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SEARCH FOR MR . HYDE That evening Mr . Utterson came home to his bachelor house in sombre spirits and sat down to dinner without relish . 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 . On this night however , as soon as the cloth was taken away , he took up a candle and went into his business room . There he opened his safe , took from the most private part of it a document endorsed on the envelope as Dr . Jekyll’s Will and sat down with a clouded brow to study its contents . 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 ; it provided not only that , in case of the decease of Henry Jekyll , M . D . , D . C . L . , L . L . D . , F . R . S . , etc . , all his possessions were to pass into the hands of his “ friend and benefactor 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 without further delay and free from any burthen or obligation beyond the payment of a few small sums to the members of the doctor’s household . This document had long been the lawyer’s eyesore . 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 . And hitherto it was his ignorance of Mr . Hyde that had swelled his indignation ; now , by a sudden turn , it was his knowledge . It was already bad enough when the name was but a name of which he could learn no more . It was worse when it began to be clothed upon with detestable attributes ; and out of the shifting , insubstantial mists that had so long baffled his eye , there leaped up the sudden , definite presentment of a fiend . “ 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 . ” With that he blew out his candle , put on a greatcoat , 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 . “ If anyone knows , it will be Lanyon , ” he had thought . 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 . This was a hearty , healthy , dapper , red - faced gentleman , with a shock of hair prematurely white , and a boisterous and decided manner . At sight of Mr . Utterson , he sprang up from his chair and welcomed him with both hands . The geniality , as was the way of the man , was somewhat theatrical to the eye ; but it reposed on genuine feeling . For these two were old friends , old mates both at school and college , both thorough respectors of themselves and of each other , and what does not always follow , men who thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company . After a little rambling talk , the lawyer led up to the subject which so disagreeably preoccupied his mind . “ I suppose , Lanyon , ” said he , “ you and I must be the two oldest friends that Henry Jekyll has ? ”
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