Stevenson Robert Louis. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT, SAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, and AP English Test Preparation.STORY OF THE DOOR
MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was
never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward 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; drank
gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though 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 heresy," he used to say. "I let my brother go to the devil in
his quaintly: "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 downgoing
men. And to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers, he
never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.
No doubt the feat was easy to Mr. Utterson; for he was undemonstrative at
the best, and even his friendship seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of
good-nature. It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-