Todd did not think so, however, and he began to shuffle up the roof of the house he was now on, looking like some gigantic tortoise, slowly making its way. Reasoning from his experience of the colonel's house, Todd thought he should very well be able to pitch upon the trap, in the roof of the domicile upon which he was, nor was he wrong. He found it in precisely the same relative position, and then he paused. He drew a long breath. "What a mad adventure this is," he said; "and yet what a satisfaction it would have been to me, before I left England, to be able to feel that I had had my revenge upon that brat Tobias. That he had not altogether failed me after I had paid so much money to be rid of him. But that is over. I have failed in that attempt; but they shall not say it cost me my life. They will be bold people who stop me in my passage to the street in this house." He felt the trapdoor. It was fast. "Humph!" he said, "doors are but bonds; and the rains of a few winters rot them quickly enough. We shall see." The knife, with which he would have been well pleased to give poor Tobias his quietus, was thick and strong. He slid it under the wooden trap, and by mere force lifted it up. The nails of the bolt easily withdrew themselves from the rotten wood. Todd was right. The rains of a few winters had done their work. It was not exactly a time in the evening, when, in such a class of house, any one might be expected to be found in the attics; so Todd made no scruple of at once removing the lower trap in the ceiling. He dropped comfortably enough on to the floor. And now, coming suddenly as he did from the light, faint as it was, of the open air in the room, which he found himself, seemed to be involved in profound darkness; but that he knew would wear away in a few moments, and he stood still for his eyes to get accustomed to the semiobscurity of the place. Gradually, then, as though out of chaos, there loomed a bedstead and all the necessary appointments of a bedroom. It was untenanted; and so Todd, after listening intently, and believing, from the marked stillness that there prevailed, that the upper part of the house was deserted, walked to the door, and opening it, stood upon the landing. "If I can now but step down stairs noiselessly, and open the street door, all will be well. People don't sit upon the staircase, and I may be fortunate enough to encounter no one." There was no time to lose. Affairs in Fleetstreet required his presence; and, besides, the present moment might be the most propitious, for all he knew, for the enterprise. Down he went, not clinging to the balustradesfor who should say they might not wheeze and creak?not walking upon the middle of the stairs, for there was no saying what telltale sounds they might give vocality to; but sliding along close to the wall, and stepping so quietly, that it would have required attentive ears to have detected his silent and steady march. And so, flight by flight of these stairs Todd descended in safety, until he reached the passage. Yes, he got to the passage without the shadow of an interruption. Then he heard voices in one of the parlours. "Confound them!" said Todd, "they will hear me open the street door to a certainty; but it must be done." He crept up to the door. There was some complicated latch upon it that defied all his knowledge of latches, and all his perseverance; and yet, no doubt, it was something that only required a touch; but he might be hours in finding out in the dark where to apply that touch. He still heard the voices in the parlour. More than five minutesprecious minutes to himhad already been consumed in fumbling at the lock of the street door; and then Todd gave it up as useless, and he crept to the parlourdoor to listen to the speakers, and so, perhaps, ascertain the force that was within. A female voice was speaking. "Oh, dear me, yes, I daresay," it said. "You no doubt think that house can be kept for nothing, and that a respectable female wants no clothes to her back; but I can tell you, Mr. Simmons, that you will find yourself wonderfully mistaken, sir." "Pshaw!" said a man's voice. "Pshaw! I know what I mean, and so do you. You be quiet wife, and think yourself well off, that you are as you are." "Well off?" "Yes, to be sure, well off." "Well off, when I was forced to go to Mr. Rickup's party, in the same dress they saw me in last Easter. Oh! you brute!" "What's the matter with the dress?" "The matter? Why I'll tell you what the matter is. The matter is, and the long and short of everything, that you are a brute." "Very conclusive indeed. The deuce take me if it ain't." "I suppose by the deuce, you mean the devil, Mr. Simmons; and if he don't take you some day, he won't have his own. Ha! ha! you may laugh, but there's many a true word spoken in jest, Mr. Simmons." "Oh, you are in jest, are you?" "No sir, I am not, and I should like to know what woman could jest with only one black silk, and, that turned. Yes, Mr. Simmons, you often call upon the deuce to take this, and to take that. Mind he don't come some day to you when you least expect it sir, and say" "Lend me a light!" said Todd, popping his awfully ugly face right over the top of the half open door, a feat which he was able to accomplish by standing on his tip toes. There are things that can be described, but certainly the consternation of Mr. and Mrs. Simmons cannot be included in the list. They gazed upon the face of Todd in speechless horror, nor did he render himself a bit less attractive by several of his most hideous contortions of visage. Finding then that both husband and wife appeared spellbound, Todd stepped into the room, and taking a candle from the table, he stalked into the passage with it. The light in his hand threw a light upon the mystery of the lock. Todd opened the streetdoor, and passed out in a moment. To hurl the candle and candlestick into the passage, and close the door, was the next movement of Todd, but then he saw two figures upon the steps leading to Colonel Jeffery's house, and he shrunk back a moment. "Now William," said Colonel Jeffery himself, "you will take this letter to Sir Richard Blunt, and tell him to use his own discretion about it." "Yes, sir." "Be quick, and give it into no hands but his own." "Certainly, sir." "Remember, William, this