The perspiration poured down his facehis knees shook under himhis heart beat as though in some wild pulsation it would burst, but he passed on until he saw afar off the old Bridge of London. The route to Blackfriars he had by some chance avoided. Many, who for the last two miles of Tobias's progress, had seen him, had tried to stop him. They had called after him, but he had heeded them not. Some fast runners had pursued him for a short distance, and then given up the chase in despair. He reached the bridge. "Stop that boy!" cried a man, "he looks mad!" "Nono," shrieked Tobias, "I am not mad! I am not mad!" A man held out his arms to stop him, but Tobias dashed past him like a flash of lightning, and was off again. "Stop him!" cried twenty voices. "Stop thief!" shouted some who could not conceive that anybody was to be stopped on any other account. "No, no," gasped Tobias, as he flew onwards"not mad, not mad!" The Flight Of Tobias From Peckham MadHouse. The Flight Of Tobias From Peckham MadHouse. His feet failed him. He reeled a few more paces like a drunken man, and then fell heavily upon some stone steps, where he lay bathed in perspiration. Blood too gushed from his mouth. A gentleman's horse was standing at the door, and the man came out to mount him at that moment, and he saw the rapidly collecting crowd. With the reins of his steed in his hand, he pushed his way through the mob, saying "What is it? what is it?" "A mad boy, sir," said some. "Only look at him. Did you ever see the like. He looks as if he had run a hundred miles." "Good God!" cried the gentleman. "It is he! It is he!" "Who, sir? who, sir?" "A poor lad that I know, I will take charge of him. My name is Jeffery, I am Colonel Jeffery. A couple of guineas to any strong man who will carry him to the nearest surgeon's. Alas! poor boy, what a state is this to meet him in." It was quite astonishing the numbers of strong men that there were all of a sudden in the crowd, who were each anxious and willing to earn the colonel's two guineas. There was danger of a fight arising upon the subject, when one man, after knocking down two others and threatening the remainder, stepped up, and lifting Tobias as though he had been an infant, exclaimed "Ale does it! ale does it! Come on, my little 'un." All gave way before the gigantic proportions of no other than our old friend Big Ben the Beef Eater, who, as chance would have it, was upon the spot, and who, without a thought of the colonel's two guineas, only heard that a poor sick boy had to be carried to the nearest medical man. Tobias could not be in better hands than Ben's, for the latter carried him much more carefully than ever nursemaid carried a child out of sight of its mother. "Follow me," said Colonel Jeffery, as he saw in the distance a partycoloured lamp, which hung over a door appertaining to a chemist. "Follow, and I will reward you." "Doesn't want it," said Ben. "It's ale as does it." "What?" "Ale does it. Here you is. Come on." Colonel Jeffery was rather surprised at the droll customer he had picked up in the street, but provided he carried Tobias in safety, which bythebye he (the colonel) would not have scrupled to do himself, had he not been encumbered by his horse, it was all one to him, and that he saw Ben was effectually doing. Tobias had shown some slight symptoms of vitality before being lifted from the step of the door close to which he had fallen, but by the time they all reached the chemist's shop, he was in a complete state of insensibility. Of course the usual crowd that collects on such occasions followed them, and during the walk the colonel had time to think, and the result of those thoughts was, that it would be a most desirable thing to keep the knowledge to himself that Tobias was Tobias. He had, in order to awe the mob from any interference with him, announced who he was, but had not announced Tobias. At least if he had uttered his name, he felt certain that it was in an interjectional sort of way, and not calculated to awaken any suspicion. "I will keep it to myself," he thought, "that Tobias is in my possession, otherwise if such a fact should travel round to Sweeney Todd, there's no saying to what extent it might put that scoundrel upon his guard." By the time the colonel had arrived at this conclusion the whole party had reached the chemist's, and Big Ben walked in with Tobias, and placed him at once upon the top of a plateglass counter, which had upon it a large collection of trumpery scent bottles and wonderful specifics for everything, through which Tobias went with a crash. "There he is!" said Ben"ale does it." "Fire! murder! my glass case!" cried the chemist, "Oh, you monster!" "Ale does it. What do you mean, eh?" Big Ben backed a pace or two and went head and shoulders through a glass case of similar varieties that was against the wall. "Gracious bless the beasteses," said Ben, "is your house made of glass? What do you mean by it, eh? A fellow can't turn round here without going through something. You ought to be persecuted according to law, that you ought." Now this learned chemist had in the glass case against which Big Ben had tumbled a skeleton, which, from the stunning and terrible look it had in his shop, brought him many customers, and it was against this remnant of humanity that Big Ben's head met, after going through the glass as a preparatory step. By some means or another Ben caught his head under the skeleton's ribs, and the consequence was that out he hooked him from the glass case, and the first intimation Ben had of anything unusual, consisted of seeing a pair of bony legs dangling down on each side of him. So unexpected a phenomenon gave Ben what he called a "blessed turn," and out he bounced from the shop, carrying the skeleton for all the world like what is called pickaback, for the wires that supplied the place of cartilages held it erect, and so awful a sight surely was never seen in the streets of London as Big Ben with a skeleton upon his back. People fled beforesome turned in at shop doors; and an old lady with a large umbrella and a pair of gigantic pattens went clean through a silversmith's window. But we must leave Ben and the skeleton to get on as well as they can en route to the Tower, while we turn our attention to Tobias. "Are you a surgeon?" cried Colonel Jeffery. "Aa surgeon? No, I'm only a druggist; but is that any reason why a second Goliath should come into my shop and destroy everything?" Colonel Jeffery did not wait for anything more, but snatching Tobias from the remnants of the plate glass, he ran to the door with him, and handing him to the first person he saw there, he cried "When I am mounted give me the boy." "Yes, sir." He sprang upon his horse; Tobias was handed to him like a bale of goods, and laying him comfortably as he could upon the saddle before him, off set the colonel at a good round trot through Finsbury to his own house. Colonel Jeffery had no sort of intention that the chemist should be a sufferer, but in his hurry to be off with Tobias, and speedily get medical advice for him, he forgot to say so, and accordingly there stood the man of physic then fairly bewildered by the events of the last few moments, during which his stock in trade had been materially damaged and a valuable amount of glass broken, to say nothing of the singular and most unexpected abduction of his friend the skeleton. "Here's a pretty day's work!" he said. "Here's a pretty day's work! More mischief done than enough, and the worst of it is, my wife will hear of it, and then there will be a deal of peace in the house. Oh, dearoh, dearwas there ever such an unfortI knew it" A good rap upon his head from a pair of bellows wielded by a little meagrefaced woman, that he was big enough to have swallowed, confined his words. While all this was going on, Colonel Jeffery had ridden fast, and passing through Finsbury and up the Cityroad, had reached his house in the fashionablebut now quite the reverse, as the man says in the playdistrict of Pentonville. "This is a prize," thought the colonel, "worth the taking. It will go hard with me but I will extract from this boy all that he knows of Sweeney Todd, and we shall see how far that knowledge will go towards the confirmation of my suspicions regarding him." He carried Tobias himself to a comfortable bedroom, and immediately sent for a medical practitioner of good repute in the neighbourhood, who happening fortunately to be at home, obeyed the summons immediately. He sent likewise for his friend the captain, whom he knew would be overjoyed to hear of what he would call the capture of Tobias Ragg. The medical man made his appearance first, as being much closer at hand, and the colonel led him to the apartment of the invalid boy, saying to him as he went "I know nothing of what is the matter with this ladI have been very anxious to see him on account of certain information that he possesses, and only found him this morning upon a door step in the street, in the state you see him." "Is he very ill?" "I am afraid he is." The medical man followed the colonel to the room in which poor Tobias lay, and after gazing upon him for a few moments, and opening with his fingers the closed eyelids of Tobias, he shook his head. "I wish I knew," he said, "what has produced this state. Can you not inform me, sir?" "Indeed I cannot, but I suspect that the boy's imagination has been cruelly acted upon by a man, whom you will excuse me from naming just at present, but whom I sincerely hope to bring to justice shortly." "The boy's brain, no doubt, is in a bad condition. I do not take upon myself to say that, as an organ, it is diseased, but fractionally it is damaged. However, we must do the best we can to recover him from this condition of collapse in which he is." "Can you form any opinion as to his probable recovery?" "Indeed I cannot, but he is young, and youth is a great thing. The best that can be done shall be done." "I thank you. Spare nothing for the lad, and pay him every attention, as though he were a son or a brother of my own; I long to hear him speak, and to convince him that he is really among friends, who are not only willing to protect him, but have likewise the power to do so." The medical man bowed, as he said "May I ask his name, sir?" He had his tablets in his hand ready to book the name of Tobias, but the colonel was so very much afraid that Sweeney Todd might by some means learn that Tobias was in his house, and so take an alarm, that he would not trust even the medical man, who, no doubt, had no other motive in asking the name than merely to place it in his list of calls. "Smith," said the colonel. The medical man gave a short dry sort of cough, as he wrote "Master Smith" upon his tablets, and then promising to return in half an hour, he took his leave. At the expiration of half an hour Tobias was put under a course of treatment. His head was shaved, and a blister clapped upon the back of his neck. The room was darkened, and strict quiet was enjoined. "As soon as he betrays any signs of consciousness, pray send for me, sir," said the surgeon. "Certainly." In the course of the day the captain made his appearance, and Colonel Jeffery detailed to him all that had taken place, only lamenting that, after so happily getting possession of Tobias, he should be in so sorry a condition. The captain expressed a wish to see him, and they both went to the chamber, where a woman had been hired to sit with Tobias, in order to give the first intimation of his stirring. Of course, as it was her duty, and what she was specially hired for, to keep wide awake, she was fast asleep, and snoring loud enough to awaken any one much worse than poor Tobias. But that was to to be expected. "Oh," said the captain, "this is a professional nurse." "A professional devil!" said the colonel. "How did you know that?" "By her dropping off so comfortably to sleep, and her utter neglect of her