Chapter 1
Story of the DoorMr. 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 theater, had not crossed the
doors of one for twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for
others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy,
