I could see from the way he looked at me that he could tell that I wanted to speak to him, and so I broached my topic before he could find some way to head me off.

'I have been wanting to speak to you, Jekyll,' I began. 'You know that will of yours?'

Doctor Jekyll's mouth pursed slightly as if the taste of the question was bitter to him, but his voice was light enough. 'My poor Utterson,' said he, 'you are unfortunate in such a client. I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my scientific heresies. Oh, I know he's a good fellow -- you needn't frown -- an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of him; but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant pedant. I was never more disappointed in any man than Lanyon.'

I was taken aback at this unprovoked attack on our mutual friend, but was not to be diverted from my subject. 'You know I never approved of it.'

'My will? Yes, certainly, I know that,' said the doctor, a trifle sharply. 'You have told me so.'

'Well, I tell you so again,' I continued, trying not to hector, but feeling the volume of my voice start to escape my control. 'I have been learning something of young Hyde.'