Page:Stevenson - Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886).djvu/69

Rh 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to lighten this destiny, and that is to respect my silence,' Utterson was amazed; the dark influence of Hyde had been withdrawn, the doctor had returned to his old tasks and amities; a week ago, the prospect had smiled with every promise of a cheerful and an honoured age; and now in a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 dead friend. ' 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