre où son ami était en train de dormir, rêvant et souriant à ses rêves ;

and then the door of that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked apart, the sleeper recalled, and lo!
→et alors la porte de cette chambre s’ouvrait, les rideaux du lit s’écartaient violemment, le dormeur se réveillait, et patatras !

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.
→il découvrait à son chevet un être qui avait sur lui tout pouvoir, et même en cette heure où tout reposait il lui fallait se lever et faire comme on le lui ordonnait.

The figure in these two phases haunted the lawyer all night; and if at any time he dozed over, it was but to see it glide more stealthily through sleeping houses,
→ Le personnage sous ces deux aspects hanta toute la nuit le notaire ; et si par instants celui-ci s’endormait, ce n’était que pour le voir se glisser plus furtif dans des maisons endormies,

or move the more swiftly and still the more swiftly, even to dizziness, through wider labyrinths of lamplighted city, and at every street corner crush a child and leave her screaming.
→ou s’avancer d’une vitesse de plus en plus accélérée, jusqu’à en devenir vertigineuse, parmi de toujours plus vastes labyrinthes de villes éclairées de réverbères, et à chaque coin de rue écraser une fillette et la laisser là hurlante.

And still the figure had no face by which he might know it; even in his dreams, it had no face, or one that baffled him and melted before his eyes;
→Et toujours ce personnage manquait d’un visage auquel il pût le reconnaître ; même dans ses rêves, il manquait de visage, ou bien celui-ci était un leurre qui s’évanouissait sous son regard…

and thus it was that there sprang up and grew apace in the lawyer’s mind a singularly strong, almost an inordinate, curiosity to behold the features of the real Mr Hyde.
→в конце концов в душе нотариуса родилось и окрепло необыкновенно сильное, почти непреодолимое желание увидеть лицо настоящего мистера Хайда.

If he could but once set eyes on him, he thought the mystery would lighten and perhaps roll altogether away, as was the habit of mysterious things when well examined.
→Мистер Аттерсон не сомневался, что стоит ему только взглянуть на это лицо — и тайна рассеется, утратит свою загадочность, как обычно утрачивают загадочность таинственные предметы, если их хорошенько рассмотреть.

He might see a reason for his friend’s strange preference or bondage (call it which you please) and even for the startling clauses of the will.
→Il comprendrait alors la raison d’être de l’étrange prédilection de son ami, ou (si l’on préfère) de sa sujétion, non moins que des stupéfiantes clauses du testament.

And at least it would be a face worth seeing: the face of a man who was without bowels of mercy:
→Et en tout cas ce serait là un visage qui mériterait d’être vu ; le visage d’un homme dont les entrailles étaient inaccessibles à la pitié ;

un visage auquel il suffisait de se montrer pour susciter dans l’âme du flegmatique Enfield un sentiment de haine tenace.
→a face which had but to show itself to raise up, in the mind of the unimpressionable Enfield, a spirit of enduring hatred.

From that time forward, Mr Utterson began to haunt the door in the bystreet of shops.
→À partir de ce jour, M. Utterson fréquenta assidûment la porte située dans la lointaine petite rue de boutiques.

In the morning before office hours, at noon when business was plenty and time scarce, at night under the face of the fogged city moon, by all lights and at all hours of solitude or concourse, the lawyer was to be found on his chosen post.
→Le matin avant les heures de bureau, le soir sous les regards de la brumeuse lune citadine, par tous les éclairages et à toutes les heures de solitude ou de foule, le notaire se trouvait à son poste de prédilection.

‘If he be Mr Hyde,’ he had thought, ‘I shall be Mr Seek.’

And at last his patience was rewarded. 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.
→Sa patience fut enfin récompensée. C’était par une belle nuit sèche ; il y avait de la gelée dans l’air ; les rues étaient nettes comme le parquet d’une salle de bal ; les réverbères, que ne faisait vaciller aucun souffle, dessinaient leurs schémas réguliers de lumière et d’ombre.

By ten o’clock, when the shops were closed, the bystreet was very solitary and, in spite of the low growl of London from all round, very silent.
→À dix heures, quand les boutiques se fermaient, la petite rue devenait très déserte et, en dépit du sourd grondement de Londres qui s’élevait de tout à l’entour, très silencieuse.

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.
→Les plus petits sons portaient au loin : les bruits domestiques provenant des maisons s’entendaient nettement d’un côté à l’autre de la chaussée ; et le bruit de leur marche précédait de beaucoup les passants.

Mr Utterson had been some minutes at his post, when he was aware of an odd, light footstep drawing near.
→Il y avait quelques minutes que M. Utterson était à son poste, lorsqu’il perçut un pas insolite et léger qui se rapprochait.

In the course of his nightly patrols, he had long grown accustomed to the quaint effect with which the footfalls of a single person, while he is still a great way off, suddenly spring out distinct from the vast hum and clatter of the city.
→Au cours de ses reconnaissances nocturnes, il s’était habitué depuis longtemps à l’effet bizarre que produit le pas d’un promeneur solitaire qui est encore à une grande distance, lorsqu’il devient tout à coup distinct parmi la vaste rumeur et les voix de la ville.

Yet his attention had never before been so sharply and decisively arrested;
→Mais son attention n’avait jamais encore été mise en arrêt de façon aussi aiguë et décisive ; and it was with a strong, superstitious prevision of success that he withdrew into the entry of the court.
→et ce fut avec un vif et superstitieux pressentiment de toucher au but qu’il se dissimula dans l’entrée de la cour.

The steps drew swiftly nearer, and swelled out suddenly louder as they turned the end of the street.
→Les pas se rapprochaient rapidement, et ils redoublèrent tout à coup de sonorité lorsqu’ils débouchèrent dans la rue.

The lawyer, looking forth from the entry, could soon see what manner of man he had to deal with.
→Le notaire, avançant la tête hors de l’entrée, fut bientôt édifié sur le genre d’individu auquel il avait affaire.

He was small and very plainly dressed, and the look of him, even at that distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher’s inclination.
→C’était un petit homme très simplement vêtu, et son aspect, même à distance, souleva chez le guetteur une violente antipathie.

But he made straight for the door, crossing the roadway to save time; and as he came, he drew a key from his pocket like one approaching home.
→ Il marcha droit vers la porte, coupant en travers de la chaussée pour gagner du temps, et chemin faisant, il tira une clef de sa poche comme s’il arrivait chez lui.

Mr Utterson stepped out and touched him on the shoulder as he passed.
→M. Utterson sortit de sa cachette et quand l’autre fut à sa hauteur il lui toucha l’épaule.

‘Mr Hyde, I think?’
→– Monsieur Hyde, je pense ?

Mr Hyde shrank back with a hissing intake of the breath.
→M. Hyde se recula, en aspirant l’air avec force.

But his search for mr hyde fear was only momentary; and though he did not look the lawyer in the face, he answered coolly enough: ‘That is my name.
→Mais sa crainte ne dura pas ; et, sans toutefois regarder le notaire en face, il lui répondit avec assez de sang-froid : – C’est bien mon nom.

What do you want?’
→Que me voulez-vous ?

‘I see you are going in,’ returned the lawyer.
→– Je vois que vous allez entrer, répliqua le notaire.

‘I am an old friend of Dr Jekyll’s – Mr Utterson of Gaunt Street
→Je suis un vieil ami du Dr Jekyll… M. Utterson, de Gaunt Street…

– you must have heard my name; and meeting you so conveniently, I thought you might admit me.’
→Il doit vous avoir parlé de moi ; et en nous rencontrant si à point, j’ai cru que vous pourriez m’introduire auprès de lui.