is important." The groom touched his hat, and went away at a good pace, and Colonel Jeffery himself closed the door. "Indeed," muttered Todd. "Indeed. So, Sir Richard Blunt, who is called an active magistrate, is to know of my little adventure here? Wellwellwe shall see." He darted from the door of the house, through which he had made so highly successful and adventurous a progress, and pursued William with such strides as soon brought him close up to him. But the thoroughfare in which they were was too public a one for Todd to venture upon any overt act in it. He followed William sufficiently closely however to be enabled to take advantage of any opportunity that might present itself to possess himself by violence of the letter. Now William had been told the affair was urgent, so of course he took all the nearest cuts he could to the house of Sir Richard Blunt, and such a mode of progress soon brought him into a sufficiently quiet street for Todd's purpose. The latter looked right and left. He turned completely round, and no one was cominga more favourable opportunity could not be. Stepping lightly up to William he by one heavy blow upon the back of his neck felled him. The groom lay insensible. Todd had seen him place the colonel's letter in his breastpocket, and at once he dived his huge hand into that receptacle to find it. He was successfulone glance at the epistle that he drew forth sufficed to assure him that it was the one he sought. It was duly addressed to Sir Richard Blunt"With speed and private." "Indeed, very private," said Todd. "Wretch! Wretch!" cried some one from a window, and Todd knew then that the deed of violence had been witnessed by some one from one of the houses. With an execration, he darted off at full speed, and soon placed a perfect labyrinth of streets between him and all pursuit. He thrust the letter all crumbled up into his pocket, and he would not pause to read it until he was much nearer to Fleetstreet than to the colonel's house, or the scene of his attack upon the groom. Then, by the light of a more than usually brilliant lamp, which with its expiring energies was showing the world what an old oil lamp could do, he opened and read the brief letter. It was as follows. "Dear Sir Richard. "Todd has been here upon murderous thoughts intent. Poor Tobias has, I fear, broken a bloodvessel, and is in a most precarious condition. I leave all to you. The villain escaped, but is injured I think." "Yours very faithfully, "John Jeffery." "To Sir Richard Blunt. "Broken a bloodvessel," said Todd. "Ha! ha! Broken a bloodvessel. Ha! Then Tobias may yet be food for worms, and the meat of the pretty crawlers to the banquet. Ha!" He walked on with quite a feeling of elation; and yet there was, as he came to think, a somethinghe could not exactly define whatabout the tone of the letter, that began upon second thoughts to give him no small share of uneasiness. The familiar way in which he was mentioned as Todd merely, without further description, argued some foregone conclusion. It seemed to say, Todd, the man whom we both know so well, and have our eyes upon. Did it mean that? A cold perspiration broke out upon the forehead of the guilty wretch. What was he to think? What was he to do? He read the letter again. It sounded much more unmeaning and strange now. He had at first been too much dazzled by the pleasant intelligence regarding Tobias, to comprehend fully the alarming tone of the epistle; but now it waked upon his imagination, and his brain soon became vexed and troubled. "Offoff, and away," he muttered. "Yes, I must be off before the dawn. The interception of this letter saves me for some few hours. In the morning, the colonel will see Sir Richard Blunt, and then they will come to arrest me; but I shall be upon the German Ocean by then. Yes, the Hamburgh ship for me." He was so near his home now that it was not worth while to call a coach. He could run to Fleet Street quicker, so off he set at a great pace till his breath failed him. Then he held on to a post so faint and weak, that a little child might have apprehended him. "Curse them all," he said. "I wish they all had but one throat, and I a knife at it. All who cross me, I mean." Time was rather an important element now in Todd's affairs, and he felt that he could not allow himself a long period even to recover from the state of exhaustion in which he was. After a few minutes rest, he pushed on. One of those sudden changes that the climate of this country is subject to, now took place; and although the sky had looked serene and bright, and there had been twinkling stars in the blue firmament but a short time before, Todd began to find that his clothing was but little protection against the steady rain that commenced falling with a perseverance that threatened something lasting. "All is against me," he said. "All is against me." He struggled on with the rain dashing in his face, and trickling, despite all his exertions to the contrary, down his neck. Suddenly he paused, and laid his finger upon his forehead, as though a sudden thought of more than ordinary importance had come across his mind. "The turpentine!" he said. "The turpentine. Confound it, I forget the turpentine." What this might mean was one of Todd's own secrets; but before he went home, he ran down several streets until he came to a kind of wholesale drug warehouse. He rang the bell violently. "What is it?" said a voice. "The small keg of turpentine that was to be sent to Mr. Todd's in Fleet Street, is particularly wanted." "It was sent about half an hour ago." "Oh, thank youthank you. That will do. A wet night." In a few minutes more he was at his own shopdoor. CHAPTER LXXXV. SIR RICHARD MAKES PLANS. Johanna had had a long time to herself in Todd's shop now. When first he left upon that expedition of murder, she had almost been afraid to stir, for she had feared he might momentarily return; but as his stay became longer and longer protracted, she plucked up courage. She began to look about her. "As yet," she said to herself, "what has been done towards arriving at a solution of the mysteries of this dreadful place?" The more she thought, the more she felt compelled to answer this inquiry in an unsatisfactory manner. What had been done? The only thing