My kinsman parted ways with me shortly after telling me his tale, and I continued my walk alone for some time before returning home. As I neared my house, it was well past dark and I stopped to wonder if the bright lamps in the windows had ever looked so welcoming.

My dinner was waiting for me, but as I ate I tasted nothing but the flavour of my thoughts. I chewed and swallowed like an automaton while I ran again and again through Mister Enfield's story.

As soon as the cloth was taken away, I rose and went to the study, breaking my Sunday night ritual which would normally have seen me in front of the fire with some uplifting tome which would better focus the holy thoughts which are right and proper on the Sabbath. Instead, in this night, I took a candle into my business-room and opened my safe. I reached in and pulled from it the document which had always troubled me since I took possession of it, but even more so since my talk that afternoon with my cousin. I sat down and once again read through the words that laid out the final wishes of Doctor Henry Jekyll M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., etc., and confirmed that the name Mister Enfield had spoken was correct. Indeed, I once again saw that in the case of his disappearance for more than three calendar months, all of my old friend's possessions were to be passed to a Mister Edward Hyde. Once again I tried to think of what dire situation my friend might be in that would make him so beholden to this man, and once again, my mind balked at the task.