‘How did you know me?’
→D’où me connaissez-vous?

‘You will not find Dr Jekyll; he is from home,’ replied Mr Hyde, blowing in the key.
→– Je vous demanderai d’abord, répliqua M. Utterson, de me faire un plaisir.

And then suddenly, but still without looking up, he asked. ‘On your side,’ said Mr Utterson, ‘will you do me a favour?’

‘With pleasure,’ replied the other. ‘What shall it be?’
→– Volontiers, répondit l’autre… De quoi s’agit-il ?

‘Will you let me see your face?’ asked the lawyer.
→– Voulez-vous me laisser voir votre visage ? demanda le notaire.

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.
→M. Hyde parut hésiter ; puis, comme s’il prenait une brusque résolution, il releva la tête d’un air de défi ; et tous deux restèrent quelques secondes à se dévisager fixement.

‘Now I shall know you again,’ said Mr Utterson. ‘It may be useful.’
→– À présent, je vous reconnaîtrai, fit M. Utterson. Cela peut devenir utile.

‘Yes,’ returned Mr Hyde, ‘it is as well we have met; and à propos, you should have my address.’
→– Oui, répliqua M. Hyde, il vaut autant que nous nous soyons rencontrés ; mais à ce propos, il est bon que vous sachiez mon adresse.

And he gave a number of a street in Soho.
→Et il lui donna un numéro et un nom de rue dans Soho.

‘Good God!’ thought Mr Utterson, ‘can he too have been thinking of the will?’
→« Grand Dieu ! pensa M. Utterson, se peut-il que lui aussi ait songé au testament ? »

But he kept his feelings to himself and only grunted in acknowledgement of the address.
→Mais il garda sa réflexion pour lui-même et se borna à émettre un vague remerciement au sujet de l’adresse.

‘And now,’ said the other, ‘how did you know me?’
→– Et maintenant, fit l’autre, répondez-moi : d’où me connaissez-vous ?

‘By description,’ was the reply.
→– On m’a fait votre portrait. – Qui cela ?

‘Whose description?’

‘We have common friends,’ said Mr Utterson.
→– Nous avons des amis communs, répondit M. Utterson.

‘Common friends?’ echoed Mr Hyde, a little hoarsely.
→– Des amis communs, répéta M. Hyde, d’une voix rauque.

‘Who are they?’ ‘Jekyll, for instance,’ said the lawyer.
→Citez-en. – Jekyll, par exemple, dit le notaire.

‘He never told you,’ cried Mr Hyde, with a flush of anger. ‘I did not think you would have lied.’
→– Jamais il ne vous a parlé de moi ! s’écria M. Hyde, dans un accès de colère. Je ne vous croyais pas capable de mentir.

‘Come,’ said Mr Utterson, ‘that is not fitting language.’
→– Tout doux, fit M. Utterson, vous vous oubliez.

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.
→L’autre poussa tout haut un ricanement sauvage ; et en un instant, avec une promptitude extraordinaire, il ouvrit la porte et disparut dans la maison.

The lawyer stood awhile when Mr Hyde had left him, the picture of disquietude.
→Le notaire resta d’abord où M. Hyde l’avait laissé, livré au plus grand trouble.

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.
→Puis avec lenteur il se mit à remonter la rue, s’arrêtant quasi à chaque pas et portant la main à son front, comme s’il était en proie à une vive préoccupation d’esprit.

The problem he was thus debating as he walked, was one of a class that is rarely solved.
→Le problème qu’il examinait ainsi, tout en marchant, appartenait à une catégorie presque insoluble.

Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish,
→M. Hyde était blême et rabougri,

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;
→il donnait sans aucune difformité visible l’impression d’être contrefait, il avait un sourire déplaisant, il s’était comporté envers le notaire avec un mélange quasi féroce de timidité et d’audace, et il parlait d’une voix sourde, sibilante et à demi cassée;

all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr Utterson regarded him.
→tout cela militait contre lui ; mais tout cet ensemble réuni ne suffisait pas à expliquer la répugnance jusque-là inconnue, le dégoût et la crainte avec lesquels M. Utterson le regardait.

‘There must be something else,’ said the perplexed gentleman.
→ « Il doit y avoir autre chose, se dit ce gentleman, perplexe.

‘There is something more, if I could find a name for it.
→"Určitě za tím je něco víc, jen kdybych to dovedl pojmenovat!

God bless me, the man seems hardly human! Something troglodytic, shall we say?
→Dieu me pardonne, cet homme n’a pour ainsi dire pas l’air d’être un civilisé.

Something troglodytic, shall we say? or can it be the old story of Dr Fell?
→Tiendrait-il du troglodyte ? ou serait-ce la vieille histoire du Dr Fell,

or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent?
→ou bien est-ce le simple reflet d’une vilaine âme qui transparaît ainsi à travers son revêtement d’argile et le transfigure ?

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.’
→Cette dernière hypothèse, je crois… Ah ! mon pauvre vieux Harry Jekyll, si jamais j’ai lu sur un visage la griffe de Satan, c’est bien sur celui de votre nouvel ami ! »

Round the corner from the bystreet, 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:
→Passé le coin en venant de la petite rue, il y avait une place carrée entourée d’anciennes et belles maisons, à cette heure déchues pour la plupart de leur splendeur passée et louées par étages et appartements à des gens de toutes sortes et de toutes conditions :

map-engravers, architects, shady lawyers and the agents of obscure enterprises.
→graveurs de plans, architectes, louches agents d’affaires et directeurs de vagues entreprises.

One house, however, second from the corner, was still occupied entire;
→Une maison, toutefois, la deuxième à partir du coin, appartenait toujours à un seul occupant ;

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 fanlight, Mr Utterson stopped and knocked.
→ et à la porte de celle-ci, qui offrait un grand air de richesse et de confort, bien qu’à l’exception de l’imposte elle fût alors plongée dans les ténèbres, M. Utterson s’arrêta et frappa à la porte.

A well-dressed, elderly servant opened the door.
→Un domestique âgé, en livrée, vint ouvrir.

‘Is Dr Jekyll at home, Poole?’ asked the lawyer.
→– Est-ce que le docteur est chez lui, Poole ?

‘I will see, Mr Utterson,’ said Poole,
→– Je vais voir ; monsieur Utterson, répondit 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.
→tout en introduisant le visiteur dans un grand et confortable vestibule au plafond bas, pavé de carreaux céramiques, chauffé (telle une maison de campagne) par la flamme claire d’un âtre ouvert, et meublé de précieux buffets de chêne.

‘Will you wait here by the fire, sir? or shall I give you a light in the dining room?’
→– Préférez-vous attendre ici au coin du feu, monsieur, ou voulez-vous que je vous fasse de la lumière dans la salle à manger?

‘Here, thank you,’ said the lawyer, and he drew near and leaned on the tall fender.
→– Inutile, j’attendrai ici, répliqua le notaire. Et s’approchant du garde-feu élevé, il s’y accouda.

This hall, in which he was now left alone, was a pet fancy of his friend the doctor’s;
→Ce vestibule, où il resta bientôt seul, était une vanité mignonne de son ami le docteur ;

and Utterson himself was wont to search for Mr Hyde speak of it as the pleasantest room in London.
→et Utterson lui-même ne manquait pas d’en parler comme de la pièce la plus agréable de tout Londres.