charge. I never knew one that did not do so, and, in good truth, I am inclined to think it is the very best thing they can do, for if they are not asleep they are obnoxiously awake." The colonel took a pin from his cravat, and rather roughly inserted its point into the fat arm of the nurse. She started up, exclaiming "Drat the fleas, can't a mortal sleep in peace for them?" "Madam," said the colonel, "how much is owing to you for sleeping here a few hours?" "Lord bless me, sir, is this you? The poor soul has never so much as stirred. How my heart bleeds continually for him, to be sure. Ah, dear me, we are all born like sparks, and keep continually flying upward, as the psalm says." "How much do I owe you?" "Here today, and gone tomorrow. Bless his innocent face." The colonel rung the bell, and a strapping footman made his appearance. "You will see this woman to the door, John," he said, "and pay her for being here about three hours." "Why, you mangy skinflint," cried the woman. "What do you" She was cut short in her vituperative eloquence by John, who handed her down stairs with such dispatch that a pint bottle of gin rolled out of her pocket and was smashed, filling the house with an odour that was quite unmistakeable. "What do you propose to do?" said the captain. "Why, as we have dined, if you have no objection we will sit here and keep this poor benighted one company for awhile. He is better with no one than such as she whom I have dislodged; but before night he shall have a more tender and less professional nurse. You know more of the world, after all, than I do, captain." CHAPTER XXII. TOBIAS HAS A MIND DISEASED. With a bottle of claret upon the table between them, Colonel Jeffery and his old friend sat over the fire in the bedroom devoted to the use of poor Tobias Ragg. Alas! poor boy, kindness and wealth that now surrounded him came late in the day. Before he first crossed the threshold of Sweeney Todd's odious abode, what human heart could have more acutely felt genuine kindness than Tobias's, but his destiny had been an evil one. Guilt has its victims, and Tobias was in all senses one of the victims of Sweeney Todd. "I am sufficiently, perhaps superstitious, you will call it," said Colonel Jeffery in a low tone of voice, "to think that my meeting with this boy was not altogether accidental." "Indeed?" "No. Many things have happened to me during lifealthough I admit that they may be all accounted for as natural coincidences, curious only at the best but still suggestive of something very different, and make me at times a convert to the belief in an interfering special Providence, and this is one of them." "It is a dangerous doctrine, my friend." "Think you so?" "Yes. It is much better and much safer both for the judgment and imagination to account naturally for all those things which admit of a natural explanation, than to fall back upon a special Providence, and fancy that it is continually interfering with the great and immutable laws that govern the world. I do notmark medeny such a thing, but I would not be hasty in asserting it. No man's experience can have been without numerous instances such as you mention." "Certainly not." "Then I should say to you, as St. Paul said to the Athenians'In all things I find you superstitious.' What's that?" A faint moan had come upon both their ears, and after listening for a few moments another made itself heard, and they fancied, by the direction of the sound, that Tobias's lips must have uttered it. Placing his finger against his mouth to indicate silence, the colonel stepped up to the bedside, and hiding behind the curtains, he said, in the softest and kindest voice he could assume "Tobias! Tobias! fear nothing now you are with friends, Tobias; and, above all, you are perfectly free from the power of Sweeney Todd." "I am not mad! I am not mad!" shouted Tobias with a shrill vehemence that made both the colonel and his friend start. "Nay, who says you are mad, Tobias? We know you are not mad, my lad. Don't alarm yourself about that, we know you are not mad." "Mercy! mercy! I will say nothingnothing. How fiendlike he looks. Oh, Mr. Todd, spare me, and I will go far, far away, and die somewhere else, but do not kill me now, I am yet suchsuch a boy only, and my poor father is deaddeaddead!" "Ring the bell," said Jeffery to his friend, "and tell John to go for Mr. Chisolm, the surgeon. Comecome, Tobias, you still fancy you are under the power of Todd, but it is not soyou are quite safe here." "Hush! hush! motheroh, where are you, motherdid you leave me here, mother? Say you took, in a moment of thoughtlessness, the silver candlestick! Is Todd to be a devil, because you were thoughtless once? Hide me from himhide mehide! hide! I am not mad. Hark! I hear himonetwothreefourfivesix steps, and all Todd's. Each one leaves blood in its track. Look at him now! His face changes'tis a fox'sa serpent'shideoushideousGodGod! I am madmadmad!" The boy dashed his head from side to side, and would have flung himself from the bed had not Colonel Jeffery advanced and held him. "Poor fellow," he said, "this is very shocking. Tobias! Tobias!" "Hush! I hearpoor thing, did they say you was mad too?Hide me in the straw! Theretherewhat a strange thing it is for all the air to be so full of blood. Do we breathe blood, and only fancy it air? Hush! not a wordhe comes with a serpent's faceoh, tell me why does God let such beings ever riot upon the beautiful earthonetwothreefourfivesixHisshiss! Offoff! I am not madnot mad. Ha! ha! ha!" An appalling shriek concluded this paroxysm, and for a few moments Tobias was still. The medical man at this time entered the room. "Oh," he said, "we have roused him up again, have we." Medical men are rather fond of the plural identifying style of talking. "Yes," said Colonel Jeffery, "but he had better have slept the sleep of death than have awakened to be what he is, poor fellow." "A littleeh?" The doctor tapped his forehead. "Not a little." "Far away over the sea!" said Tobias, "oh, yesin any ship, only do not kill me, Mr. Toddlet me go and I will say nothing, I will work and send my poor mother hardearned gold, and your name shall never pass our lips. Oh, nonono, do not say that I am mad. Do you see these tears? I haveI have not cried so since my poor father called me to him and held me in a last embrace of his wasted arms, saying, 'Tobias, my darling, I am goinggoing far from you. God's blessing be upon you, poor child.' I thought my heart would break then, but it did not, I saw him put from the face of the living into the grave, and I did not quite break my heart then, but it is brokenbroken now! Mad! mad! oh, no, not madnono, but the lastbut the last. I tell you, sir, that I amamam not mad. Why do you look at me, I am not madonetwothreefourfivesix. GodGodGod! I am madmad. Ha! ha! ha! There they come, all the serpents, and Todd is their king. How the shadows fly aboutthey shrinkI cannot shrink. Help! God! God! God!" "This is horrible," said Colonel Jeffery. "It is appalling, from the lips of one so young," said the captain. The medical man rubbed his hands together as he said "Why, ahem! it certainly is strangely indicative of a considerable amount of mental derangement, but we shall be able, I dare say, to subdue that. I think, if he could be persuaded to swallow a little draught I have here, it would be beneficial, and allay this irritation, which is partly nervous." "There cannot be much difficulty," said the colonel, "in making him swallow anything, I should think." "Let us try." They held Tobias up while the doctor poured the contents of a small phial into his mouth. Nature preferred performing the office of deglutition to choking, and it was taken. The effect of the opiate was rapid, and after some inarticulate moans and vain attempts to spring from the bed, a deep sleep came over poor Tobias. "Now, gentlemen," said Mr. Chisolm, "I beg to inform you that this is a bad case." "I feared as much." "A very bad case. Some very serious shock indeed has been given to the lad's brain, and if he at all recovers from it, he will be a long time doing so. I do not think those violent paroxysms will continue, but they may leave a kind of fatuity behind them which may be exceedingly difficult to grapple with." "In that case, he will not be able to give me the information I desire, and all I can do is to take care that he is kindly treated somewhere, poor lad. Poor fellow, his has been a hard lot. He evidently has a mind of uncommon sensibility, as is manifest from his ravings." "Yes, and that makes the case worse. However, we must hope for the best, and I will call again in the morning." "Will he awake soon?" "Not for six or eight hours at least, and when he does, it is very unlikely that those paroxysms will again ensue. He will be quiet enough." "Then it will be scarcely necessary, during that time, to watch him, poor fellow?" "Not at all. Of course, when he awakens it will be very desirable that some one should be here to speak to him; for, finding himself in a strange place, he will otherwise naturally be terrified." All this was promised by the colonel, and the medical man left the house, evidently with very slender hopes in his own mind of the recovery of Tobias. The colonel and his friend retired to another room, and then, after a consultation, they agreed that it was highly proper they should inform Sir Richard Blunt of what had taken place, for although poor Tobias was in no present condition to give any information, yet his capture, if it might be called by such a term, was so important an event that it would be unpardonable to keep it from the magistrate. They accordingly went together to his house, and luckily finding him at home, they at once communicated to him their errand. He listened to them with the most profound attention, and when they had concluded, he said "Gentlemen, it will be everything, if this lad recovers sufficiently to be a witness against his rascal of a master, for that is just what we want. However, from the account you give me of him, I am very much afraid the poor fellow's mind is too severely affected." "That, too, is our fear." "Well, we must do the best we can, and I should advise that when he awakens some one should be by him with whose voice, as a friendly sound, he will be familiar." "Who can we get?" "His poor mother." "Ah, yes, I will set about that at once." "Leave it to me," said Sir Richard Blunt, "leave that to meI know where to find Mrs. Ragg, and what's best to say to her in the case. Let me see, in about four hours from now probably Tobias may be upon the point of recovery." "Most probably." "Then, sir, expect me at your house in that time with Mrs. Ragg. I will take care that the old lady's mind is put completely at ease, so that she will aid us in any respect to bring about the recovery of her son, who no doubt has suffered severely from some plan of Todd's to put him out of the way. That seems to me to be the most likely solution to the mystery of his present condition." "Todd, I am convinced," said Colonel Jeffery, "would stop at no villany." "Certainly not. My own belief is, that he is so steeped to the lips in crime, that he sees no other mode of covering his misdeeds already done than by the commission of new ones. But his career is nearly at an end, gentlemen." The colonel and the captain took the rising of the magistrate from his chair as a polite hint that he had something else to do than to gossip with them any longer, and they took their leave, after expressing again to him how much they appreciated his exertions. "If the mystery of the fate of my unhappy friend," said the colonel, "is ever cleared up, it will be by your exertion, Sir Richard, and he and I, and society at large, will owe to you a heavy debt of gratitude for unmasking so horrible a villain as Sweeney Todd, for that he is such no one can doubt." CHAPTER XXXIII. JOHANNA WALKS ABROAD IN