that could be said to be settled, was the fact that Todd was guilty, and that Mrs. Lovett was his accomplice. That he, by some diabolical means, murdered people who came into his shop to be shaved, was a fact, incontestable; but how he did the deed, still remained a mystery. The care which Todd always bestowed for the purpose of concealing the manner in which he committed the murder, had hitherto been successful. No one but himself, and probably Mrs. Lovett, knew exactly how he did the deed. It has been of course sufficiently observed that he never attempted anything amiss when two people were in the shop. That he always made it a point to get rid of Johanna upon occasions when he thought he had a chance of making a victim; and that in fact he had, by the very fact that Sir Richard Blunt and his officers had in various disguises followed people into his shop, been for some time prevented from the commission of his usual murders. Now without in the smallest degree disguising what he did know, it is quite clear that Sir Richard Blunt up to that time did not know how Todd did the deeds of blood for which his shop was to become famous, and himself infamous. That people went in and never came out again, was about the extent of what was really known. The authorities, including Sir Richard Blunt, were extremely anxious to know exactly how these murders were committed, and hence they waited with the hope, that something would occur to throw a light upon that part of the subject, before they apprehended Todd. At any moment, of course, he could have been seized, and he little suspected that he was upon such a mine. If anything, however, could be said to expedite the arrest of Todd, it would certainly be what had taken place at the colonel's house. Now, to all appearance, when the colonel came home so close upon the events that had happened in his absence, and had so very nearly been fatal to both Minna Gray and Tobias, Todd had made his escape. A rapid, but effective search of his, the colonel's house, sufficed to prove that there he was not. The appearance of Tobias, with blood gushing from his mouth, was sufficiently alarming, and it was under the impression that he was dying from the rupture of a bloodvessel, that the colonel wrote the note to Sir Richard Blunt, which was intercepted by Sweeney Todd himself. Upon the arrival, however, of the surgeon, who was immediately sent for, it was soon ascertained that the bloodvessel which had given way in poor Tobias, was not on the lungs, and that the danger arising from it was by no means great, provided he were kept quiet and properly attended to. Minna Gray received this information with deep thankfulness, and the colonel, upon hearing it, immediately sought Sir Richard to consult with him upon the subject in its now altered state, for the idea that Tobias was dying, had made him, the colonel, view the affair much more passionately than prudently. By dint of some trouble, the colonel found Sir Richard Blunt, and then to his no small surprise, for he had known his groom long, and thought he could thoroughly depend upon him, he found that the magistrate had received no note at all upon the subject, so that of course no steps had been taken. Upon hearing the affair detailed to him, Sir Richard Blunt said "I regret this much, as it will put Todd in a fright and expedite his departure." "But was he not going by the Hamburgh packet before daydawn? At any rate, I understood you that by the manner in which you had dogged him, you had thoroughly ascertained that fact?" "I had, but had taken steps to prevent him." "You would arrest him tonight?" "No, I do not think it advisable to arrest him just yet. The fact is, I do not know all that I want to know; but in order to stop him from leaving his shop tonight, I have caused the Hamburgh Captain Owners, to write to him, since he had taken a passage, telling him that the ships stores would not be ready until tomorrow, when at one hour before sunrise he would sail." "Then you want to keep him in his shop another day?" "I do. I hope and expect that during that day, something may occur to clear up the mystery that still attaches to the mode in which he commits his murders." "It may so." "I think I can take measures by running some little personal risk to make it do so; but something must be hit upon to calm his mind, regarding this affair at your house now, for he will expect nothing but instant arrest on its account." "What can I do?" "If you will be guided by me you will write Todd a letter, threatening him that if there is any more interference with Tobias, you will prosecute him, but that you will, if you hear no more of him at your house, say nothing of the past. You need be under no fear that he will derive any future advantage from such a promise, as any charge against him connected with poor Tobias will sink into insignificance, compared with other offences." "True! true!" "Such a letter, couched with the one concerning the nondeparture of the ship, may keep him in his shop over tomorrow." "And then" "Then he sleeps in Newgate, from which building he steps on to the scaffold." "But has he not sent many trunks and packages to the ship?" "Yes, and I have as regularly removed them all to the policeoffice at Bow Street. We have already some thousands of pounds worth of property of the most costly description." "But Johanna? What is to become of her?" "You may depend upon it that Todd will pursue the same course with her that he did with Tobias. He will give her a trifle of money, and tell her to get a night's lodging out; and in that case she knows where to come to be quite safe and comfortable. But if such should not be the case, my protecting arm is over her; I think I can almost defy Todd to do her any injury." "Think you so?" "Yes, I have made such arrangements that if she were missed only for ten minutes, Todd's house would be searched from top to bottom. I would not, for this right hand, that any harm should come to her." "Nor Inor I." "Be at ease regarding her, colonel." "I know how fully we may trust to you, and therefore I will be at ease regarding her; and I will at once write the letter to Todd you suggest to me." "Do so. His fears upon your account must be calmed down." The colonel accordingly wrote the necessary note