Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Chapter 1 Trampled Child
1.
MAKE TEN CONNECTIONS TO EXCERPT USING COMMENT
BOXES. LABEL THE COMMENT BOX
ÒCONNECTIONS.Ó
2. ASK FIVE QUESTIONS OF THE EXCERPT. Do this by typing the question in green next to the text.
3.
DEFINE THE VOCABULARY
WORDS. Type the definition in blue at the end of the line after the
inference.
4.
HIGHLIGHT THREE
QUOTES THAT REVEAL CHARACTERIZATION IN TURQOISE.
5. Type what is
revealed about the character in purple at the end of the line.
"Well,
it was this way," returned Mr. 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. 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 --
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. All at once, I saw two figures:
one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other
a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a
cross street. Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the
corner; 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. It sounds
nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. It wasn't like a man; it was like
some damned Juggernaut. I gave a few halloa, took to my heels, collared my gentleman, and brought him
back to where there was already quite a group about the screaming child. 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. 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. 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. 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.
But the doctor's case was what struck me. 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.
Well, sir, he was like the rest of us; every time he looked at my prisoner, I
saw that Sawbones turn sick and white with desire to kill him. I knew what was
in his mind, just as he knew what was in
mine; and killing being out of
the question, we did the next best. 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. If he had any friends or any credit, we undertook that he should
lose them. 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. I never saw a circle of such
hateful faces; and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of black
sneering coolness -- frightened to, I could see that -- but carrying it off,
sir, really like Satan. `If you choose to make capital out of this accident,'
said he, `I am naturally helpless. No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene,'
says he. `Name your figure.' Well, we screwed him up to a hundred pounds for
the child's family; 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. The
next thing was to get the money; and where do you think he carried us but to
that place with the door? -- 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 and signed with a name that I 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. The figure was stiff; but the signature was good for
more than that if it was only genuine. I took the liberty of pointing out to my
gentleman that the whole business looked apocryphal, and that a man does not, in
real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out with
another man's cheque for close upon a hundred pounds. But he was quite easy and
sneering. `Set your mind at rest,' says he, `I will stay with you till the
banks open and cash the cheque myself.' So we all set of, the doctor, and the
child's father, and our friend and myself, and passed the rest of the night in
my chambers;
and next day, when we had breakfasted, went in a body to the bank. 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.
"Tut-tut," said Mr. Utterson.
"I see you feel as I do," said Mr. Enfield.
"Yes, it's a bad story.
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. Black mail I suppose; an honest man paying through the nose for some
of the capers of his youth. Black Mail House is what I call the 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.
From this he was recalled by Mr. Utterson asking rather
suddenly: "And you don't know if the drawer of the cheque lives
there?"
"A likely place, isn't it?" returned Mr. Enfield.
"But I happen to have noticed his address; he lives in some square or
other."
"And you never asked about the -- place with the
door?" said Mr. Utterson.
"No, sir: I had a delicacy," was the reply. "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.
You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone 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. No sir, I
make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I
ask."
"A very good rule, too," said the lawyer.
"But I have studied the place for myself,"
continued Mr. 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. There are three windows looking on the court on the first
floor; none below; the windows are always shut but they're clean. And then
there is a chimney which is generally smoking; so somebody must live there. And
yet it's not so sure; for the buildings are so packed together about the court,
that it's hard to say where one ends and another begins."
The pair walked on again for a while in silence; and then
"Enfield," said Mr. Utterson, "that's a good rule of
yours."
"Yes, I think it
is," returned Enfield.
"But for all that," continued the lawyer, "there's one point I
want to ask: I want to ask the name of that man who walked over the
child."
"Well,"
said Mr. Enfield, "I can't see what harm it would do. It was a man of the
name of Hyde.Ó
"Hm," said
Mr. Utterson. "What sort of a man is he to see?"
"He is not easy
to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something
displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so
disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a
strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point. He's an
extraordinary looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way.
No, sir; I can make no hand of it; I can't describe him. And it's not want of
memory; for I declare I can see him this moment."
Mr. Utterson again walked some way in silence and obviously under a weight of
consideration. "You are sure he used a key?" he inquired at last.
"My dear sir ..." began Enfield, surprised out of
himself.
"Yes, I know," said Utterson; "I know it must
seem strange. The fact is, if I do not ask you the name of the other party, it
is because I know it already. You see, Richard, your tale has gone home. If you
have been inexact in any point you had better correct it."
"I think you might have warned me," returned the
other with a touch of sullenness. "But I have been pedantically exact, as
you call it. The fellow had a key; and what's more, he has it still. I saw him
use it not a week ago."
Mr. Utterson sighed deeply but said never a word; and the
young man presently resumed. "Here is another lesson to say nothing,"
said he. "I am ashamed of my long tongue. Let us make a bargain never to
refer to this again."
"With all my heart," said the lawyer. I shake hands
on that, Richard."