DISGUISE. But, amid all the trials, and perplexities, and anxieties that beset the dramatis person of our story, who suffered like Johanna? What heart bled as hers bled? What heart heaved with sad emotion as hers heaved? Alas! poor Johanna, let the fate of Mark Ingestrie be what it might, he could not feel the pangs that tore thy gentle heart. Truly might she have said "Man's love is of his life a thing apart 'Tis woman's whole existence," for she felt that her joyher life itself, was bartered for the remembrance of how she had been loved by him whose fate was involved in one of the most painful and most inscrutable of mysteries. Where could she seek for consolation, where for hope? The horizon of her young life seemed ever darkening, and the more she gazed upon it with the fond hope of singing "The first faint star of coming joy," the more confounded her gentle spirit became by the blackness of despair. It is sad indeed that the young, the good, and the gentle, should be the grand sufferers in this world, but so it is. The exquisite capacity to feel acutely is certain to find ample food for agony. If human nature could wrap itself up in the chill mantle of selfishness, and be perfectly insensible to all human feeling, it might escape, but such cannot be done by those who, like the fine and nobleminded Johanna Oakley, sympathise with all that is beautiful and great in creation. Already the pangs of hope deferred were feeding upon the damask of her cheeks. The lily had usurped the rose, and although still exquisitely beautiful, it was the pale beauty of a statue that she began to show to those who loved her. In the street people would turn to gaze after her with admiration blended with pity. They already looked upon her as half an angel, for already it seemed as though she had shaken off much of her earthly lurements, and was hastening to "Rejoin the stars." The Schoolfellows, Johanna And Arabella. The Schoolfellows, Johanna And Arabella. Let us look at her as she lies weeping upon the breast of her friend Arabella Wilmot. The tears of the two young girls are mingling together, but the one is playing the part of comforter, while the other mourns over much. "Now, Johanna," sobbed Arabella, "you talk of doing something to save Mark Ingestrie, if he be living, or to bring to justice the man whom you suspect to be his murderer. Let me ask you what you can hope to do, if you give way to such an amount of distress as this?" "Nothingnothing." "And are you really to do nothing? Have you not agreed, Johanna, to make an attempt, in the character of a boy, to find out the secret of Ingestrie's disappearance, and have not I provided for you all that you require to support the character? Courage, courage, courage.Oh, I could tell you such stories of fine ladies dressing as pages, and following gallant knights to the field of battle, that you would feel as though you could go through anything." "But the age of chivalry is gone." "Yes, and whybecause folks will not be chivalric. To those who will, the age of chivalry comes back again in all its glory." "Listen to me, Arabella if I really thought that Mark was no more, and lost to me for ever, I could lie down and die, leaving to Heaven the punishment of those who have taken his life, but in the midst of all my griefin the moments of my deepest depression, the thought clings to me, that he lives yet. I do not know how it is, but the thought of Mark Ingestrie dead, is but a vague one, compared to the thought of Mark Ingestrie suffering." "Indeed?" "Yes, and at times it seems as if a voice whispered to me, that he was yet to be saved, if there existed a heart fair enough and loving enough in its strength to undertake the task. It is for that reason, and not from any romantic love of adventure, or hope of visiting with punishment a bad man, that my imagination clings to the idea of going in boy's apparel to Fleetstreet, to watch, and perchance to enter that house to which he last went, and from which, according to all evidence, he never emerged." "And you are really bold enough?" "I hope soI think, if I am not, God will help me." A sob that followed these words, sufficiently testified how much in need of God's help poor Johanna was, but after a few minutes she succeeded in recovering herself from her emotion, and she said more cheerfully "Come, Arabella, we talked of a rehearsal of my part; but I shall be more at ease when I go to act it in reality, and with danger. I shall be able to comport myself well, with only you for a companion, and such chance passengers as the streets of the city may afford for my audience." "I am glad," said Arabella, "that you keep in this mind. Now come and dress yourself, and we will go out together. You will be taken for my brother, you know." In the course of a quarter of an hour, Johanna presented the appearance of as goodlooking a lad of about fourteen as the world ever saw, and if she could but have imparted a little more confidence and boyish bustle to her gait and manner, she would have passed muster under the most vigilant scrutiny. But as it was, nothing could be more unlikely than that any one should penetrate her disguise, for what is not suspected, is seldom seen very readily. "You will do capitally," said Arabella, "I must take your arm, you know. We will not go far." "Only to Fleet Street." "Fleet Street. You surely will not go so far as that?" "Yes, Arabella. Now that I have attired myself in these garments for a special purpose, let me do a something towards the carrying it out. By walking that distance I shall accustom myself to the road; and, moreover, a dreadful kind of fascination drags me to that man's shop." Arabella, if the truth must be told, shook a little as they, after watching an opportunity, emerged into the street, for although the spirit of romantic adventure had induced her to give the advice to Johanna that she had, her own natural feminine sensibilities shrunk from the carrying of it out. Ashamed, however, of being the first to condemn her own suggestion, she took the arm of Johanna, and those two young creatures were in the tide of human life that ebbs and flows in the great city. The modest walk and gentle demeanour of the seeming young boy won Johanna many a passing glance as she and Arabella proceeded down Ludgate Hill towards Fleet Street, but it was quite clear that no one suspected the disguise which, to do Arabella justice, in its general arrangement was very perfect, and as Johanna wore a cap, which concealed much of the upper part of her face, and into which was gathered all her hair, she might have really deceived those who were the most intimate with her, so that it was no wonder she passed unobserved with mere strangers. In this way, then, they reached Fleet Street without obstruction, and Johanna's heart beat rapidly as they approached the shop of Sweeney Todd. "It will be imprudent to stop for even a moment at his door or window," said Arabella, "for, remember, you have no opportunity of varying your disguise." "I will not stop. We will pass rapidly on, butbut it is something to look upon the doorstep over which the shadow of Mark has last passed." In another moment they were on a level with the shop. Johanna cast a glance at the window, and then shrunk back with affright as she saw, occupying one of the upper panes of glass, the hideous face of Todd. He was not looking at her though, for with an awful squint that revealed all the whites of his eyeswe were going to say, but the dirty yellows would have been much nearer the truthhe seemed to be observing something up the street. "Come oncome on," whispered Johanna. Arabella had not happened to observe this apparition of Todd in the window, and she looked round to see what occasioned Johanna's sudden terror, when a young Temple clerk, who chanced to be a few paces behind them, immediately, with the modesty peculiar to his class, imagined the glance of the blooming girl to be a tribute to his attractions.


He kissed the end of a faded glove, and put on what he considered a firstclass fascinating aspect. Johanna's Alarm At The Sight Of Sweeney Todd. Johanna's Alarm At The Sight Of Sweeney Todd. "Come oncome on," said Arabella now in her turn. Johanna, of course, thought that Arabella too had caught sight of the hideous and revolting countenance of Sweeney Todd, and so they both hastened on together. "Don't look back," said Arabella. "Is he following?" "Oh, yesyes." Johanna thought she meant Todd, while Arabella really meant the Temple gent, but, notwithstanding the mutual mistake, they hurried on, and the clerk taking that as quite sufficient encouragement, pursued them, putting his cravat to rights as he did so, in order that when he came up to them, he should present the most fascinating aspect possible. "Nono." said Johanna, as she glanced behind. "You must have been mistaken, Arabella. He is not pursuing us." "Oh, I am so glad." Arabella looked back, and the Temple gent kissed his dilapidated glove. "Oh, Johanna," she said, "how could you tell me he was not following, when there he is." "What, Todd?" "No. That impertinent ugly puppy with the soiled cravat." "And you meant him?" "To be sure." "Oh, what a relief, I was flying on, fancying that Todd was in pursuit of us, and yet my judgment ought at once to have told me that that could not be the case, knowing nothing of us. How our fears overcome all reason. Do you know that strangelooking young man?" "Know him? Not I." "Well, my darling," said the gent, reaching to within a couple of paces of Arabella, "how do you do today?ahem! Are you going far? Ain't you afraid that somebody will run away with such a pretty gal as you'pon soul, you are a charmer." "Cross," whispered Arabella, and the two young girls at once crossed Fleet Street. It was not then so difficult an operation to get from one side of that thoroughfare to the other as it is now. The gent was by no means disconcerted at this evident wish to get out of his way, but he crossed likewise, and commenced a series of persecution, which such animals call gallantry, and which, to any respectable young female, are specially revolting. "Now, my dear," he said, "St. Dunstan's is just going to strike the hour, and you will see the clubs hit the bells if you look, and I shall expect a kiss when it's all over." "You are impertinent," said Johanna. "Come, that's a good jokewhy, you little whipper snapper, I suppose you came out to take care of your sister. Here's a penny to go and buy yourself a cold pie at Mrs. Lovett's. I'll see to your sister while you are gone. Oh, you need not look so wild about it. Did you never hear of a gent talking to a pretty gal in the street?" "Often," said Johanna, "but I never heard of a gentleman doing so." "Upon my word, you are as sharp as a needle, so I'll just pull your ears to teach you better manners, you young rascalcomecome, it's no use your kicking." "Helphelp!" cried Arabella. They were now just opposite the principal entrance to the Temple, and as Arabella cried "help," who should emerge from under the gateway but Ben the Beef Eater. The fact is, that he was on his way to the Tower just previous to the meeting with Colonel Jeffery and Tobias. Arabella, who had twice or thrice seen him at the Oakley's, knew him at once. "Oh, sir," she cried, "I am Johanna's friend, Miss Wilmot, and thisthis gent won't leave me and my cousin here alone." The gent made an effort to escape, but Ben caught him by the hinder part of his apparel, and held him tight. "Is this him?" "Yesyes." "Oh dear nooh dear no, my good sir. It's that fellow there, with the white hat. There he goes, up Chancery Lane. My dear sir, you are quite mistaken; I wanted to protect the young lady, and as for the lad, bless his heart. Ioh dear, it wasn't me." Still holding the gent by the first grasp he had taken of him, Ben suddenly crossed the road to where a parish pump stood, at the corner of Bell Yard, and holding him under