But tonight there was a shudder in his blood; the face of Hyde sat heavy on his memory; he felt (what was rare with him) a nausea and distaste of life;
→Mais ce soir, un frisson lui parcourait les moelles ; le visage de Hyde hantait péniblement son souvenir ; il éprouvait (chose insolite pour lui) la satiété et le dégoût de la vie ;

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.
→et du fond de sa dépression mentale, les reflets dansants de la flamme sur le poli des buffets et les sursauts inquiétants de l’ombre au plafond, prenaient un caractère lugubre.

He was ashamed of his relief, when Poole presently returned to announce that Dr Jekyll was gone out.
→ Il eut honte de se sentir soulagé lorsque Poole revint enfin lui annoncer que le Dr Jekyll était sorti.

‘I saw Mr Hyde go in by the old dissecting room door, Poole,’ he said. ‘Is that right, when Dr Jekyll is from home?’
→– Dites, Poole, fit-il, j’ai vu M. Hyde entrer par la porte de l’ancienne salle de dissection. Est-ce correct, lorsque le Dr Jekyll est absent ?

‘Quite right, Mr Utterson, sir,’ replied the servant. ‘Mr Hyde has a key.’
→– Tout à fait correct, monsieur Utterson, répondit le domestique, M. Hyde a la clef.

‘Your master seems to repose a great deal of trust in that young man, Poole,’ resumed the other musingly.
→– Il me semble que votre maître met beaucoup de confiance en ce jeune homme, Poole, reprit l’autre d’un air pensif.

‘Yes, sir, he do indeed,’ said Poole. ‘We have all orders to obey him.’
→– Oui, monsieur, beaucoup en effet, répondit Poole. Nous avons tous reçu l’ordre de lui obéir.

‘I do not think I ever met Mr Hyde?’ asked Utterson.
→– Je ne pense pas avoir jamais rencontré M. Hyde ? interrogea Utterson.

‘O, dear no, sir. He never dines here,’ replied the butler.
→– Oh, mon Dieu, non, monsieur. Il ne dîne jamais ici, répliqua le maître d’hôtel.

‘Indeed we see very little of him on this side of the house; he mostly comes and goes by the laboratory.’
→Et même nous ne le voyons guère de ce côté-ci de la maison ; il entre et sort la plupart du temps par le laboratoire.

‘Well, good night, Poole.’ ‘Good night, Mr Utterson.’
→– Allons, bonne nuit, Poole. – Bonne nuit, monsieur Utterson.

And the lawyer set out homeward with a very heavy heart. ‘Poor Harry Jekyll,’ he thought,
→Et le notaire s’en retourna chez lui, le coeur tout serré. « Ce pauvre Harry Jekyll, songeait-il,

‘my mind misgives me he is in deep waters! He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God, there is no statute of limitations.
→j’ai bien peur qu’il ne se soit mis dans de mauvais draps ! Il a eu une jeunesse un peu orageuse ; cela ne date pas d’hier, il est vrai ; mais la justice de Dieu ne connaît ni règle ni limites.

Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace:
→Hé oui, ce doit être cela : le revenant d’un vieux péché, le cancer d’une honte secrète,

punishment coming, pede claudo, years after memory has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault.’
→le châtiment qui vient, pede claudo, des années après que la faute est sortie de la mémoire et que l’amour-propre s’en est absous. »

And the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded awhile on his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there.
→Et le notaire, troublé par cette considération, médita un instant sur son propre passé, fouillant tous les recoins de sa mémoire, dans la crainte d’en voir surgir à la lumière, comme d’une boîte à surprises, une vieille iniquité.

His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done,
→Son passé était certes bien innocent ; peu de gens pouvaient lire avec moins d’appréhension les feuillets de leur vie ; et pourtant il fut d’abord accablé de honte par toutes les mauvaises actions qu’il avait commises,

and raised up again into a sober and fearful gratitude by the many that he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.
→puis soulevé d’une douce et timide reconnaissance par toutes celles qu’il avait évitées après avoir failli de bien près les commettre.

And then by a return on his former subject, he conceived a spark of hope.
→Et ramené ainsi à son sujet primitif, il conçut une lueur d’espérance.

‘This Master Hyde, if he were studied,’ thought he, ‘must have secrets of his own:
→« Ce maître Hyde, si on le connaissait mieux, songeait-il, doit avoir ses secrets particuliers :

black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll’s worst would be like sunshine.
→de noirs secrets, dirait-on à le voir ; des secrets à côté desquels les pires du pauvre Jekyll sembleraient purs comme le jour.

Things cannot continue as they are.
→Les choses ne peuvent durer ainsi.

It turns me cold to think of this creature stealing like a thief to Harry’s bedside;
→Cela me glace de penser que cet être-là s’insinue comme un voleur au chevet de Harry :

poor Harry, what a wakening! And the danger of it;
→pauvre Harry, quel réveil pour lui ! Et quel danger ;

for if this Hyde suspects the existence of the will, he may grow impatient to inherit.
→car si ce Hyde soupçonne l’existence du testament, il peut devenir impatient d’hériter.

Ay, I must put my shoulder to the wheel – if Jekyll will but let me,’ he added, ‘if Jekyll will only let me.’
→Oui, il faut que je pousse à la roue… si toutefois Jekyll me laisse faire, ajouta-t-il, si Jekyll veut bien me laisser faire. »

For once more he saw before his mind’s eye, as clear as a transparency, the strange clauses of the will.
→Car une fois de plus il revoyait en esprit, nettes comme sur un écran lumineux, les singulières clauses du testament.

-III-

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;
→Quinze jours s’étaient écoulés lorsque, par le plus heureux des hasards, le docteur offrit un de ces agréables dîners dont il était coutumier à cinq ou six vieux camarades, tous hommes intelligents et distingués, et tous amateurs de bons vins.

and Mr Utterson so contrived that he remained behind after the others had departed.
→M. Utterson, qui y assistait, fit en sorte de rester après le départ des autres convives.

‘I have been wanting to speak to you, Jekyll,’ began the latter. ‘You know that will of yours?’
→– J’ai éprouvé le besoin de vous parler, Jekyll, commença le notaire. Vous vous rappelez votre testament ?

A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distasteful; but the doctor carried it off gaily.
→Un observateur attentif eût pu discerner que l’on goûtait peu ce sujet ;

‘My poor Utterson,’ said he, ‘you are unfortunate in such a client.
→– Mon cher Utterson, répondit-il, vous n’avez pas de chance avec votre client.

I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon,
→Je n’ai jamais vu personne aussi tourmenté que vous l’êtes par mon testament ; sauf peut-être ce pédant invétéré de Lanyon,

at what he called my scientific heresies.
→par ce qu’il appelle mes hérésies scientifiques.

O, I know he’s a good fellow – you needn’t frown – an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of him;
→Oui, oui, entendu, c’est un brave garçon… inutile de prendre cet air sévère… un excellent garçon, et j’ai toujours l’intention de le revoir,

but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant blatant pedant.
→mais cela ne l’empêche pas d’être un pédant invétéré ; un pédant ignare et prétentieux.

I was never more disappointed in any man than Lanyon.’
→Jamais personne ne m’a autant déçu que 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.’
→– Vous savez que je n’ai jamais approuvé la chose, poursuivit l’impitoyable Utterson, refusant de le suivre sur ce nouveau terrain. – Mon testament ? Mais oui, bien entendu, je le sais, fit le docteur, un peu sèchement. Vous me l’avez déjà dit.