to Todd. Of course, neither he nor Sir Richard Blunt knew that Todd had another reason for wishing to be off that night, which consisted in his great unwillingness to meet Mrs. Lovett in the morning; for it will be recollected that he had an appointment with that lady upon money matters at an early hour. The reader is now fully aware of how matters stand, and will be able to comprehend easily the remarkable events which rapidly ensued upon this state of things, and therefore we can at once return to Todd. We left him upon his doorstep. It was never Todd's custom to walk at once into his house as any one else would do upon their arrival, whose "Conscience was not redolent of guilt!" but he would peep and pry about, and linger like a moth fluttering around a candle, or a rat smelling at some tempting morsel, which might be connected with some artfully contrived trap, before he entered. He wanted sadly to get a peep at what Charley was doing. Now, poor Johanna, fortunately at that moment, was only sitting before the little miserable fire, holding her face in her hands, and deeply thinking of the once happy past. She had brought out from beneath the counter the sleeve of a sailor's jacket, which she had found upon her former examination of the shop, and after sprinkling it with some tears, for she fully believed it must have belonged to Mark Ingestrie, she had hidden it again. And now as she sat in that house of murder all alone, she was picturing to herself every tone and look of her lover when he had first told her that he loved her before, as she might have said in the words of the old song "He loved me, and he sped away Far o'er the raging sea, To seek the gems of other lands, And bring them all to me." At that moment, with all external objects hidden from her perception she could almost fancy she could hear his voice as he had said to her"My darling, I shall come back rich and prosperous, and we shall be happy." Alas! how sadly had that dream ended. He who had escaped the perils of the deephe who had successfully battled with the tempest, and all the perils by sea and by land incidental to the life he had embarked in, had returned miserably to perish, almost within hearing of her for whom he had adventured so much. The thought was maddening! "And I live!" she said; "I can live after that! Oh, MarkMarkI did not love you well enough, or I could not have existed so long after the horrible certainly of your fate has been revealed to me. They may say what they will to try to make me calmer and happier, but I know that he is Todd's victim." After this she sat for a time in a kind of stupor, and it was during that interval that Todd arrived home. There was no light in the shop but what at times came from a little flickering flame, that would splutter into a moment's brief existence in the fire; but Todd, as he glared through the upper portion of the halfglass door at a spot where he knew the blind did not prevent him, could just see Johanna thus sitting. "Humph!" he said. "The boy is quiet enough, and probably, after all, may suspect nothing; although I don't at all like his manner at times; yet it is safer to kill him before I go. It is absolute security. He shall help me to arrange everything to set the house on fire, and then when I have completed all my arrangements, it will be easy to knock him on the head." With this he opened the door. Johanna started. "Well," said Todd, "well, any one been?" "Only a man to be shaved, sir. I told him you would be home soon, but he could not wait, so he left." "Let him leave and get shaved at the devil!" said Todd. "You are sure no one has been here peeping and prying, and asking questions which you would be quite delighted to answer, eh?" "Peeping and prying, sir?" "Yes, peeping and prying. You know the meaning of that. Don't put on a look of surprise at me. It won't do. I known what you boys are. Curse you all! Yes, I know what you are." Johanna made no answer. Todd took off his hat, and shook the rain from it violently. Then in a voice that made Johanna start again, he cried "Light the lamp, idiot!" It was quite clear that the occurrences at the colonel's had not improved Todd's temper at all, and that upon very little pretext for it, he would have committed some act of violence, of which Johanna might be the victim. Anything short of that she could endure, but she had made up her mind that if even he so much as laid his hand upon her, her power of further patience would be gone, and she would be compelled to adopt the means of summoning aid which had been pointed out to her by Sir Richard Bluntnamely, by casting something through the window into the street. She lit the shoplamp as quickly as she could. "A lazy life you lead," said Todd. "A lazy life, indeed. Well, well," he added, softening his tone, "it don't matterI shall polish you off for all that, Charley. What a pretty boy you are." "Sir?" "I say what a pretty boy you are. Why, you must have been your mamma's pet, that you must. I was. Ha! ha! Look at me, now. I was fondled and kissed once, and called a pretty boy. Ha!" Johanna shuddered. "Yes," added Todd, as he wiped himself down with a soiled towel, "yes, my mother used to make quite a pet of me. I often used to wish I was strong enough to throttle her! Ha! ha! That I did!" "Throttle her, sir?" "Yes," added Todd, fiercely. "What the devil did she bring me into the world for her own gratifications, unless she had plenty of money to give me that I might enjoy myself in it?" "I don't know, sir." "You don't know? Who the devil supposed you did know? Answer me that, you imp! Well, well, Charley, you and I won't quarrel about such matters. Come, my boy, I want you to be of use to me tonight." "Tonight, sir?" "Yes, tonight. Is it broad daylight? Is the sun shining? Is there no such thing as night, under cover of which black deeds are done? Curse you! why do you ask if tonight is the time for action?" "I will do your bidding, sir." "Yes; andAh! who is this?" "Is this here keg of turpentine for you?" said a man, with it upon his shoulder. "Mr. Todd's this is, ain't it?" "Yesyes. Put it down, my good fellow. You ought to have something to drink." "Thank you kindly, sir." "But you must pay for it yourself. There is a publichouse opposite." The man went away swearing; and