The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Story of the Door

"Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of rugged countenance, that was

never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse;

back ward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow

lovable. 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. He was austere with himself; and

thought he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one

for twenty years. 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. 'I incline to Cain's hersey,' he

used to say quaintly: 'I let my brother go to the devil in his own

way.' 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. And to such as these, as long as they

came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change

in his demeanour."