‘Well, I tell you so again,’ continued the lawyer. ‘I have been learning something of young Hyde.’
→– Eh bien, je vous le redis encore, continua le notaire. J’ai appris quelque chose concernant le jeune Hyde.

The large handsome face of Dr Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes.
→La face épanouie du Dr Jekyll se décolora jusqu’aux lèvres, et ses yeux s’assombrirent. Il déclara :

‘I do not care to hear more,’ said he. ‘This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop.’
→– Je ne désire pas en entendre davantage. Il me semble que nous avions convenu de ne plus parler de ce sujet.

‘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.
→– Ce que j’ai appris est abominable, insista Utterson. – Cela ne peut rien y changer.

‘I am painfully situated, Utterson;
→Vous ne comprenez pas ma situation, répliqua le docteur, avec une certaine incohérence.

‘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.’
→Je suis dans une situation pénible, Utterson ; ma situation est exceptionnelle, tout à fait exceptionnelle. C’est une de ces choses auxquelles on ne peut remédier par des paroles.

‘Jekyll,’ said Utterson, ‘you know me: I am a man to be trusted.
→– Jekyll, reprit Utterson, vous me connaissez : je suis quelqu’un en qui on peut avoir confiance.

Make a clean breast of this in confidence; and I make no doubt I can get you out of it.’
→Avouez-moi cela sous le sceau du secret ; je me fais fort de vous en tirer.

‘My good Utterson,’ said the doctor, ‘this is very good of you, this is downright good of you, and I cannot find words to thank you in.
→– Mon bon Utterson, repartit le docteur, c’est très aimable de votre part ; c’est tout à fait aimable, et je ne trouve pas de mots pour vous remercier. I believe you fully; I would trust you before any man alive, ay, before myself, if I could make the choice;
→J’ai en vous la foi la plus entière ; je me confierais à vous plutôt qu’à n’importe qui, voire à moi-même, s’il me restait le choix ;

but indeed it isn’t what you fancy; it is not so bad as that; and just to put your good heart at rest, I will tell you one thing:
→mais croyez-moi, ce n’est pas ce que vous imaginez ; ce n’est pas aussi grave ; et pour vous mettre un peu l’esprit en repos, je vous dirai une chose :

the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde. I give you my hand upon that; and I thank you again and again;
→dès l’instant où il me plaira de le faire, je puis me débarrasser de M. Hyde. Là-dessus je vous serre la main, et merci encore et encore…

and I will just add one little word, Utterson, that I’m sure you’ll take in good part: this is a private matter, and I beg of you to let it sleep.’
→Plus rien qu’un dernier mot, Utterson, dont vous ne vous formaliserez pas, j’en suis sûr ; c’est là une affaire privée, et je vous conjure de la laisser en repos.

Utterson reflected a little looking in the fire. ‘I have no doubt you are perfectly right,’ he said at last, getting to his feet.
→Utterson, le regard perdu dans les flammes, resta songeur une minute. – Je suis convaincu que vous avez parfaitement raison, finit- il par dire, tout en se levant de son siège.

‘Well, but since we have touched upon this business, and for the last time I hope,’ continued the doctor, ‘there is one point I should like you to understand. I have really a very great interest in poor Hyde.
→– Allons, reprit le docteur, puisque nous avons abordé ce sujet, et pour la dernière fois j’espère, voici un point que je tiendrais à vous faire comprendre. Je porte en effet le plus vif intérêt à ce pauvre Hyde.

I know you have seen him; he told me so; and I fear he was rude.
→Je sais que vous l’avez vu ; il me l’a dit ; et je crains qu’il ne se soit montré grossier.

But I do sincerely take a great, a very great interest in that young man; and if I am taken away, Utterson, I wish you to promise me that you will bear with him and get his rights for him.
→Mais je vous assure que je porte un grand, un très grand intérêt à ce jeune homme ; et si je viens à disparaître, Utterson, je désire que vous me promettiez de le soutenir et de sauvegarder ses intérêts.

I think you would, if you knew all; and it would be a weight off my mind if you would promise.’
→ Vous n’y manqueriez pas, si vous saviez tout ; et cela me soulagerait d’un grand poids si vous vouliez bien me le promettre.

‘I can’t pretend that I shall ever like him,’ said the lawyer.
→– Je ne puis vous garantir que je l’aimerai jamais, repartit le notaire.

‘I don’t ask that,’ pleaded Jekyll, laying his hand upon the other’s arm;
→– Je ne vous demande pas cela, insista Jekyll, en posant la main sur le bras de l’autre ;

‘I only ask for justice;
→je ne vous demande rien que de légitime;

I only ask you to help him for my sake, when I am no longer here.’
→ je vous demande uniquement de l’aider en mémoire de moi, lorsque je ne serai plus là.

Utterson heaved an irrepressible sigh. ‘Well,’ said he. ‘I promise.’
→Utterson ne put refréner un soupir. – Soit, fit-il, je vous le promets.

-IV-



Nearly a year later, in the month of October 18.. , London was startled by a crime of singular ferocity and rendered all the more notable by the high position of the victim.
→L’assassinat de Sir Danvers Carew Un an plus tard environ, au mois d’octobre 18…, un crime d’une férocité inouïe, et que rendait encore plus remarquable le rang élevé de la victime, vint mettre Londres en émoi.

The details were few and startling. A maidservant living alone in a house not far from the river, had gone upstairs to bed about eleven.
→Les détails connus étaient brefs mais stupéfiants. Une domestique qui se trouvait seule dans une maison assez voisine de la Tamise était montée se coucher vers onze heures.

Although a fog rolled over the city in the small hours, the early part of the night was cloudless, and the lane, which the maid’s window overlooked, was brilliantly lit by the full moon.
→Malgré le brouillard qui vers le matin s’abattit sur la ville, le ciel resta pur la plus grande partie de la nuit, et la pleine lune éclairait brillamment la rue sur laquelle donnait la fenêtre de la fille.

It seems she was romantically given for she sat down upon her box, which stood immediately under the window, and fell into a dream of musing.
→Celle-ci, qui était sans doute en dispositions romanesques, s’assit sur sa malle qui se trouvait placée juste devant la fenêtre, et se perdit dans une profonde rêverie.

Never (she used to say, with streaming tears, when she narrated that experience) never had she felt more at peace with all men or thought more kindly of the world.
→Jamais (comme elle le dit, avec des flots de larmes, en racontant la scène), jamais elle ne s’était sentie plus en paix avec l’humanité, jamais elle n’avait cru davantage à la bonté du monde.

And as she so sat she became aware of an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair, drawing near along the lane;
→Or, tandis qu’elle était là assise, elle vit venir du bout de la rue un vieux et respectable gentleman à cheveux blancs ;

and advancing to meet him, another and very small gentleman, to whom at first she paid less attention.
→et allant à sa rencontre, un autre gentleman tout petit, qui d’abord attira moins son attention.

When they had come within speech (which was just under the maid’s eyes) the older man bowed and accosted the other with a very pretty manner of politeness.
→Když se už navzájem přiblížili natolik, že na sebe mohli promluvit (bylo to zrovna pod jejím oknem), starší muž se uklonil a velice pěkně a zdvořile toho druhého oslovil.