scarcely had he crossed the threshold, when a letter was brought by a lad, and handed to Todd. Before he could ask any questions, the lad was gone. Todd held the letter in his hand, and glared at the direction. It was to him, sure enough, and written in a very clerklike hand, too. Before he could open it, some one hit the door a blow upon the outside, and it swung open. "Is this Todd's, the barber?" "Yes," said Johanna. "Then give him that letter, little chap, will you?" "Stop!" cried Todd. "Stop. Where do you come from, and who are you? Stop, you rascal. Will you stop? Confound you, I wish I had a razor at your throat." CHAPTER LXXXVI. TODD RECEIVES TWO EXTRAORDINARY LETTERS, AND ACTS UPON THEM. Todd looked the picture of amazement. "Two letters!" he muttered, "two letters to me, who seldom receive any? To me who have no acquaintancesno relations? Bah! It must be some mistake, or perhaps, after all, some infernal nonsense about the parish." He tore open the last received one, and read as follows "Colonel Jeffery informs Sweeney Todd that, although from a variety of reasons he may not think proper to prosecute him for his recent outrage at his house, he will, upon a repetition of such conduct, at once hand him over to the police." Todd's countenance, during the perusal of this brief note, betrayed a variety of emotions; and when he had concluded it, he let it drop from his hands, and knitting his brows, he muttered "What does this mean?" That there wasthat there must be something much more than met the eye in this boasted clemency of the colonel towards him, he felt quite convinced; but what it was, he was puzzled to think for a time. At length, brightening up, he said "Yes, I have it. It is Tobiasit is Tobias. He cannot rid himself from the idea that I have some mysterious power of injuring his mother; and perhaps, after all, he may have made no disclosures to the colonel injurious to me." Comforted by this wide supposition, Todd picked up the letter again, and put it in his pocket carefully. "It is as well," he said, "for I shall not now be hurried. No, I shall not be at all hurried now, which I might have been.Charley." "Yes, sir." "Trim the lamp." Johanna did so; and while the process was going on, Todd opened the other letter, it was as follows "Sir,We beg to inform you that our Hamburgh vessel in which you have done us the favour to take passage, will not sail until tomorrow night at four, God willing, and that consequently there will be no occasion for your coming on board earlier.We are, sir, "Your obedient servants, "Brown, Buggins, Muggs, and Screamer." "To Mr. S. Todd." Todd ground his teeth together in a horrible manner. He dashed the letter to the floor, and stamped upon it. "Curse Brown and Buggins!" he cried. "I only wish I could dash out Muggs and Screamer's brains with Brown and Buggins's skulls. Confound them and their ships. May they all go to the bottom when I am out of them, and be smashed and dd!" Johanna was amazed at this sudden torrent of wrath. She could not imagine what had produced it, for Todd had read the letter in a muttering tone, that effectually prevented her from hearing any of it. Suddenly he rose and rushed into the back room, and bolted the door upon himself. He went to think what was best to be done. When he was alone he read both the letters again, and then he burst out into such a torrent of wrath against the shipowners, that it was a mercy Johanna's ears were spared the dreadful words that came from his lips. Suddenly he saw a postscript at the foot of the shipowner's letter, which he had at first overlooked. "P. S.The ship is removed to Crimmins's Wharf, but will be at her old moorings at time mentioned above." "Dn Crimmins and his wharf, too!" cried Todd. He flung himself into a chair, and sat for a time profoundly still. During that period he tried to make up his mind as to what it would be best for him, under the circumstances, to do. Many plans floated through his imagination. He could not for a long time bring himself to believe that the letter of the colonel's was anything but a feint to throw him off his guard in some way. At length he got into a calmer frame of mind. "Shall I leave at once, or stay till tomorrow night, that is the question?" He argued this with himself, pro and con. If he left he would have to secret himself somewhere all the following day, and the fact of his having left would make an active search, safe to be instituted for him, which would possibly be successful. Besides, how was he to conveniently set fire to his house, unless he was off on the moment that the flames burst forth? Then if he stayed he had Mrs. Lovett to encounter, but that was all; and surely he could put her off for a few hours? Surely she, of all people in the world, was not to run to a policeoffice and destroy both him and herself, just because she did not get some money at ten o'clock that he had promised to hand to her. "She shall be put off," he said, suddenly, "and I will stay over tomorrow. I am safer here than anywhere else, of that I feel assured. If there are any suspicious whisperings about me at all, they will grow to loud clamours the moment I am gone, and then they may reach the ears of these shipowners, and they may say at once, 'Why we have such a man with a passage taken in one of our Hamburgh ships.' Let them say that when the ship is some twenty hours gone with me on board, and I don't care; but with me on land, and the ship only to sail, instead of having actually sailed, it is quite a different matter." He rose from his seat. His mind was made up. He had not quite decided what he should say to Mrs. Lovett, but he had decided upon staying. "Charley will live another day," he muttered; "but tomorrow night he dies, and his body will be consumed with this house, and, I hope, a good part of Fleetstreet. It will not be prudent to get him to assist now in disposing the combustibles to fire the house. He might speak of it before tomorrow night." Todd came out into the shop. "Charley, my boy!" How kindly he spoke! "I am here, sir." "You must not mind what I say when I am vexed. Many things happen to put me out of the way. Sometimes people that I have done I don't know how much for, turn out to be very ungrateful, and then I get chafed, you see, Charley." "Yes, sir, no doubt." "But, after I have retired to the parlour and prayed a little, my mind soon recovers its usual religious tone, and its wonted serenity; and for the sake of the Almighty, who, you know, is good to us all, Charley, I forgive all that is done to me, and pray for the wicked." Johanna shuddered. This hypocrisy sounded awful to her.


