The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 05Stevenson, Robert Louis
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The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 05
Stevenson, Robert Louis
English literature -- 19th century; Fiction
Some two months before the murder of Sir Danvers, I had been out for one
of my adventures, had returned at a late hour, and woke the next day in
bed with somewhat odd sensations. It was in vain I looked about me; in
vain I saw the decent furniture and tall proportions of my room in the
square; in vain that I recognised the pattern of the bed-curtains and
the design of the mahogany frame; something still kept insisting that I
was not where I was, that I had not wakened where I seemed to be, but in
the little room in Soho where I was accustomed to sleep in the body of
Edward Hyde. I smiled to myself, and, in my psychological way, began
lazily to inquire into the elements of this illusion, occasionally, even
as I did so, dropping back into a comfortable morning doze. I was still
so engaged when, in one of my more wakeful moments, my eye fell upon my
hand. Now the hand of Henry Jekyll (as you have often remarked) was
professional in shape and size: it was large, firm, white, and comely.
But the hand which I now saw, clearly enough, in the yellow light of a
mid-London morning, lying half shut on the bed-clothes, was lean,
corded, knuckly, of a dusky pallor, and thickly shaded with a swart
growth of hair. It was the hand of Edward Hyde.
I must have stared upon it for near half a minute, sunk as I was in the
mere stupidity of wonder, before terror woke up in my breast as sudden
and startling as the crash of cymbals; and bounding from my bed, I
rushed to the mirror. At the sight that met my eyes my blood was changed
into something exquisitely thin and icy. Yes, I had gone to bed Henry
Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde. How was this to be explained? I
asked myself; and then, with another bound of terror--how was it to be
remedied? It was well on in the morning; the servants were up; all my
drugs were in the cabinet--a long journey, down two pairs of stairs,
through the back passage, across the open court and through the
anatomical theatre, from where I was then standing horror-struck. It
might indeed be possible to cover my face; but of what use was that,
when I was unable to conceal the alteration in my stature? And then,
with an overpowering sweetness of relief, it came back upon my mind that
the servants were already used to the coming and going of my second
self. I had soon dressed, as well as I was able, in clothes of my own
size: had soon passed through the house, where Bradshaw stared and drew
back at seeing Mr. Hyde at such an hour and in such a strange array; and
ten minutes later Dr. Jekyll had returned to his own shape, and was
sitting down, with a darkened brow, to make a feint of breakfasting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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