It did not seem as if the subject of his address were of great importance; indeed, from his pointing, it sometimes appeared as if he were only inquiring his way;
→Nezdálo se, že by mu říkal něco moc důležitého, spíše se podle toho, že ukazoval určitým směrem, mohlo chvílemi zdát, že se jenom ptá na cestu.

but the moon shone on his face as he spoke, and the girl was pleased to watch it, it seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.
→mais tandis qu’il parlait, la lune éclaira son visage, et la fille prit plaisir à le considérer, tant il respirait une aménité de caractère naïve et désuète, relevée toutefois d’une certaine hauteur, provenant, eût-on dit, d’une légitime fierté. Presently her eye wandered to the other, and she was surprised to recognize in him a certain Mr Hyde, who had once visited her master and for whom she had conceived a dislike.
→Puis elle accorda un regard à l’autre, et eut l’étonnement de reconnaître en lui un certain M. Hyde, qui avait une fois rendu visite à son maître et pour qui elle avait conçu de l’antipathie.

He had in his hand a heavy cane, with which he was trifling; but he answered never a word, and seemed to listen with an ill-contained impatience.
→Il tenait à la main une lourde canne, avec laquelle il jouait, mais il ne répondait mot, et semblait écouter avec une impatience mal contenue.

And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman.
→Et puis tout d’un coup il éclata d’une rage folle, frappant du pied, brandissant sa canne, et bref, au dire de la fille, se comportant comme un fou.

The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that Mr Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth.
→Le vieux gentleman, d’un air tout à fait surpris et un peu offensé, fit un pas en arrière ; sur quoi M. Hyde perdit toute retenue, et le frappant de son gourdin l’étendit par terre.

And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway.
→Et à l’instant même, avec une fureur simiesque, il se mit à fouler aux pieds sa victime, et à l’accabler d’une grêle de coups telle qu’on entendait les os craquer et que le corps rebondissait sur les pavés.

At the horror of these sights and sounds, the maid fainted.
→Frappée d’horreur à ce spectacle, la fille perdit connaissance.

It was two o’clock when she came to herself and called for the police.
→Il était deux heures lorsqu’elle revint à elle et alla prévenir la police.

The murderer was gone long ago; but there lay his victim in the middle of the lane, incredibly mangled.
→L’assassin avait depuis longtemps disparu, mais au milieu de la chaussée gisait sa victime, incroyablement abîmée.

The stick with which the deed had been done, although it was of some rare and very tough and heavy wood, had broken in the middle under the stress of this insensate cruelty; and one splintered half had rolled in the neighbouring gutter – the other, without doubt, had been carried away by the murderer.
→Le bâton, instrument du forfait, bien qu’il fût d’un bois rare, très dense et compact, s’était cassé en deux sous la violence de cette rage insensée ; et un bout hérissé d’éclats en avait roulé jusque dans le ruisseau voisin… tandis que l’autre, sans doute, était resté aux mains du criminel.







???