"Never go to rest, Charley, without saying your prayers. There's threepence for you. You can get yourself a bed in the neighbourhood for that amount somewhere, I daresay. I am very sorry I cannot accommodate you here, Charley. Now go away, and let me have you here by seven in the morning; and mind, above all things, cultivate a religious spirit, and do unto your neighbours as you would that your neighbours should do unto you." Johanna could not reply. "Here is a tract that you can read before you go to sleep, if they allow you a candle, when you get abed. It is entitled 'Groans of Grace, or the Sinner Sifted,' a most godly production, from a pious bookseller in Paternosterrow, Charley." "Yes," Johanna just managed to say. "Now you may go." She darted from the shop. "Hilloa! hilloa! Stopstop, Charley! Stopstop, will you? Confound you, stop! The infernal shutters are not up. Do you hear? I forgot them." Todd rushed to his door. He looked right and left, and over the way, and, in fact, everywhere, but no Charley was to be seen. The fact is, that Johanna, the moment she felt herself released from the shop, had darted over the way, and into the fruiterers, where she had found so friendly a welcome before, and all this was done in such a moment, that she was housed before Todd could get his shopdoor open. "Welcome!" said a voice. She found it proceeded from the fruiterer's daughter, who had behaved so kindly to her. Johanna burst into tears. "What has happened?what has happened?" cried the young girl. "Nothing, now," said Johanna. "But I cannot keep up longer than when I am in that shop. As soon as I am fairly out of the presence of that dreadful man, I feel ready to faint." "Be of good cheer," said a deeptoned voice. She looked up, and saw Sir Richard Blunt. "You here, sir?" "Yes, Johanna. I have been now for some time watching Todd's shop from our friend's firstfloor window. I saw you dart across the road, and for the moment feared something had gone wrong. Did Todd get two letters?" "He did." "They will, I hope, keep him quiet until another night. Dare you go back again, Johanna, to that place?" "Yes, if it be necessary; but he has told me to sleep out, and the gust of pleasure I felt at the permission, almost, I fear, betrayed me." "He came to the door and looked furiously after you, but he did not see which way you had come. You were over here like a flash of light." "He would have had me back again, then?What could that be for?" "At all events, you shall not go until the morning, and not then, unless after a night's rest here, you feel that you can do so with a good heart." "Oh yes, I will fulfil my mission." "Todd is putting up his shutters," said the fruiterer, as he came in from his front shop. "Ah, then the secret is out," said Sir Richard Blunt. "That is what he wanted you back for, Johanna. He had forgotten at the moment all about the shutters you may depend. I am glad he spared you the trouble, at any rate. I do not like you to perform any service for such a rank villain as he is." "It would not have been for him, sir." "For who, then?" "For the dead. I feel that I am bound to bring to justice the murderer of Mark Ingestrie. When I was here last, sir, you strove to comfort me, by making me feel a sort of hope that he was not dead, but I cannot think thatI would that I could, but indeed I cannot, sir." "Do not be too sure, Johanna." "Nay, look at that." She laid before the magistrate the sleeve of the jacket that she had found at Todd's, and which fancy, for she certainly had no proof that way tending, told her had belonged to Mark Ingestrie. "What is this?" "Look at it, sir. My heart tells me it was his!" "And so you suppose there was never but one sailor's jacket with ivory buttons on the wrist in the world, and never any one who wore one, but Mark Ingestrie?" "Nay, the place in which it was found brings conviction." "Not at all. Do you forget there was such a person as Thornhill in the world, Johanna?" "No; but why will every one persist in fancying Thornhill and Ingestrie to be two persons, when I am convinced they were but one? Let who will identify this as part of Thornhill's apparel, and I will weep for Mark." "I cannot just now shake this supposition." "You never will." "If I live I will, Johanna, I give you my word for so much. Pray who is the best to judge of such things? You, a young girl who have seen little or nothing of the world, and whose natural apprehension is rendered obscure by the conflict of your affections, or I whose business it is to come to an accurate conclusion of such matters? I repeat my conviction, that Thornhill was not Mark Ingestrie." "Oh, if I could think so!" "You will." "You have no doubt, sir, but Thornhill perished by the hand of Todd?" "None whatever." Johanna looked deeply affected. "Come," added Sir Richard, "you want both rest and refreshment, and you can have both here at this house. Tomorrow I hope will end all your trials, my dear girl, and I shall live, I trust, to see you smile as you ought to smile, and to be as happy as only a very dim recollection of the past will make you." "Ah, nonever happy." "You must love some one. You must recover, and in the cares and joys of a new existence, you must only look back upon what has passed, as though you pondered upon the phantasma of some fearful dream; and when you see all around you smiling" "It will be cruel for them to smile, sir; and it is now cruel of you to speak to me of loving another, when you know my affections are with Ingestrie, in that world to which he has gone before me, but to which I look forward to as the place of our happy meeting, where we shall part again no more." "Well, I thought I could find you a lover that would be to your mind when all these affairs were over." "Sir?" "Nay, be not offended. You know I am your sincere friend." "I know you are, and that is what makes it so grievous to me to hear you talk in such a strain, sir." "Then I will