the spout with one hand, he worked the handle with the other, despite the shrieks and groans of his victim, who in a few moments was rendered so limp and wet, that when Ben let him go, he fell into the sink below the pump, and there lay, until some small boys began pelting him. During the confusion and laughter of the bystanders, Arabella and Johanna rapidly retreated towards the City again, for they thought Ben might insist upon escorting them, and that, in such a case, it was possible enough the disguise of Johanna, good as it was, might not suffice to save her from the knowledge of one so well acquainted with her. "Let us cross, Arabella," she said. "Let us cross, if it be but for one moment, to hear what the subject of the conversation between Todd and that man is." "If you wish it, Johanna." "I do, I do." They crossed, and once again passed the shop of Todd, when they heard the man say "Well, if he has gone he has gone, but I think it is the strangest thing I ever heard of." "So do I," said Todd. Without lingering, and so perhaps exciting Todd's attention and suspicion, they could hear no more, but Johanna had heard enough to give the spur to imagination, and when they had again crossed Fleetstreet, and were making their way rapidly up Ludgatehill, she whispered to Arabella "Another! another!" "Another what, Johanna? You terrify me by that tone. Oh, be calm. Be calm, I pray you. Some one will observe your agitation." "Another victim," continued Johanna. "Another victimanother victim. Did you not hear what the man said? Was it not suggestive of another murder? Oh, Heaven preserve my reason, for each day, each hour, brings to me such accumulating proof of horrors, that I fear I shall go mad." "Hush! hush! JohannaJohanna!" "My poor, poor Mark" "Remember that you are in the street, Johanna, and for my sake, I pray you to be calm. Those tears and that flushed cheek will betray you. Oh, why did I ever advise you to come upon such an enterprise as this? It is my fault, all my fault." The terror and the selfaccusation of Arabella Wilmot did more to bring Johanna to a reasonable state than anything else, and she made an effort to overcome her feelings, saying "Forgive meforgive me, my dear friendI, only, am to blame. But at the moment I was overcome by the thought that, in the heart of London, such a system of coldblooded murder" She was unable to proceed, and Arabella, holding her arm tightly within her own, said "Do not attempt to say another word until we get home. There, in my chamber, you can give free vent to your feelings, but let the danger, as well as the impropriety of doing so in the open street, be present to your mind. Say no more now, I implore you; say no more." This was prudent advice, and Johanna had sufficient command of herself to take it, for she uttered not one other word until they were both almost breathless with the haste they had made to Arabella's chamber. Then, being no longer under the restraint of locality or circumstances, the tears of Johanna burst forth, and she wept abundantly. Arabella's romantic reading did sometimes, as it would appear, stand her in good stead, and upon this occasion she did not attempt to stem the torrent of grief that was making its way from the eyes of her fair young friend. She told herself that with those tears a load of oppressive grief would be washed from Johanna's spirit, and the result fully justified her prognostications. The tears subsided into sobs, and the sobs to sighs. "Ah, my dear friend," she said, "how much have you to put up with from me. What a world of trouble I am to you." "No," said Arabella, "that you are not, Johanna; I am only troubled when I see you overcome with too excessive grief, and then, I confess, my heart is heavy." "It shall not be so again. Forgive me this once, dear Arabella." Johanna flung herself into her friend's arms, and while they kissed each other, and Arabella was about commencing a hopeful kind of speech, a servant girl, with open mouth and eyes, looked into the room, transfixed with amazement. "Well, Miss Bella," she cried at last, "you is fond of boys!" Arabella started, and so did Johanna. "Is that you, Susan?" "Yes, Miss Bella, it is me. Well I never! The idea! I shall never get the better of this here! Only to think of you, Miss Bella, having a boy at your time of life." "What do you mean, Susan? How dare you use such language to me? Get you gone!" "Oh, yes, I'm agoing in course; but if I had anybody in the house, it shouldn't be a little impudent looking boy with no whiskers." "She must know all," whispered Johanna. "No, no," said Arabella, "I will not, feeling my innocence, be forced into making a confidant of a servant. Let her go." "But she will speak." "Let her speak." Susan left the room, and went direct to the kitchen, holding up her hands all the way, and giving free expression to her feelings as she did so "Well, the idea now, of a little stumpy looking boy, when there's sich a lot of nice young men with whiskers to be had just for the wagging of one's little finger. Only to think of it. Sitting in her lap too, and them a kissing one another likelikecoach horses. Well I never. Now there's Lines's, the cheesemonger's, young man as I has in of a night, he is somebody, and such loves of whiskers I never seed in my born days afore; but I is surprised at Miss Bella, that I isa shrimp of a boy in her lap! Oh dear, oh dear!" CHAPTER XXXIV. MR. FOGG FINDS THAT ALL IS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERS. We feel that we ought not entirely to take leave of that unfortunate, who failed in escaping with Tobias Ragg, from Mr. Fogg's establishment at Peckham, without a passing notice. It will be recollected that Tobias had enough to do to get away himself, and that he was in such a state of mind that it was quite a matter of new mechanical movement of his limbs that enabled him to fly from the madhouse. Horror of the place, and dread of the people who called it theirs, had lighted up the glare of a partial insanity in his brain, and he flew to London, we admit, without casting another thought upon the wretched creature who had fallen in the attempt to free herself from those fiends in human shape who made a frightful speculation in the misery of their fellow creatures. The alarm was already spread in the madhouse, and Mr. Fogg himself arrived at the spot where the poor creature lay stunned and wounded by her fall. "Watson! Watson!" he cried. "Here," said that official, as he presented himself. "Take this carcase up, Watson. I'm afraid Todd's boy is gone." "Ha! ha!" "Why do you laugh?" "Why where's the odds if he has. I tell you what it is, Fogg, I haven't been here so long without knowing what's what. If that boy ever recovers his senses enough to tell a rational tale, I'll eat him. However, I'll soon go and hunt him up. We'll have him again." "Well, Watson, you give me hopes, for you have upon two different occasions brought back runaways. Bring the woman in andand, Watson? "Aye, aye." "I think I would put her in No. 10." "Ho! ho!No. 10. Then she's booked. Well, well, come on Fogg, come on, it's all one. I suppose the story will be 'An attempt to escape owing to too much indulgence;' and some hints consequent on that, and then brought back to her own warm comfortable bed, where she went asleep so comfortably that we all thought she was as happy as an Emperor, and then" "She never woke again," put in Fogg. "But in this case you are wrong, Watson. It is true that twice or thrice I have thought, for the look of the thing, it would be desirable to have an inquest upon somebody, but in this case I will not. The well is not full!" "Full?" "No, I say the well is not full, Watson; and it tells no tales." "It would hold a hundred bodies one upon another yet," said Watson, "and tell no tales. Ha! ha!" "Good!" "It is good. She is to go there, is she? well, so be it." Watson carried the miserable female in his arms to the house. "Bythebye, it is a second thought," he said, "about No. 10." "Yes, yes, there's no occasion. Watson, could you not at onceeh? It is a good hour. Could you not go right through the house, my good Watson, and at onceeh?" "At once what?" "Oh, you know. Ha! ha! You are not the dull fellow at comprehending a meaning you would fain make out; but you, Watsonyou understand me well enough, you know you do. We understand each other, and always shall." "I hope so, but if you want anything done I'll trouble you to speak out. What do you mean by 'couldn't you go through the house at onceeh?'" "Pho! pho! Put her down the well at once. Humanity calls upon us to do it. Why should she awaken to a sense of her disappointment, Watson? Put her down at once, and she will never awaken at all to a sense of anything." "Very well. Come on, business is business." "Youyou don't want me?" "Don't I," said Watson, bending his shaggy brows upon him, and looking extra hideous on account of a large black patch over one eye, which he bore as a relict of his encounter with Tobias. "Don't I? Hark you, Fogg; if you won't come and help me to do it, you shall have it to do by yourself, without me at all." "Whywhy, Watson, Watson. This language" "Is nothing new, Fogg." "Well, well, come on.Come onif it must be so, it must.II will hold a lantern for you, of course; and you know, Watson, I make things easy to you, in the shape of salary, and all that sort of thing." Watson made no reply to all this, but went through the house to the back part of the grounds, carrying with him his insensible burthen, and Fogg followed him, trembling in every limb. The fact was, that he, Fogg, had not for some time had a refresher in the shape of some brandy. The old deserted well to which they were bound was at a distance of about fifty yards from the back of the house; towards it the athletic Watson hastened with speed, closely followed by Fogg, who was truly one of those who did not mind holding a candle to the devil. The walls of that building were high, and it was not likely that any intruder from the outside could see what was going on, so Watson took no precaution.The well was reached, and Fogg cried to him "Nownowquick about it, lest she recovers." Another moment and she would have been gone in her insensibility, but as if Fogg's words were prophetic, she did recover, and clinging convulsively to Watson, she shrieked "Mercy! mercy! Oh, have mercy upon me! Help! help!" "Ah, she recovers!" cried Fogg, "I was afraid of that. Throw her in. Throw her in, Watson." "Confound her!" "Why don't you throw her in?" The Murder At The Well By Fogg And Watson. The Murder At The Well By Fogg And Watson. "She clings to me like a vice. I cannotGive me a knife, Fogg. You will find one in my coat pocketa knifea knife!" "Mercy! mercy! Have mercy upon me! Nonono,Help! Oh God! God!" "The knife! The knife, I say!" "Here, here," cried Fogg, as he hastily took it from Watson's pocket and opened it. "Here! Finish her, and quickly too, Watson!" The scene that followed is too horrible for description. The hands of the wretched victim were hacked from their hold by Watson, and in the course of another minute, with one last appalling shriek, down she went like a flash of lightning to the bottom of the well. "Gone!" said Watson. Another shriek and Fogg, even, stopped his ears, so appalling was that cry, coming as it did so strangely from the bottom of the well. "Throw something upon her," said Fogg. "Here's a brick" "Bah!" cried Watson, "bah! there's no occasion to throw anything on her. She'll soon get sick of such squealing." Another shriek, mingled with a strange frothy cry, as though some one had managed to utter it under water, arose. The perspiration stood in large drops upon the face of Fogg.He seized the brick he had spoken of, and cast it into the well. All was still as the grave before it reached the bottom, and then he wiped his face and looked at Watson. "This is the worst job," he said, "that ever we have