A purse and a gold watch were found upon the victim; but no cards or papers, except a sealed and stamped envelope, which he had been probably carrying to the post, and which bore the name and address of Mr Utterson. This was brought to the lawyer the next morning, before he was out of bed; and he had no sooner seen it, and been told the circumstances, than he shot out a solemn lip. ‘I shall say nothing till I have seen the body,’ said he; ‘this may be very serious. Have the kindness to wait while I dress.’ And with the same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body had been carried. As soon as he came into the cell, he nodded. ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘I recognize him. I am sorry to say that this is Sir Danvers Carew.’ ‘Good God, sir,’ exclaimed the officer, ‘is it possible?’ And the next moment his eye lighted up with professional ambition. ‘This will make a deal of noise,’ he said. ‘And perhaps you can help us to the man.’ And he briefly narrated what the maid had seen, and showed the broken stick. Mr Utterson had already quailed at the name of Hyde; but when the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer: broken and battered as it was, he recognized it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll. ‘Is this Mr Hyde a person of small stature?’ he inquired. the carew murder case  ‘Particularly small and particularly wicked-looking, is what the maid calls him,’ said the officer. Mr Utterson reflected; and then, raising his head, ‘If you will come with me in my cab,’ he said, ‘I think I can take you to his house.’ It was by this time about nine in the morning, and the first fog of the season. A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these embattled vapours; so that as the cab crawled from street to street, Mr Utterson beheld a marvellous number of degrees and hues of twilight; for here it would be dark like the back-end of evening; and there would be a glow of a rich, lurid brown, like the light of some strange conflagration; and here, for a moment, the fog would be quite broken up, and a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths. The dismal quarter of Soho⁴ seen under these changing glimpses, with its muddy ways, and slatternly passengers, and its lamps, which had never been extinguished or had been kindled afresh to combat this mournful reinvasion of darkness, seemed, in the lawyer’s eyes, like a district of some city in a nightmare. The thoughts of his mind, besides, were of the gloomiest dye; and when he glanced at the companion of his drive, he was conscious of some touch of that terror of the law and the law’s officers, which may at times assail the most honest. As the cab drew up before the address indicated, the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low French eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in hand, to have a morning glass; and the next moment the fog settled down again upon that part, as brown as umber, and cut him off from his blackguardly surroundings. This was the home of Henry Jekyll’s favourite; of a man who was heir to a quarter of a million sterling. An ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door. She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excellent. Yes, she said, this was Mr Hyde’s, but he was not at home; he had been in that night very late, but had gone away again in less than an hour; there was nothing strange in that; his habits were very  dr jekyll and mr hyde irregular, and he was often absent; for instance, it was nearly two months since she had seen him till yesterday. ‘Very well then, we wish to see his rooms,’ said the lawyer; and when the woman began to declare it was impossible, ‘I had better tell you who this person is,’ he added. ‘This is Inspector Newcomen of Scotland Yard.’ A flash of odious joy appeared upon the woman’s face. ‘Ah!’ said she, ‘he is in trouble! What has he done?’ Mr Utterson and the inspector exchanged glances. ‘He don’t seem a very popular character,’ observed the latter. ‘And now, my good woman, just let me and this gentleman have a look about us.’ In the whole extent of the house, which but for the old woman remained otherwise empty, Mr Hyde had only used a couple of rooms; but these were furnished with luxury and good taste. A closet was filled with wine; the plate was of silver, the napery elegant; a good picture hung upon the walls, a gift (as Utterson supposed) from Henry Jekyll, who was much of a connoisseur; and the carpets were of many pi s and agreeable in colour. At this moment, however, the rooms bore every mark of having been recently and hurriedly ransacked; clothes lay about the floor, with their pockets inside out; lockfast drawers stood open; and on the hearth there lay a pile of grey ashes, as though many papers had been burned. From these embers the inspector disinterred the butt end of a green cheque book, which had resisted the action of the fire; the other half of the stick was found behind the door; and as this clinched his suspicions, the officer declared himself delighted. A visit to the bank, where several thousand pounds were found to be lying to the murderer’s credit, completed his gratification. ‘You may depend upon it, sir,’ he told Mr Utterson: ‘I have him in my hand. He must have lost his head, or he would never have left the stick or, above all, burned the cheque book. Why, money’s life to the man. We have nothing to do but wait for him at the bank, and get out the handbills.’ This last, however, was not so easy of accomplishment; for Mr Hyde had numbered few familiars – even the master of the servantmaid had only seen him twice; his family could nowhere be traced; he had never le the carew murder case  been photographed;⁵ and the few who could describe him differed widely, as common observers will. Only on one point, were they agreed; and that was the haunting sense of unexpressed deformity with which the fugitive impressed his beholders.      It was late in the afternoon, when Mr Utterson found his way to Dr Jekyll’s door, where he was at once admitted by Poole, and carried down by the kitchen offices and across a yard which had once been a garden, to the building which was indifferently known as the laboratory or the dissecting rooms.¹ The doctor had bought the house from the heirs of a celebrated surgeon; and his own tastes being rather chemical than anatomical, had changed the destination of the block at the bottom of the garden. It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend’s quarters; and he eyed the dingy windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre, once crowded with eager students and now lying gaunt and silent, the tables laden with chemical apparatus, the floor strewn with crates and littered with packing straw, and the light falling dimly through the foggy cupola. At the further end, a flight of stairs mounted to a door covered with red baize; and through this, Mr Utterson was at last received into the doctor’s cabinet. It was a large room, fitted round with glass presses, furnished, among other things, with a cheval-glass and a business table, and looking out upon the court by three dusty windows barred with iron. The fire burned in the grate; a lamp was set lighted on the chimney shelf, for even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly; and there, close up to the warmth, sat Dr Jekyll, looking deadly sick. He did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice. ‘And now,’ said Mr Utterson, as soon as Poole had left them, ‘you have heard the news?’ The doctor shuddered. ‘They were crying it in the square,’ he said. ‘I heard them in my dining room.’ ‘One word,’ said the lawyer. ‘Carew was my client, but so are you, and I want to know what I am doing. You have not been mad enough to hide this fellow?’ ‘Utterson, I swear to God,’ cried the doctor, ‘I swear to God I will incident of the letter  never set eyes on him again. I bind my honour to you that I am done with him in this world. It is all at an end. And indeed he does not want my help; you do not know him as I do; he is safe, he is quite safe; mark my words, he will never more be heard of.’ The lawyer listened gloomily; he did not like his friend’s feverish manner. ‘You seem pretty sure of him,’ said he; ‘and for your sake, I hope you may be right. If it came to a trial, your name might appear.’ ‘I am quite sure of him,’ replied Jekyll; ‘I have grounds for certainty that I cannot share with anyone. But there is one thing on which you may advise me. I have – I have received a letter; and I am at a loss whether I should show it to the police. I should like to leave it in your hands, Utterson; you would judge wisely I am sure; I have so great a trust in you.’ ‘You fear, I suppose, that it might lead to his detection?’ asked the lawyer. ‘No,’ said the other. ‘I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde; I am quite done with him. I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed.’ Utterson ruminated awhile; he was surprised at his friend’s selfishness, and yet relieved by it. ‘Well,’ said he, at last, ‘let me see the letter.’ The letter was written in an odd, upright hand and signed ‘Edward Hyde’: and it signified, briefly enough, that the writer’s benefactor, Dr Jekyll, whom he had long so unworthily repaid for a thousand generosities, need labour under no alarm for his safety as he had means of escape on which he placed a sure dependence. The lawyer liked this letter well enough; it put a better colour on the intimacy than he had looked for; and he blamed himself for some of his past suspicions.² ‘Have you the envelope?’ he asked. ‘I burned it,’ replied Jekyll, ‘before I thought what I was about. But it bore no postmark. The note was handed in.’ ‘Shall I keep this and sleep upon it?’ asked Utterson. ‘I wish you to judge for me entirely,’ was the reply. ‘I have lost confidence in myself.’ ‘Well, I shall consider,’ returned the lawyer. ‘And now one word  dr jekyll and mr hyde more: it was Hyde who dictated the terms in your will about that disappearance?’ The doctor seemed seized with a qualm of faintness; he shut his mouth tight and nodded. ‘I knew it,’ said Utterson. ‘He meant to murder you. You have had a fine escape.’ ‘I have had what is far more to the purpose,’ returned the doctor solemnly: ‘I have had a lesson – O God, Utterson, what a lesson I have had!’ And he covered his face for a moment with his hands. On his way out, the lawyer stopped and had a word or two with Poole. ‘By the by,’ said he, ‘there was a letter handed in today: what was the messenger like?’ But Poole was positive nothing had come except by post; ‘and only circulars by that,’ he added. This news sent off the visitor with his fears renewed. Plainly the letter had come by the laboratory door; possibly, indeed, it had been written in the cabinet; and if that were so, it must be differently judged, and handled with the more caution. The newsboys, as he went, were crying themselves hoarse along the footways: ‘Special edition. Shocking murder of an MP.’ That was the funeral oration of one friend and client; and he could not help a certain apprehension lest the good name of another should be sucked down in the eddy of the scandal. It was, at least, a ticklish decision that he had to make; and self-reliant as he was by habit, he began to cherish a longing for advice. It was not to be had directly; but perhaps, he thought, it might be fished for. Presently after, he sat on one side of his own hearth, with Mr Guest, his head clerk, upon the other, and midway between, at a nicely calculated distance from the fire, a bottle of a particular old wine that had long dwelt unsunned in the foundations of his house. The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city, where the lamps glimmered like carbuncles; and through the muffle and smother of these fallen clouds, the procession of the town’s life was still rolling in through the great arteries with a sound as of a mighty wind. But the room was gay with firelight. In the bottle the acids were long ago resolved; the imperial dye had softened with time, as the colour grows richer in stained windows; and the glow of hot autumn afternoons on hillside incident of the letter  vineyards, was ready to be set free and to disperse the fogs of London. Insensibly the lawyer melted. There was no man from whom he kept fewer secrets than Mr Guest; and he was not always sure that he kept as many as he meant. Guest had often been on business to the doctor’s; he knew Poole; he could scarce have failed to hear of Mr Hyde’s familiarity about the house; he might draw conclusions: was it not as well, then, that he should see a letter which put that mystery to rights? and above all since Guest, being a great student and critic of handwriting, would consider the step natural and obliging? The clerk, besides, was a man of counsel; he would scarce read so strange a document without dropping a remark; and by that remark Mr Utterson might shape his future course. ‘This is a sad business about Sir Danvers,’ he said. ‘Yes, sir, indeed. It has elicited a great deal of public feeling,’ returned Guest. ‘The man, of course, was mad.’ ‘I should like to hear your views on that,’ replied Utterson. ‘I have a document here in his handwriting; it is between ourselves, for I scarce knew what to do about it; it is an ugly business at the best. But there it is; quite in your way: a murderer’s autograph.’ Guest’s eyes brightened, and he sat down at once and studied it with passion. ‘No, sir,’ he said; ‘not mad; but it is an odd hand.’ ‘And by all accounts a very odd writer,’ added the lawyer. Just then the servant entered with a note. ‘Is that from Doctor Jekyll, sir?’ inquired the clerk. ‘I thought I knew the writing. Anything private, Mr Utterson?’ ‘Only an invitation to dinner. Why? do you want to see it?’ ‘One moment. I thank you, sir;’ and the clerk laid the two sheets of paper alongside and sedulously compared their contents. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said at last, returning both; ‘it’s a very interesting autograph.’ There was a pause, during which Mr Utterson struggled with himself. ‘Why did you compare them, Guest?’ he inquired suddenly. ‘Well, sir,’ returned the clerk, ‘there’s a rather singular resemblance; the two hands are in many points identical: only differently sloped.’ ‘Rather quaint,’ said Utterson. ‘It is, as you say, rather quaint,’ returned Guest. ‘I wouldn’t speak of this note, you know,’ said the master.  dr jekyll and mr hyde ‘No, sir,’ said the clerk. ‘I understand.’ But no sooner was Mr Utterson alone that night, than he locked the note into his safe where it reposed from that time forward. ‘What!’ he thought. ‘Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!’ And his blood ran cold in his veins.       Time ran on; thousands of pounds were offered in reward, for the death of Sir Danvers was resented as a public injury; but Mr Hyde had disappeared out of the ken of the police as though he had never existed. Much of his past was unearthed, indeed, and all disreputable: tales came out of the man’s cruelty, at once so callous and violent, of his vile life, of his strange associates, of the hatred that seemed to have surrounded his career; but of his present whereabouts, not a whisper. From the time he had left the house in Soho on the morning of the murder, he was simply blotted out; and gradually, as time drew on, Mr Utterson began to recover from the hotness of his alarm, and to grow more at quiet with himself. The death of Sir Danvers was, to his way of thinking, more than paid for by the disappearance of Mr Hyde. Now that that evil influence had been withdrawn, a new life began for Dr Jekyll. He came out of his seclusion, renewed relations with his friends, became once more their familiar guest and entertainer; and whilst he had always been 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 seemed to open and brighten, as if with an inward consciousness of service; and for more than two months, the doctor was at peace. On the th of January Utterson had dined at the doctor’s with a small party; Lanyon had been there; and the face of the host had looked from one to the other as in the old days when the trio were inseparable friends. On the th, and again on the th, the door was shut against the lawyer. ‘The doctor was confined to the house,’ Poole said, ‘and saw no one.’ On the th, he tried again, and was again refused; and having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits. The fifth night, he had in Guest to dine with him; and the sixth he betook himself to Doctor Lanyon’s. There at least he was not denied admittance; but when he came in, he was shocked at the change which had taken place in the doctor’s  dr jekyll and mr hyde appearance. He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man had grown 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 that arrested the lawyer’s notice, as a look in the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind. It was unlikely that the doctor should fear death; and yet that was what Utterson was tempted to suspect. ‘Yes,’ he thought; ‘he is a doctor, he must know his own state and that his days are counted; and the knowledge is more than he can bear.’ And yet when Utterson remarked on his ill-looks, it was with an air of great firmness that Lanyon declared himself a doomed man. ‘I have had a shock,’ he said, ‘and I shall never recover. It is a question 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 more glad 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 to see or hear no more of Doctor Jekyll,’ he said in a loud, unsteady voice. ‘I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion 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, after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you. And in the meantime, if you can sit and talk with me of other things, for God’s sake, stay and do so; but if you cannot keep clear of this accursed topic, then, in God’s name, go, for I cannot bear it.’ As soon as he got home, Utterson sat down and wrote to Jekyll, complaining of his exclusion from the house, and asking the cause of this unhappy break with Lanyon; and the next day brought him a long answer, often very pathetically worded, and sometimes darkly mysterious in drift. The quarrel with Lanyon was incurable. ‘I do not remarkable incident of doctor lanyon  blame our old friend,’ Jekyll wrote, ‘but I share his view that we must never meet. I mean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion; you must not be surprised, nor must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shut even to you. You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name.¹ If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also. I could not think that this earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning; and you can do but one thing, Utterson, to lighten this destiny, and that is to respect my silence.’ Utterson was amazed; the dark influence of Hyde had been withdrawn, the doctor had returned to his old tasks and amities; a week ago, the prospect had smiled with every promise of a cheerful and an honoured age; and now in a moment, friendship, and peace of mind and the whole tenor of his life were wrecked. So great and unprepared a change pointed to madness; but in view of Lanyon’s manner and words, there must lie for it some deeper ground. A week afterwards Dr Lanyon took to his bed, and in something less than a fortnight he was dead. The night after the funeral, at which he had been sadly affected, Utterson locked the door of his business room, and sitting there by the light of a melancholy candle, drew out and set before him an envelope addressed by the hand and sealed with the seal of his dear friend. ‘P: for the hands of J. G. Utterson  and in case of his predecease to be destroyed unread’, so it was emphatically superscribed; and the lawyer dreaded to behold the contents. ‘I have buried one friend today,’ he thought: ‘what if this should cost me another?’ And then he condemned the fear as a disloyalty, and broke the seal. Within there was another enclosure, likewise sealed, and marked upon the cover as ‘Not to be opened till the death or disappearance of Dr Henry Jekyll.’ Utterson could not trust his eyes. Yes, it was disappearance; here again, as in the mad will which he had long ago restored to its author, here again were the idea of a disappearance and the name of Henry Jekyll bracketed. But in the will, that idea had sprung from the sinister suggestion of the man Hyde; it was set there with a purpose all too plain and horrible. Written by the hand of Lanyon, what should it mean? A great curiosity came on the trustee, to disregard the prohibition and dive at once to  dr jekyll and mr hyde the bottom of these mysteries; but professional honour and faith to his dead friend were stringent obligations; and the packet slept in the inmost corner of his private safe. It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it; and it may be doubted if, from that day forth, Utterson desired the society of his surviving friend with the same eagerness. He thought of him kindly; but his thoughts were disquieted and fearful. He went to call indeed; but he was perhaps relieved to be denied admittance; perhaps, in his heart, he preferred to speak with Poole upon the doorstep and surrounded by the air and sounds of the open city, rather than to be admitted into that house of voluntary bondage, and to sit and speak with its inscrutable recluse. Poole had, indeed, no very pleasant news to communicate. The doctor, it appeared, now more than ever confined himself to the cabinet over the laboratory, where he would sometimes even sleep; he was out of spirits, he had grown very silent, he did not read; it seemed as if he had something on his mind. Utterson became so used to the unvarying character of these reports, that he fell off little by little in the frequency of his visits.      