say no more." "I thank you, Sir Richard; and I will forget what you have said, because I will recollect nothing from you, or committed with you, but kindness and consideration." Sir Richard smiled slightly for a moment, as he turned aside and spoke to his friend the fruiterer for some minutes in a low tone. The young girl who had before behaved with such kindness to Johanna, took her by the hand, and led her upstairs. "Come," she said, "you shall tell me all you have suffered opposite since we parted last, and I will speak to you of him whom you love." "You are too good to me." While all this was going on so close to him, Todd, with many oaths and execrations, was putting up his own shutters, which he did with a violence that nearly knocked the front of the window in. When he had finished, he walked into his house, and closing the door, he said, in a low tone "I must make up my mind what to say to Mrs. Lovett in the morning. I am afraid she will be hard to pacify." At this moment a man peered out from the inn gateway opposite, and said to himself "Now begins my watch. I dare say now Mrs. Lovett has some particular reason for watching this barber, though she did not tell me. However, a guinea for one night's work is not bad pay." CHAPTER LXXXVII. MR. LUPIN MEDDLES WITH OTHER FOLKS' AFFAIRS. "Brother Oakley, is sister Oakley within?" This rather cool speechcool considering all the circumstanceswas uttered by no other than the Reverend Mr. Lupin to Mr. Oakley, who was working in his shop on the morning after Johanna had gone upon her perilous enterprise to Todd's. Mr. Oakley looked up with surprise upon his features. "What?" he said. "Is sister Oakley within, brother?" "Don't call me brother, you canting hypocrite. How do you make out any such relationship, I should like to know?" "Are we not all brothers in the Lord?" "Pho! Go along." "Nay, brother Oakley, my coming to you upon this day hath, in good truth, a meaning." As he said these words, the countenance of the pious man had upon it a malignant expression, and there was a twinkle about his eyes, which said as plainly as possible, "And that meaning is mischief!" Old Oakley looked at him for some few seconds, and then he said "Hark you, Mr. Lupin, you have already meddled too much in my affairs, and I desire now that you will be so good as to leave them alone." "Humph! brother Oakley, what I have to say, concerns thee to hear, but I would rather say it to thy wife, who is a sister in the faith, and assuredly one of the elect, than I would say it to you, who will assuredly go to a warm place below for your want of faith; so I say again, is sister Oakley within?" "If you mean my wife," replied the old spectaclemaker, "I am sorry to say that nobody knows less of her going out and coming home than I do." "Truly, she frequents the Tabernacle of the Lord, called Ebenezer, where we all put up a hearty and moving prayer for you." "Nobody asks you. I believe you are a set of rascals." "How pleasant this is." "What is pleasant?" "To be nailed. How charming it is for the friends of Satan to call the Saints hard names. Brother Oakley, you are lost, indeed." "If you call me brother again, you shall be lost, Mr. Lupin. I tell you once for all, I don't know anything of my wife's going out or coming home, and I don't want to see you in my shop any more. If it were not for one person in this world, and that one an angel, if ever one lived upon the earth, I should not care how soon my head was laid low." "Humph! brother Oakley! Humph!" Oakley caught up a file to throw at the head of the hypocrite, but there was such an expression of triumph upon his face, that the heart of the old spectaclemaker sunk within him as he thought to himself, "This man brings ill news, or he would never look as he does." The file dropped from his hands, and pushing his spectacles up to the top of his head, he glared at Lupin as he said "Speakspeak! What have you to say?" "Humph!" "Speak man, if you be a man!" "Humph, brother Oakley; you have a daughterJohanna?" "Yes, yes!" cried old Oakley. "My heart told me that it was of my child this wretch came to speak. Tell me all instantly. Speakwhat of my dear Johanna? I will wrest the truth from you. Has anything happenedis she well? Speakspeak!" Mr. Oakley sprang upon the preacher, and seizing him by the throat, forced him back until he fell upon an old chest in the shop that was full of tools and the lid of which giving way with Lupin's weight and the sudden concussion with which he came upon it, precipitated him into the box among a number of pointed implements, the effect of which may be better imagined than described, as the newspapers say. "Murder! murder!" screamed the preacher. "Now you rascal!" cried old Oakley. "Say what you have got to say, and at once, too." "Murder!" again gasped Lupin. "Brother Oakley, spare my life." "I will not spare it if you are not quite explicit as regards what you have hinted of my child. Speak at once. Tell me what you have to say?" "Let me get up. Oh, be merciful, and let me get up." "No. You can stay very well where you are. Be quiet and speak freely, in which case no harm will come to you." "Did you say, be quiet, brother Oakley? Truly you would be anything but quiet in my situation. What induces you to keep all your tools in this chest with the points uppermost?" "You are trying to prevaricate now," said Oakley, suddenly snatching from the wall of his shop an antique sword, that had hung there as a sort of ornament, not entirely inconsistent with his trade. "You are trying to prevaricate with me now, and I must and will have your life. Prepare for the worst. You have now aroused feelings that cannot be so easily quelled again. Your last hour has come!" The sight of the sword awakened the most lively feelings of terror in the mind of the preacher. He gave a howl of dismay, and made the most frantic efforts to get up out of the toolchest; but that was no easy matter, particularly as old Oakley flourished the antique sword in dangerous proximity to his nose. At length, lifting up his hands in the most supplicating manner, he cried "Mercymercy, and I will tell." "Go on, then. Quick." "Yesyes. Oh, dear! Yes. I was sojourning in this ungodly city, and taking my way, deep in thought, upon the wickedness of the world, the