had" "Not a whit.Brandygive me a tumbler of brandy, Fogg. Some of our own particular, for I have something to say to you now, that a better opportunity than this for saying is not likely to occur." "Come into my room then," said Fogg, "and we can talk quietly.Do you thinkthatthat" "What?" "That she is quite dead?" "What do I care.Let her crawl out of that, if she can." With a jerk of his thumb, Watson intimated that the well was the "that" he referred to, and then he followed Fogg into the house, whistling as he went the same lively air with which he had frequently solaced his feelings in the hearing of poor Tobias Ragg. Never had Fogg been in such a state of agitation, except once, and that was long ago, upon the occasion of his first crime. Then he had trembled as he now trembled, but the "Dull custom of iniquity" had effectually blunted soon the keen edge of his conscience, and he had for years carried on a career of infamy without any other feeling than exultation at his success.Why then did he suffer now? Had the well in the garden ever before received a victim? Was he getting alive to the excellence of youth and beauty?Oh nono. Fogg was getting old. He could not stand what he once stood in the way of conscience. When he reached his roomthat room in which he had held the conference with Todd, he sank into a chair with a deep groan. "What's the matter now?" cried Watson, who got insolent in proportion as Fogg's physical powers appeared to be upon the wane. "Nothing, nothing." "Nothing?Well, I never knew anybody look so white with nothing the matter. Come, I want a drop of brandy; where is it?" "In that cupboard; I want some myself likewise. Get it out, Watson. You will find glasses there." Watson was not slow in obeying this order. The brandy was duly produced, and, after Fogg had drank as much as would have produced intoxication in any one not so used to the ardent spirit as himself, he spoke more calmly, for it only acted upon him as a gentle sedative. "You wished to say something to me, Watson." "Yes." "What is it?" "I am tired, completely tired, Fogg." "Tired? Then why don't you retire to rest at once, Watson? There is, I am sure, nothing to keep you up now; I am going myself in a minute." "You don't understand me, or you won't, which is much the same thing. I did not mean that I was tired of the day, but I am tired of doing all the work, Fogg, while youwhile you" "Wellwhile I" "Pocket all the profit. Do you understand that? Now hark you. We will go partners, Fogg, not only in the present and the future, but in the past. I will have half of your hoarded up gains, or" "Or what?" Mr. Watson made a peculiar movement, supposed to indicate the last kick of a culprit executed at the Old Bailey. "You mean you will hang yourself," said Fogg. "My dear Watson, pray do so as soon as you think proper. Don't let me hinder you." "Hark you, Fogg. You may be a fox, but I am a badger. I mean that I will hang you, and this is the way to do it. My wife" "Your what?" "My wife," cried Watson, "has, in writing, the full particulars of all your crimes. She don't live far off, but still far enough to make it a puzzle for you to find her. If she don't see me once in every fortyeight hours, she is to conclude something has happened to me, and then she is to go at once to Bow Street with the statement, and lay it before a magistrate. You understand. Now I have contrived, with what I got from you by fair means as well as by foul, and by robbing the patients besides, to save some money, and if you and I don't agree, Mrs. Watson and I will start for New Zealand, or some such place, butbut, Fogg" "Well?" "We will denounce you before we go." "And what is to be the end of all this? The law has a long as well as a strong arm, Watson." "I know it. You would say it might be long enough to strike me." Fogg nodded. "Leave me to take care of that. But as you want to know the result of all this, it is just this. I want to have my share, and I will have it. Give me a couple of thousand down, and half for the future." Fogg was silent for a moment or two, and then he said "Too much, Watson, too much. I have not so much." "Bah! At your banker's now you have exactly 11,267." Fogg writhed. "You have been prying. Well, you shall have the two thousand." "On account." Fogg writhed again. "I say you shall have so much, Watson, and you shall keep the books, and have your clear half of all future proceeds. Is there anything else you have set your mind upon, because if you have, while we are talking about business, you may as well state it, you know." "No, there's nothing elseI am satisfied. All I have to add is, that you had better put your head into the fire than attempt to play any tricks with me. You understand?" "Perfectly." Watson was not altogether satisfied. He would have been better pleased if Fogg had made more resistance. The easy compliance of such a man with anything that touched his pocket looked suspicious, and filled the mind of Watson with a thousand vague conjectures. Alreadyaye, even before he left Fogg's room, Watson began to feel the uneasiness of his new position, and to pay dearly for the money he was to have. Even money may be given an exorbitant price for. When he was by himself, as he traversed the passage leading to his own sleeping room, Watson could not forbear looking cautiously around him at times, as though gaunt murder stalked behind him, and he fastened his bedroom door with more than his usual caution. The wish to sleep came not to him, and sitting down upon his bedside he rested his chin upon his hand and said to himself in a low anxious shrinking kind of whisper "What does Fogg mean to do?" Nor was the recent interview without its after effects upon the madhouse keeper himself. When the door closed upon Watson he shook his clenched hand in the direction he had taken, and muttered curses, "Not loud, but deep." "The time will come," he said, "Master Watson, and that quickly too, when I will let you see that I am still the master spirit. You shall be satisfied for the present, but your deathwarrant is preparing. You will not live long to triumph over me by threats of what your low cunning can accomplish." He rose and drank more raw brandy, after which, still muttering maledictions upon Watson, he returned to his bedroom, where, if he did not sleep, and if during the still hours of the night his brain was not too much vexed, he hoped to be able to concoct some scheme which should present him with a prospect of exemplary vengeance upon Watson. CHAPTER XXXV. MRS. LOVETT'S NEW LOVER. Mrs. Lovett was a woman of luxurious habits. Perhaps the constant savoury hot pie atmosphere in which she dwelt contributed a something to the development of her tastes, but certainly that lady, in dress, jewellery, and men, had her fancies. Did the reader think that she saw anything attractive in the satyrlike visage of Todd, with its eccentricities of vision? Did the reader think that the lawyers' clerks frequenting her shop suited her taste, varying, as all the world knows that class of bipeds does, between the fat and flabby, and the white and candle looking, if we may be allowed the expression? Ah, no,Mrs. Lovett's dreams of man had a loftier range, but we must not anticipate. Facts will speak trumpettongued for themselves. It is the hour when lawyers' clerks From many a gloomy chamber stalk; It is the hour when lovers' vows Are heard in every Temple walk. Mrs. Lovett was behind her counter all alone, but the loneliness continued but for a very brief period, for from Careystreet, with a nervousness of gait highly suggestive of a fear of bailiffsbailiffs were there in all their glorycomes aa what shall we say? Truly there are some varieties of the genus homo that defy minute classification, but perhaps this individual who hastened down Bell Yard was the nearest in approximation to what used to be called "a swaggering companion," that can be found. He was a gent upon townthat is to say, according to his own phraseology, he lived upon his wits; and if the reader will substitute dishonesty for wits, he will have a much clearer notion of what the swaggering companion of modern days lived upon. He was tall, burly, forty years of age, and his bloated countenance and sleepy eyes betrayed the effects of a long course of intemperance. He wore mock jewellery of an outrageous size; his attire was flashy and gaudyhis linen ... the less we say about that the betterenormous black whiskers (false) shaded his cheeks, and mangeylooking moustache (real) covered his upper lipadd to all this, such a stock of ignorance and impudence as may be supposed to thoroughly saturate one individual, and the reader has the swaggering companion before him. At a rapid pace he neared Mrs. Lovett's, muttering to himself as he went "I wonder if I can gammon her out of a couple of guineas." Yes, reader, this compound of vulgarity, ignorance, impudence and debauchery was Mrs. Lovett's gentle fancyher tasteherher, what shall we say?her personification of all that a man should be. Do not start; Mrs. Lovett has many imitators, for, without libelling the fairer, better, and more gentle of that sex, who can be such angels as well as suchahem!there are thousands who would be quite smitten with the "swaggering companion." When he reached the shopwindow, he placed his nose against it for a moment to reconnoitre who was in the shop, and seeing the fair one alone, he at once crossed the threshold. "Ah, charmer, how do the fates get on with you?" "Sir" A smile upon the face of Mrs. Lovett was a practical contradiction to the rebuff which her reception of him by words of mouth seemed to carry. "Oh, you bewitchingaa" The remainder of the sentence was lost in the devouring a pie, which the "swaggering companion" took from the shop counter. "Really, sir," said Mrs. Lovett"I wish you would not come here, I am all alone, and" "Alone? You beautiful female.Oh you nice creature.Allow me." The "swaggering companion" lifted up that portion of the counter which enabled Mrs. Lovett to pass from one side of it to the other, and as coolly as possible walked into the parlour. Mrs. Lovett followed him, protesting at what she called his impudence. But for all that, a bottle of spirits and some biscuits were procured. The "swaggering companion," however, pushed the biscuits aside, saying "Pies for me. Pies for me." Mrs. Lovett looked at him scrutinisingly as she said "And do you really like the pies, or do you only eat them out of compliment to me?" "Really like them? I tell you what it is; out of compliment to you, of course, I could eat anything, but the pies are delicacies.Where do you get your veal?" "Well, if you will have pies you shall, Major Bounce."That was the name which the "swaggering companion" appended to his disgusting corporealty. "Certainly, my dear, certainly. As I was saying, I could freely, to compliment you, eat old Tomkins, the tailor, of Fleet Street." "Really. How do you think he would taste?" "Tough!" "Ha! Ha!" It was an odd laugh that of Mrs. Lovett's. Had she borrowed it from Todd? "My dear Mrs. L.," said the major, "what made you laugh in that sort of way? Ah, if I could only persuade you to go from L to B" "Sir?" "Now, my charmer, seriously speakingHere am I, Major Bounce, a gentleman with immense expectations, ready and willing to wed the most charming woman under the sun, if she will only say 'yes.'" "Have you any objection to America?" "America? None in the least.With you for a companion, America would be a Paradise. A regular garden of, what do you call it, my dear? Only say the word, my darling." The major's arm was gently insinuated round the lady's waist, and after a few moments she spoke. "Major Bounce, II have made money." "The devil!so have I, but the police one dayahem!ahem!what a cough I have." "What on earth do you mean?" "Oh, nothingnothingonly a joke. You said you had made money, and that put me in mind of what I read