It chanced on Sunday, when Mr Utterson was on his usual walk with Mr Enfield, that their way lay once again through the bystreet; and that when they came in front of the door, both stopped to gaze on it. ‘Well,’ said Enfield, ‘that story’s at an end at least. We shall never see more of Mr Hyde.’ ‘I hope not,’ said Utterson. ‘Did I ever tell you that I once saw him, and shared your feeling of repulsion?’ ‘It was impossible to do the one without the other,’ returned Enfield. ‘And by the way what an ass you must have thought me, not to know that this was a back way to Dr Jekyll’s! It was partly your own fault that I found it out, even when I did.’ ‘So you found it out, did you?’ said Utterson. ‘But if that be so, we may step into the court and take a look at the windows. To tell you the truth, I am uneasy about poor Jekyll; and even outside, I feel as if the presence of a friend might do him good.’ The court was very cool and a little damp, and full of premature twilight, although the sky, high up overhead, was still bright with sunset. The middle one of the three windows was half way open; and sitting close beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr Jekyll. ‘What! Jekyll!’ he cried. ‘I trust you are better.’ ‘I am very low, Utterson,’ replied the doctor drearily, ‘very low. It will not last long, thank God.’ ‘You stay too much indoors,’ said the lawyer. ‘You should be out, whipping up the circulation like Mr Enfield and me. (This is my cousin – Mr Enfield – Dr Jekyll.) Come now; get your hat and take a quick turn with us.’ ‘You are very good,’ sighed the other. ‘I should like to very much; but no, no, no, it is quite impossible; I dare not. But indeed, Utterson, I am very glad to see you; this is really a great pleasure; I would ask you and Mr Enfield up, but the place is really not fit.’ ‘Why then,’ said the lawyer, good-naturedly, ‘the best thing we  dr jekyll and mr hyde can do is to stay down here and speak with you from where we are.’ ‘That is just what I was about to venture to propose,’ returned the doctor with a smile. But the words were hardly uttered, before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below. They saw it but for a glimpse, for the window was instantly thrust down; but that glimpse had been sufficient, and they turned and left the court without a word. In silence, too, they traversed the bystreet; and it was not until they had come into a neighbouring thoroughfare, where even upon a Sunday there were still some stirrings of life, that Mr Utterson at last turned and looked at his companion. They were both pale; and there was an answering horror in their eyes. ‘God forgive us, God forgive us,’ said Mr Utterson. But Mr Enfield only nodded his head very seriously, and walked on once more in silence.     Mr Utterson was sitting by his fireside one evening after dinner, when he was surprised to receive a visit from Poole. ‘Bless me, Poole, what brings you here?’ he cried; and then taking a second look at him, ‘What ails you?’ he added, ‘is the doctor ill?’ ‘Mr Utterson,’ said the man, ‘there is something wrong.’ ‘Take a seat, and here is a glass of wine for you,’ said the lawyer. ‘Now, take your time, and tell me plainly what you want.’ ‘You know the doctor’s ways, sir,’ replied Poole, ‘and how he shuts himself up. Well, he’s shut up again in the cabinet; and I don’t like it, sir – I wish I may die if I like it. Mr Utterson, sir, I’m afraid.’ ‘Now, my good man,’ said the lawyer, ‘be explicit. What are you afraid of ?’ ‘I’ve been afraid for about a week,’ returned Poole, doggedly disregarding the question, ‘and I can bear it no more.’ The man’s appearance amply bore out his words; his manner was altered for the worse; and except for the moment when he had first announced his terror, he had not once looked the lawyer in the face. Even now, he sat with the glass of wine untasted on his knee, and his eyes directed to a corner of the floor. ‘I can bear it no more,’ he repeated. ‘Come,’ said the lawyer, ‘I see you have some good reason, Poole; I see there is something seriously amiss. Try to tell me what it is.’ ‘I think there’s been foul play,’ said Poole, hoarsely. ‘Foul play!’ cried the lawyer, a good deal frightened and rather inclined to be irritated in consequence. ‘What foul play? What does the man mean?’ ‘I daren’t say, sir,’ was the answer; ‘but will you come along with me and see for yourself ?’ Mr Utterson’s only answer was to rise and get his hat and great coat; but he observed with wonder the greatness of the relief that appeared upon the butler’s face, and perhaps with no less, that the wine was still untasted when he set it down to follow.  dr jekyll and mr hyde It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and a flying wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture. The wind made talking difficult, and flecked the blood into the face. It seemed to have swept the streets unusually bare of passengers, besides; for Mr Utterson thought he had never seen that part of London so deserted. He could have wished it otherwise; never in his life had he been conscious of so sharp a wish to see and touch his fellow-creatures; for struggle as he might, there was borne in upon his mind a crushing anticipation of calamity. The square, when they got there, was all full of wind and dust, and the thin trees in the garden were lashing themselves along the railing. Poole, who had kept all the way a pace or two ahead, now pulled up in the middle of the pavement, and in spite of the biting weather, took off his hat and mopped his brow with a red pockethandkerchief. But for all the hurry of his coming, these were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the moisture of some strangling anguish; for his face was white and his voice, when he spoke, harsh and broken. ‘Well, sir,’ he said, ‘here we are, and God grant there be nothing wrong.’ ‘Amen, Poole,’ said the lawyer. Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the door was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, ‘Is that you, Poole?’ ‘It’s all right,’ said Poole. ‘Open the door.’ The hall, when they entered it, was brightly lighted up; the fire was built high; and about the hearth the whole of the servants, men and women, stood huddled together like a flock of sheep. At the sight of Mr Utterson, the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering; and the cook, crying out ‘Bless God! it’s Mr Utterson,’ ran forward as if to take him in her arms. ‘What, what? Are you all here?’ said the lawyer peevishly. ‘Very irregular, very unseemly; your master would be far from pleased.’ ‘They’re all afraid,’ said Poole. Blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted up her voice and now wept loudly. the last night  ‘Hold your tongue!’ Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent that testified to his own jangled nerves; and indeed, when the girl had so suddenly raised the note of her lamentation, they had all started and turned towards the inner door with faces of dreadful expectation. ‘And now,’ continued the butler, addressing the knife-boy, ‘reach me a candle, and we’ll get this through hands at once.’ And then he begged Mr Utterson to follow him, and led the way to the back garden. ‘Now, sir,’ said he, ‘you come as gently as you can. I want you to hear, and I don’t want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if by any chance he was to ask you in, don’t go.’ Mr Utterson’s nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance; but he re-collected his courage and followed the butler into the laboratory building and through the surgical theatre, with its lumber of crates and bottles, to the foot of the stair. Here Poole motioned him to stand on one side and listen; while he himself, setting down the candle and making a great and obvious call on his resolution, mounted the steps and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the red baize of the cabinet door. ‘Mr Utterson, sir, asking to see you,’ he called; and even as he did so, once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear. A voice answered from within: ‘Tell him I cannot see anyone,’ it said complainingly. ‘Thank you, sir,’ said Poole, with a note of something like triumph in his voice; and taking up his candle, he led Mr Utterson back across the yard and into the great kitchen, where the fire was out and the beetles were leaping on the floor. ‘Sir,’ he said, looking Mr Utterson in the eyes, ‘was that my master’s voice?’ ‘It seems much changed,’ replied the lawyer, very pale, but giving look for look. ‘Changed? Well, yes, I think so,’ said the butler. ‘Have I been twenty years in this man’s house, to be deceived about his voice? No, sir; master’s made away with – he was made away with, eight days ago, when we heard him cry out upon the name of God; and who’s in there instead of him, and why it stays there, is a thing that cries to Heaven, Mr Utterson!’  dr jekyll and mr hyde ‘This is a very strange tale, Poole; this is rather a wild tale, my man,’ said Mr Utterson, biting his finger. ‘Suppose it were as you suppose, supposing Dr Jekyll to have been – well, murdered, what could induce the murderer to stay? That won’t hold water; it doesn’t commend itself to reason.’ ‘Well, Mr Utterson, you are a hard man to satisfy, but I’ll do it yet,’ said Poole. ‘All this last week ( you must know) him, or it, or whatever it is that lives in that cabinet, has been crying night and day for some sort of medicine and cannot get it to his mind. It was sometimes his way – the master’s, that is – to write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair. We’ve had nothing else this week back; nothing but papers, and a closed door, and the very meals left there to be smuggled in when nobody was looking. Well, sir, every day, ay, and twice and thrice in the same day, there have been orders and complaints, and I have been sent flying to all the wholesale chemists in town. Every time I brought the stuff back, there would be another paper telling me to return it, because it was not pure, and another order to a different firm. This drug is wanted bitter bad, sir, whatever for.’ ‘Have you any of these papers?’ asked Mr Utterson. Poole felt in his pocket and handed out a crumpled note, which the lawyer, bending nearer to the candle, carefully examined. Its contents ran thus: ‘Dr Jekyll presents his compliments to Messrs Maw. He assures them that their last sample is impure and quite useless for his present purpose. In the year —, Dr J. purchased a somewhat large quantity from Messrs M. He now begs them to search with the most sedulous care, and should any of the same quality be left, to forward it to him at once. Expense is no consideration. The importance of this to Dr J. can hardly be exaggerated.’ So far the letter had run composedly enough, but here with a sudden splutter of the pen, the writer’s emotion had broken loose. ‘For God’s sake,’ he had added, ‘find me some of the old.’ ‘This is a strange note,’ said Mr Utterson; and then sharply, ‘How do you come to have it open?’ ‘The man at Maw’s was main angry, sir, and he threw it back to me like so much dirt,’ returned Poole. the last night 