Men have before hired bravos to transact their crimes, while
their own person and reputation sat under shelter. I was the first
that ever did so for his pleasures. I was the first that could plod
in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a
moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring
headlong into the sea of liberty. But for me, in my impenetrable
mantle, the safely was complete. Think of it—I did not even exist!
Let me but escape into my laboratory door, give me but a second or
two to mix and swallow the draught that I had always standing
ready; and whatever he had done, Edward Hyde would pass away like
the stain of breath upon a mirror; and there in his stead, quietly
at home, trimming the midnight lamp in his study, a man who could
affor