in the 'Chronicle' today of some coiners, that's all. Haha!" "When I spoke of making money, I meant in the way of trade, but having made it, I should not like to spend it in London, and be pointed out as the wellknown piewoman." "Piewoman! Oh, the wretchesonly let" "Peace. Hold your tongue, and hear me out. If I marry and retire, it will be far from herevery far indeed." "Ah, any land, with you." The major absolutely saluted the lady. "Be quiet. Pray, in what service are you a major?" "The South American, my love. A much higher service than the British." "Indeed." "Lord bless you, yes. If I was now to go to my estates in South America, there would be a jubilee of ten days at the very least, and the people as well as the government would not know how to make enough of me, I can assure you. In fact, I have as much right to take the rank of general as of major, but the natural modesty of a military man, and of myself in particular, steps in and says 'A major be it.'" "Then you have property?" "Propertyproperty? I believe you, I have. Lots!" The major dealt his forehead a slap as he spoke, which might be taken as an indication that that was where his property was situated, and that it consisted of his ignorance and impudencevery good trading capitals in this world for, strange to say, the parties solely possessing such qualifications get on much better than education, probity, and genius can push forward their unhappy victims. Mrs. Lovett was silent for some minutes, during which the major saluted her again. Then, suddenly rising, she said "I will give you an answer tomorrow. Go away now. We shall be soon interrupted. If I do consent to be yours, there will be something to do before we leave England." "By Jove, only mention it to me, and it is as good as done. Bythebye, there is something to do before I leave here, and that is, my charmer, to pay you for the pies." "Oh, nono." "Yes, yesmy honour. Touch my honour, even in regard of a pie, and touch my life.I put two guineas in one end of my purse, to pay my glover in the Strand, and at the other end are some small coinswhere the deucecanIhaveputit." The major made an affectation of feeling in all his pockets for his lost purse, and then, with a seriocomic look, he said "By Jove, some rascal has picked my pocket." "Never mind me," said Mrs. Lovett, "I don't want payment for the pies." "Well, butthethe glover. Poor devil, and I promised him his money this morning. For a soldier and a man of honour to break his word is death. What shall I do?Mrs. L., could you lend me a couple of guineas until I have the happiness of seeing you again?" "Certainly, major, certainly I can." The gallant son of Mars pocketed the coins, and after saluting Mrs. Lovett some half score of timesand she, the beast, liked ithe left the shop and went chuckling into the Strand, where in a few minutes he was in a pothouse, from whence he emerged not until he had liquidated one of the guineas. Was Mrs. Lovett taken in by the major? Did she believe his title, or his wealth, and his common honesty? Did she believe in the story of the purse and of the two guineas that were to be paid to the poor glover because he wanted them? Nonocertainly not. But for all that, she admired the major.He was her beau ideal of a fine man! That was sufficient. Moreover, being what he wasa rogue, cheat, and common swindlershe could exercise, so she thought, a species of control over him which no decent man would put up with, and so in her own mind she had determined to marry the major and fly; but as she said"There was a little something to be done first." Did that relate to the disposal of Todd? We shall see. If she calculated upon the major putting Sweeney Todd out of the way, she sadly miscalculated; but the wisest heads will blunder. Compared to Todd, the major was indeed a poor creature; but Mrs. Lovett, in the stern courage of her own intellect, could not conceive the possibility of the great, puffy, bloated, fierce Major Bounce being as arrant a coward as ever was kicked.


He was so, though, for all that. After he had left her, Mrs. Lovett sat for a long time in a profound reverie, and as it happened that no one came into the shop; the current of her evil thoughts was uninterrupted. "I have sufficient," she said; "and before it gets too late, I will leave this mode of life. Why did Itempted by the fiend Toddundertake it, but that I might make wealth by it, and so assume a position that my heart panted for. I will not delay until it is too late, or I may lose the enjoyment that I have sacrificed so much to find the means of getting. I live in this world but for the gratification of the senses, and finding that I could not gratify them without abundant means, I fell upon this plan. Iahthat is he" Suddenly the swaggering companion, the redoubtable Major Bounce, rushed past the shopwindow, without so much as looking in for a single moment, and made his way towards Carey Street. Mrs. Lovett started up and made her way into the front shop. Major Bounce was out of sight, but from Fleet Street came a poor, draggled, miserable looking woman, making vain efforts at a speed which her weakness prevented her from keeping up.She called aloud "Stop! stop!only a moment, Flukes! Only a moment, John. Stop!stop!" Her strength failed her, and she fell exhausted upon Mrs. Lovett's doorstep. "Heartless!heartless ever!" she cried. "May the judgment of the Almighty reach himmay he sufferyesmay he suffer only what I have suffered." "Who and what are you?" said Mrs. Lovett. "Poor, and therefore everything that is abject and despicable in London." "What a truth," said Mrs. Lovett. "What a truth that is. Who would not do even as I do to avoid poverty in a widowed life!It is too horrible. Amid savages it is nothing, but here it is indeed criminality of the deepest dye. Whom did you call after, woman?" "My husband." "Husband. Describe him." "A sottishlooking man, with moustache. Once seen, he is not easily mistakenruffian and villain are stamped by nature upon his face." Mrs. Lovett winced a little. "Come in," she said, "I will relieve you for the present. Come in." The woman by a great effort succeeded in rising and crossing the threshold. Mrs. Lovett gave her a seat, and having presented her with a glass of cordial and a pie, she waited until the poor creature should be sufficiently recovered to speak composedly, and then she said to her with perfect calmness, as though she was by no manner of means personally interested in the matter "Now tell meIs the man with moustache and the braided coat, who passed hastily up Bell Yard a few moments only before you, really your husband?" "Yes, madam, that is Flukes" "Who?" "Flukes, madam." "And pray who and what is Flukes?" "He was a tailor, and he might have been as respectable a man, and earned as honest and good a living as any one in the trade, but a love of idleness and dissipation undid him." "Flukesa tailor?" "Yes, madam; and now that I am utterly destitute, and in want of the common necessaries of life, if I chance to meet him in the streets and ask him for the merest trifle to relieve my necessities, he flies from me in the manner he has done today." "Indeed!" "Yes, madam. If we were in a lonely place he would strike me, so that I should, from the injury he would do me, be unable to follow him, but that in the public streets he darenot do, for he fears some man would interfere and put a stop to his cruelty." "There, my good woman," said Mrs. Lovett, "there are five shillings for you. Go now, for I expect to be busy very shortly." With a profusion of thanks, that while they lasted were quite stunning, poor Mrs. Flukes left the pieshop and hobbled homewards. When she was gone the colour went and came several times upon the face of Mrs. Lovett, and then she repeated to herself"Flukesa tailor!" "Pies ready?" said a voice at the door. "Not quite." "How long, mum; we want half a dozen of the muttons today." "In about ten minutes." "Thank you, I'll look in again." "Flukesa tailor? Indeed!Flukesa tailor? Well I ought to have expected something like this. What a glorious thing it is really to care for no one but oneself after all. I shall lose my faith ininfine men." CHAPTER XXXVI. TOBIAS'S MOTHER AWAKENS OLD RECOLLECTIONS. Poor Tobias still remains upon his bed of sickness. The number of hours at the expiration of which the medical man had expected him to recover were nearly gone. In Colonel Jeffery's parlour three persons, besides himself, were assembled. These three were his friend the captain, Sir Richard Blunt, and Mrs. Ragg. The lady was sitting with a not over clean handkerchief at her eyes, and keeping up a perpetual motion with her knee, as though she were nursing some fractious baby, and Mrs. Ragg had been used of late to go out as a monthly nurse occasionally, which, perhaps, accounted for this little peculiarity. "Now, madam," said the colonel, "you quite understand, I hope, that you are not to mention to any living soul the fact of your son Tobias being with me." "Oh, dear me, no, sir. Who should I mention it to?" "That we can't tell," interrupted the captain, "you are simply desired not to tell it." "I'm sure I don't see anybody once in a week, sir." "Good God! woman," cried the colonel, "does that mean that when you do see any one you will tell it?" "Lord love you, sir, it's few people as comes to see you when you are down in the world. I'm sure it's seldom enough a soul taps at my door with a 'Mrs. Ragg, how are you?'" "Now was there ever such an incorrigible woman as this?" "If you were to talk to her for a month," said Sir Robert Blunt, "you would not get a direct answer from her. Allow me to try something elseMrs. Ragg." "Yes, sirhumbly at your service, sir." "If you tell any one that Tobias is here, or indeed anywhere within your knowledge, I will apprehend you about a certain candlestick." "Goodness gracious, deliver us." "Do you understand that, Mrs. Ragg? You keep silence about Tobias, and I keep silence about the candlestick. You speak about Tobias, and I speak about the candlestick." Mrs. Ragg shook her head and let fall a torrent of tears, which the magistrate took as sufficient evidence that she did understand him and would act accordingly, so he added "Shall we all proceed up stairs? for a great deal will depend upon the boy's first impression when he awakensand in this case we should not lose a chance." In pursuance of this sound advice they all proceeded to poor Tobias's bedroom, and there he lay in that profound repose which the powerful opiate administered to him had had the effect of producing. It did not seem as though he had moved head or foot since they had left him. His face was very pale, and when Mrs. Ragg saw him she burst into tears, exclaiming "He is deadhe is dead!" "No such thing, madam," said Colonel Jeffery. "He only sleeps." "But, oh deary me, what makes him look so old and so strange now? He was bad enough when I saw him last, poor fellow, but not like this." "He has received illusage from someone, and that is precisely what we want to find out. If you can get from him the particulars of what he has suffered, we will take care those who have made him suffer shall not escape." "Bless you, gentlemen, what's the use of that if my poor boy is killed?" There was a good home truth in these words from Mrs. Ragg, although, upon the score of general social policy, they might well be answered. An argument with Mrs. Ragg, however, upon such a subject was not very apropos. The colonel made her sit down by Tobias's bedside, and he was then upon the point of remarking to his friend, the captain, that it would be as well, since so many hours had passed, to send for the medical man, when that personage made his appearance. "Has he awakened?" he asked. "Nonot yet." "Oh, I see you have a nurse." "It is his mother. We hope that she, by talking to him familiarly, may produce a good effect, and possibly rid him of that bewilderment of intellect under which he now labours. What think you, sir?" "That it is a good thought. Let us darken the room as much as possible, as twilight will be most grateful to him upon awakening, which he must do shortly." The curtains of the window were so arranged that the room was in a state of semidarkness, and then they all waited with no small anxiety for Tobias to recover from the deep and deathlike sleep that had come over him. After about five minutes he moved uneasily and uttered a low moan. "Speak to him, Mrs. aawhat's your name?" "Ragg, sir." "Aye, Ragg, just speak to him; of course he is well acquainted with your voice, and it may have the effect of greatly rousing him from his lethargic condition." Poor Mrs. Ragg considered that she had some very extraordinary post to perform, and accordingly she collected to her aid all her learning, which, interrupted by her tears, and now and then by a sob, which she had to gulp down like a large globule of castor oil, had certainly rather a droll effect. "My dear Tobiasmy dearlie a bed, sluggard, you knowwell, I neverPut the kettle on, Polly, and let's all have tea. Tobias, my dearbless us and save us, are you going to stay in bed all day?" Another groan from Tobias. "Well, my dear, perhaps you won't mind getting up and just running towards the corner for a bunch of water cresses? Dear heart alive, there goes the muffinman like a lamplighter!" It was by such domestic themes that Mrs. Ragg sought to recall the wandering senses of poor Tobias to a cognizance of the present. But alas! his thoughts were still in the dim and misty land of visions. Suddenly he spoke Tobias's Delirium. Tobias's Delirium. "Hushhush! There they come!elephants!elephants!ononon. Now for the soldiers, and all madmadmad! Hide me in the strawdeep in a world of straw. Hush! He comes. Sing, oh sing again!and hehe will not suspect." The surgeon made a sign to Mrs. Ragg to speak again. "Why, Tobias, my dear, what are you talking about? Do you mean the Elephant and Castle?" "Call to his remembrance," said the surgeon, "some old scenes." "Yes, sir, but when one's heart and all that sort of thing is in one's mouth it's very difficult to recollect things oneself. Tobias!" "Yesyes. Haha!" It was a low, plaintive, strange laugh that, that came from the poor boy whose mind had been so overthrown, and it jarred upon the feelings of all who heard it. "Tobias, do you recollect the little cottage down the lane at Holloway, where we lived, and the cock roaches, and the strange cat, you know, Tobias, that would not go away? Don't you recollect, Tobias, how the coals there were all slates, and how your poor father, as is dead and gone" "Yes, I see him now." Mrs. Ragg gave a faint scream. "Father!father!" said Tobias, as he held out his arms, and the big tears rolled down his cheeks. "Fatherfather, Todd has not got me now. Don't cry so, father. Stand out of the way of the elephants." "My dear! my dear!" cried Mrs. Ragg, "do you want to break my heart?" Tobias rose to a sitting position in the bed, and looked his mother in the face "Are you, too, mad?" he said. "Are you, too, mad? Did you tell of Todd?" "Yes, the only way," said Colonel Jeffery, "for people not to be mad, is to tell of Todd." "Yesyes." "And so you, Tobias, will tell us all you know. That is what we want you to do, and then you will be quite happy and comfortable for the remainder of your days, and live with your mother again far from any apprehension from Todd. Do you understand me?" Tobias opened his mouth several times in an eager, gasping sort of manner, as though he would have said something rapidly, but he could not. He placed his hands upon his brain, and rocked to and fro for a few moments, and then he broke out into the same low, peculiar laugh that had before so strangely affected Colonel Jeffery and the others who were there present in that room. The surgeon shook his head as he said, mournfully "It is of no use!" "Do you really think so?" said the colonel. "For the present, I am convinced that it is of no use to attempt to recall his wandering senses. Time will do wonders, and he has the one grand element of youth in his favour. That, as well as time, will do wonders. The case is a bad one, and the shock the brain of this lad has received must be a most fearful one." "Do not," said Sir Richard Blunt, "give up so readily, Mrs. Ragg; I would have you try him again. Speak to him again of his fatherthat seemed to be the topic that most moved him." Mrs. Ragg could hardly do so for her tears, but she managed to stammer out "Tobias, do you recollect when your father bought you the rabbit, and out of vexation, the creature eat its way out of a willowwork cage in the night? Do you remember your poor father's funeral, Tobias, and how we went, you and I, my poor boy, to take the last look at the only one whowhowho" Mrs. Ragg could get no further. "Hahaha!" laughed Tobias, "who told of Todd?" "Who is this Todd," said the surgeon, "that he continually speaks of, and shudders at the very name of?" Colonel Jeffery glanced at Sir Richard Blunt, and the latter, who wished the affair by no means to transpire, merely said "We are quite as much in the dark as you, sir. It is just what we should like to know, who this Todd is, whose very name seems to hold the imagination of this poor boy in a grasp of iron. I begin to think that nothing more can be done now." "Nothing, gentlemen, you may depend," said the surgeon. "How old is the lad?" "Sixteen as never was," replied Mrs. Ragg, "and a hard time I had of it, sir, as you may suppose." The surgeon did not exactly see how he was called upon to suppose anything of the sort; however he made no further remark to Mrs. Ragg, but continued in conversation for some time with Colonel Jeffery, who informed him that Tobias should remain for a time where he was, so that there should be every possible chance given for his recovery. "I wish you to continue attending upon him, sir," he added, "for I would spare nothing that medical advice can suggest to restore him. He has, I am convinced, been a great sufferer." "That is sufficiently clear, sir. You may rely upon my utmost attention." "Mrs. Ragg," said the colonel, "can you cook?" "Cook, sir? Lord bless you, sir. I can cook as well as here and there a one, though I say it that oughtn't, and if poor Tobias was but all right, I should not go to be after making myself miserable now about bygones. What's to be cured must be enduredit's a long lane as hasn't a turning. As poor Mr. Ragg often used to say when he was alive'Grizzling ain't fattening.'" "I should think it was not. It so happens, Mrs. Ragg, that there is a vacancy in my house for a cook, and if you like to come and take the place, you can look after Tobias as well, you know, for I intend him to remain here for the present. Only remember, you tell this to no one." "Me, sir! Lord bless you, sir, who do I see?" The colonel was by no means anxious to convince himself a second time of the impossibility of bringing Mrs. Ragg to a precise answer, so he changed the subject, and it was finally arranged that without a word to any one upon the subject, that very night Mrs. Ragg was to take up her abode with Tobias. After this had been all arranged, the three gentlemen proceeded to the dining room, and held a consultation. "Of the guilt of Todd," said the magistrate, "I entertain no doubt, but I own that I am extremely anxious to bring the crime legally home to him." "Exactly," said the colonel, "and I can only say that every plan you can suggest will be cheerfully acquiesced in by me and my friend here." The captain signified his assent. "Be assured, gentlemen," added Sir Richard Blunt, "that something shall be done of a decisive character before many days are past. I have seen the higher powers upon the subject, and have full authority, and you may rest satisfied that I shall not mind running a little personal risk to unravel the mysteries that surround the career of Sweeney Todd. I think one thing may be done conveniently." "What is that, sir?" "Why, It seems to be pretty well understood that no one resides in Todd's house but himself, and as now he has no boyunless he has provided himself with one alreadyhe must go out sometimes and leave the place to itself, and upon one of those occasions an opportunity might be found of thoroughly searching the upper part, at all events, of his house." "Could that be done with safety?" "I think so. At all events, I feel inclined to try it. If I do so, and make any discovery, you may depend upon my letting you know without an hour's delay, and I sincerely hope that all that will take place may have the effect of setting your mind at rest regarding your friend, Mr. Ingestrie." "But not of restoring him to us?" The magistrate shook his head. "I think, sir," he said, "that you ought to consider that he has, if any one has, fallen a victim to Sweeney Todd." "Alas! I fear so." "All the evidence points that way, and we can only take measures in the best way possible to bring his murderer to justicethat that murderer is Sweeney Todd, I cannot for one moment of time bring myself to doubt." Sir Richard Blunt shortly afterwards left Colonel Jeffery's house and proceeded to the execution of a plan of proceeding, with the particulars of which he had not thought proper to entrust to the colonel, and his friend the captain. Long habits of caution had led the magistratewho was not one of the fancy magistrates of the present day, but a real police officeractive, cool, and determinedto trust no one but himself with his secrets, and so he kept to himself what he meant to do that night. When he was gone, Colonel Jeffery had a long talk with his friend, and the subject gradually turned to Johanna, whom the colonel yet hoped, he said, to be able one day to call his own. "No one," he remarked, "would be more truly rejoiced than I to restore Mark Ingestrie to her whom he loves, and whose affection for him is of so enduring and remarkable a character, but if, as Sir Richard Blunt supposes, he is really no more, I think Johanna, by being mine, would stand a better chance of recovering her serenity, if not of enjoying all the happiness in this world that she deserves." "Hope for the best," said the captain, "and recollect what the surgeon said as regarded Tobias, that time works wonders." CHAPTER XXXVII. THE SEARCH AT TODD'S. The house in Fleet Street, next door to Todd's, was kept by a shoemaker, named Whittle, and in this shoemaker's window was a bill, only put up on the very day of poor Tobias's escape from Peckham, announcing"An Attic to Let." This was rather an alluring announcement to Sir Richard Blunt. At about half an hour after sunset on the same evening that had witnessed the utter discomfiture of the attempt to restore poor Tobias Ragg to his senses, two men stood in the deep recess of a doorway immediately opposite to the house of Sweeney Todd. These two men were none other than Sir Richard and his esteemed but rather eccentric officer, Mr. Crotchet. After some few moments' silence, Sir Richard spoke, saying "Well, Crotchetwhat do you think of the affair now?" "Nothink." "Nothing? You do not mean that, Crotchet?" "Says what I meansmeans what I says, and then leaves it alone." "But you have some opinion, Crotchet?" "Had, masterhad" "Well, Crotchet; I think we can now cross over the way, and endeavour to get possession of the shoemaker's attic, from which we can get into Todd's house." "And find nothink criminatory." "You think not; but do you know, Crotchet, I am of opinion that the greatest and cleverest rogues not unfrequently leave themselves open to detection, in some little particular, which they have most strangely and unaccountably neglected. I am not without a hope that we shall find the man, Sweeney Todd, to be one of that class, and if so, we shall not fail to do some good by our visit to the house.You remain here and watch for his going out, and when he is gone, come over the way and ask for Mr. Smith. Have you seen Fletcher?" "No, but he will be here presently, and will wait till that 'ere fellow goes away, if so be as he goes out, and then when you and me hears two notes on the keybugle, it will be time all for us to go for to come to mizzle." "Very good," said Sir Richard Blunt, and he crossed over to the shoemaker's shop, leaving Crotchet on the watch in the deep doorway. The fact is, they had been waiting there for some time, in the hope that Todd would go out, but he had not stirred, so that the magistrate thought it would be as well to let Crotchet remain while he secured the shoemaker's attic, with a view to ulterior proceedings. The magistrate was dressed as a respectable, staid clerk, and he walked into the shoemaker's shop with a gravity of gait that was quite imposing. "You have an attic to let," he said. "Is it furnished?" "Oh yes, sir, and comfortably too. My missus looks after all that, I can tell you." "Very well, I want just such a place; for, do you know, since I have left a widower, I like to live in some lively situation, and as all my friends are at Cambridge, and not a soul that I know in London, I don't half fancy going into an outoftheway place to live; though, I dare say, for all that, London is safe enough." "Why, I don't know that," said the shoemaker. "However, you'll be safe enough here, sir, never doubt. The rent is four shillings a week." "Very good. I think, if you will show it to me, we shall suit each other. The great object with me is to find myself in the house of a respectable man, and one look at you, sir, is quite sufficient to show me that you are one." This was all highly flattering to the shoemaker, and he was so well pleased to get such a respectable, civilspoken, middle aged gentleman into his house, that he was prepared, upon half a word to that effect, to come down a whole sixpence a week in the rent, if needs were. Of course, the wouldbelodger was well enough pleased with the attic, and turning to the shoemaker, he handed him four shillings, saying "As my friends are all so far off, I ought to give you a week's rent in advance, instead of a reference, and there it is." After this, who could ask any further questions? The magistrate, just, of his own accord, added that his name was Smith, and that he would stay a short time in his room if the shoemaker could oblige him with a light, which was done accordingly, and when the shoemaker's wife came homethat lady having been out to gossip with no less a personage than Mrs. Lovetthe was quite elated to tell her what a lodger they had, and as he handed her the four shillings, saying "My dear, that will buy you the ribbon at Mrs. Keating's, the mercer, that you had set your mind upon," how could she be other than quite amiable? "Well, John," she said, "for once in a way, I must say that you have shown great judgment, and if I had been at home myself, I could not have managed better." This, we are quite sure, our lady readers will agree with us was as much as any married female ought to say. Sir Richard Blunt ascended to the attic, of which he was now, by virtue of a weekly tenancy, lord and master, with a light, and closing the door, he cast his eyes around the apartment. Its appointments were decidedly not luxurious. In one corner a stumpbedstead awakened anything but lively associations, while the miserable little grate, the front of which was decidedly composed of some portions of an old iron hoop from a barrel, did not look redolent of comforts. The rest of the apartments were what the auctioneers call en suite, the said auctioneers having but a dreamy notion of what en suite means. But the appointments or disappointments of his attic were of little consequence to Sir Richard Blunt. It was the window that offered attractions to him. Softly opening it, he looked out, and found that there was a leaden gutter, with only the average amount of filth in it, the drain being, of course, stopped up by a dishclout and a cracked flowerpot, which is perfectly according to custom in London. He saw enough at a glance, however, to convince him that there would be no difficulty whatever in getting to the attic of Todd's house, and that fact once ascertained, he waited with exemplary and placid patience the return of Crotchet. Now, Sweeney Todd was, during much of that day, in what is denominated a brown study. He could not make up his mind in what way he was to make up for the loss of the senses of Tobias. It was with him an equal choice of disagreeables. To have a boy, or not to have a boy, which to do became an anxious question. "A boy is a spy," muttered Todd to himself"a spy upon all my actionsa perpetual policeofficer in a small way, constantly at my elbowan alarum continually crying to me 'Todd! Todd! beware!' Curses on them all, and yet what a slave am I to this place without a lad; and, after all, when they do become too troublesome and inquisitive, I can but dispose of them as I have disposed of him." Todd patrolled his shop for some time, thus communing with himself; but as yet he could not make up his mind which to do.A boy or not a boy?that was the question. He remained in this unsatisfactory state of mind until sunset had passed away and the dim twilight was wrapping all things in obscurity. Then, without deciding upon either course, he suddenly, in a very hurried manner, shut up his shop, and closing the outer door carefully, he walked rapidly towards Bell Yard. He was going to Mrs. Lovett's, whither we shall follow him at a more convenient opportunity, but just now we have Sir Richard Blunt's enterprise to treat of. Todd had no sooner got fairly out of sight, than Mr. Crotchet emerged from the doorway in which he was concealed, and went a few paces down Fleet Street, towards the Temple.He soon met a man genteelly dressed, who seemed to be sauntering along in an idle fashion. "All's right, Fletcher," said Crotchet. "Oh, is it?" "Yes. Have you got that ere little article with you?" "The bugle? Oh, yes." "Mind you blows it then, if you sees Todd come home, and no gammon." "Trust to me old fellow." Without another word, Mr. Crotchet crossed over the road, and opened the shopdoor of the shoemaker. Now the face of Mr. Crotchet was not the most engaging in the world, and when he looked in upon the shoemaker, that industrious workman felt a momentary pang of alarm, and particularly when Mr. Crotchet, imparting a horrible obliquity to his vision, said "How is yer, old un?" "Sir?" said the shoemaker. "You couldn't show a fellow the way up to Smith's hattic, I supposes?" "SmithSmith?Oh, dear me, that's the new lodger. I'll call him down if you wait here." "No occasion. I'll toddle up, my tulip. He's a relation o' mine, don't you see the likeness atween us?We was considered the handsomest pair 'o men as was in London at one time, and it sticks to us now, I can tell you." "If you wish, sir, to go up, instead of having Mr. Smith called down, of course, sir, you can, as you are an old friend. Allow me to light you, sir." "Not the least occasion. Only tell me where it isn't, and I'll find out where it is, old chap." "It's the front attic." "All's right. Don't be sich a hass as to be flaring away arter me, with that ere double dip, I can find my way in worserer places than this here. All's righteasy does it." To the surprise of the shoemaker, his mysterious visitor opened the little door at the back of the shop, which led to the staircase, and in a moment disappeared up them. "Upon my life, this Mr. Smith," thought the shoemaker, "seems to have some very strange connexions. He told me he knew nobody in London, and then here comes one of the ugliest fellows, I think, I ever saw in all my life, and claims acquaintance with him. What ought I to do?Ought I to tell Mrs. W. of it?" At this moment Mrs. W. made her appearance from the mercer's, with the ribbon that had tickled her feminine fancyall smiles and sweetness. The heart of the shoemaker died within him, for well he knew what visitation he was likely to come in for, if anything connected with the lodger turned out wrong. "Ahem! ahem! Well, my dear, have you got the ribbon?" "Oh yes, to be sure, and a love it is" "Ah!ah!" "What's the matter?" "Nothing, my dove. I was only thinking that it wasn't the ribbon that makes folks look lovely, but the person who wears it. You would look beautiful in any ribbon." "Why, my dear, that may be very true, but still one ought to look as well as one can, you know, for the credit of one's maker." "Oh, yes, yes, but I was only thinking" "Thinking of what? Bless me, Mr. Wheeler, how mystifying you are tonight, to be sure. What do you mean by this conduct? Was ever a woman so pestered and tormented with a fool of a man, who looks like an owl in an ivy bush for all the world, or a crow peeping into a marrowbone." "My duck, how can you say so?" "Duck indeed? Keep your ducks to yourself. Hoity toity. Duck, indeed. You low goodfornothing" "My dear, my dear. I was only thinking, and not in the least wishing to offend." "But you do offend me, you nasty insinuating, sneering wretch.What were you thinking about? Tell me this moment." "Why, that a pretty silvergrey satin mantle would set off your figure so well, that" "Oh, John!" "That, though quarterday is near at hand, I think you ought to have one." "Really, Jackey." "Yes, my dear." "What a man you are. Ah, Jackey, after all, though we have, like all people, our little tiffs and wiffs and sniffsafter all, I say it, perhaps, that should not say it, you are a dear, good, obliging" "Don't mention it." "Yes, but" "No, don't. Bythebye, do you know, Susey, that I begin to have my suspicionsmind, I may be wrong, but I begin to have my suspicions, do you know, that our attic lodger is, after all, no better than he should be." "Gracious!" "Hush! hush! There has been a man here; so uglysososquintified, if I may say so, that between you and me and the post, my dear, it's enough to frighten any one to look at him, it is indeed.But as for the silvergrey satin, don't stint the quality for a sixpence or so." "The wretch!" "And take care to have plenty of rich trimming to it." "The monster!" "And have something pretty to match it, so that when you go to St. Dunstan's next Sunday, all the folks will ask what fine lady from court has come into the city out of curiosity to see the old church." "Oh, Jackey." "That's what I call," muttered Mr. Wheeler, "pouring oil upon the troubled waters." He then spoke aloud, saying"Now, my dear, it is your judgment and advice I want. What shall we do in this case? for you seefirst of all, the new lodger denies knowing a soul, and then, in half an hour, an old acquaintance calls upon him here." The silvergrey satinthe flattering allusion to the probable opinion of the people in St. Dunstan's Church on the next Sundaythe obscure allusion to a something else to match it, and the appeal to her judgment, all had the effect desired upon Mrs. Wheeler, who, dropping entirely the hectoring tone, fell into her husband's views, and began calmly and dispassionately, without abuse or crimination, to discuss the merits, or rather the probable demerits, of the new lodger. "I tell you, my dear, my opinion," said the lady. "As for stopping in the house and not knowing who and what he is, I won't." "Certainly not, my love." "Then, Mr. W., the only thing to do, is for you and I to go up stairs, and say that as I was out you did not know a Mr. Jones had spoken about the lodging, but that, if he could give a reference in London, we would still have him for a lodger." "Very well. That will be only civil, and if he says he can't, but must send to Cambridge" "Why then, my dear, you must say that he may stay till he writes, and I'll be guided by his looks. If I give you a nudge, so, with my elbow, you may consider that it's pretty right." "Very well, my dove." CHAPTER XXXVIII. SIR RICHARD PRIES INTO TODD'S SECRETS.