greater portion of the inhabitants of which will assuredly go down below, where there is howling and" "You rascal, I'll make you howl if you do not come to the point quickly." A flourish of the sword, so close to the face of Mr. Lupin that he really believed for the moment it had taken the end of his nose off, admonished him that the patience of Mr. Oakley was nearly exhausted, and in a whining tone, he added "Truly, I was in the street called Fleetstreet; when as I was crossing the way, a young lad nearly upset me into the kennel. He did not see me, but I saw him. Truly, brother Oakley, I saw the face of thatthat individual." "Well, what is that to me? I ask you what is he to me? Go on." "Oh, oh, oh! Don't say I have not prepared you for the worst. Oh, oh, oh! Now, brother Oakley, I will tell you, even although it provoke an abundance of wrath. That boythat individual who nearly overthrew me, one of the elect as I am, into the kennel, had the face of your daughter, Johanna." The spectaclemaker looked confused, as well he might. "The face of my daughter, Johanna?" he said. "What do you mean? Is all this cockandabull story about some boy in the street, who happened in your eyes to bear a resemblance to my child?" "Humph! Ay, truly. Humph! so striking a resemblance, that sitting here, even as I am upon the points of many instruments of steel and of iron, I aver that that boy was Johanna Oakley." Oakley staggered back, and the antique sword dropped from his hand, a proceeding which Mr. Lupin proffited sufficiently by to scramble out of the toolchest, and make towards the door. In another moment he would have left the shop, for he had done all the mischief he could, by telling the anxious father such a tale, but suddenly Oakley snatched the sword from the floor again, and rushing after Mr. Lupin, he caught him by the skirts at the very nick of time, and dragged him into the shop again. Holding then the sword to his throat, he said "Scoundrel! How dare you come and tell me such a thing? Your life, your worthless life, ought to pay the penalty of such an odious falsehood." "No, no!" cried Lupin falling upon his knees, for he saw the sword uplifted. "No! What if it be true? What if it be true?" The old man's hands shook, and the point of the sword which had been in most dreadful proximity to Mr. Lupin's throat, was gradually lowered until it touched the floor. "Tell me againtell me again!" gasped Oakley. The preacher saw that his danger was over, and rising, he took a handkerchief from his pocket, and began deliberately to dust his knees, as he said in a low snuffling voice "Truly, you are a vessel of wrath, brother Oakley." "Stop!" cried Oakley. "I have told you before not to call me brother I have no fellowship or brotherhood with you. Do not tempt me to more violence by the use of that word." "Let it be as you please," said Lupin, "but as regards the maiden, who for a surety is fair to look upon, although all flesh is grass, and beauty waneth after a season" "I want none of your canting reflections. To your tale. When and where was it that you saw my child?" "In the street called Fleet, as I and all of us are sinners. She wore nether garments suitable and conformable unto a boy, but not to a girl, as the way of the world goeth; and yet she looked comely did the maidenay, very comely. I was moved to see her truly. Her eyes there was no mistaking, and her lipsAy, it was the maiden; but after sitting in the kennel for one moment into which I fell, and getting up again amid the laughter of the ungodly bystanders, I found that she was gone." "And so you have come on to me with this monstrous tale?" "Monstrous tail?" said Mr. Lupin, turning round as though he expected to find such an appendage flourishing behind him. "I am not aware" The old spectaclemaker staggered into a seat, and holding his hands clasped before him for a few moments, he strove to think calmly of what had been told to him. The preacher was not slow in taking advantage of this condition into which Mr. Oakley fell, to protect himself against any further danger from the sword. He picked up that weapon from the floor, and not finding any place readily in the shop where he might effectually hide it, he held it behind his back, and finally thrust the long blade of it between his coat and his waistcoat, where he thought it was to be sure wonderfully well hidden. He did not calculate that the point projected above his coatcollar and his head some six inches or so, presenting a very singular appearance indeed. He then waited for Oakley to speak, for to tell the truth, the curiosity of Lupin was strongly excited concerning Johanna, as well as his sense of enjoyment, tickled by the distress of the father whom he considered his enemy. After this he waited patiently enough to see what course the afflicted man would pursue, and, indeed, the whole conduct of Lupin was most convincing of the fact, that he entertained no doubt whatever as to the identity of the supposed boy he had seen in Fleet Street. The time at which he had seen Johanna, must have been when she ran over the road from Todd's shop, and took refuge in the fruiterer's. Well, then, poor Mr. Oakley was trying to think. He was trying to convince himself that it could not possibly have been Johanna who had been seen by the preacher; but then there was still present to his mind, the impression that had been made upon it by the singular manner in which she had bidden him adieu upon the last occasion of his seeing her. He remembered how she had come back, after leaving the shop with her young friend, Arabella Wilmot, and how then, with a burst of feeling, she had taken of him a second farewell. No wonder then that, by combining that with the information Lupin had brought, the father found enough to shudder at; and he did shudder. Mr. Lupin watched him attentively. Suddenly rising, with a face pale as death itself, Oakley advanced to Lupin, and laying his hand upon his breast, he said to him "Man, I suspect that there is much hypocrisy in your nature. It may be unjust to do soit may be that I am doing you a wrong, but yet I do think in my heart that you are one of those who adopt the garb and the language of piety for the selfish purposes of human nature. And yet you must have some feeling at the bottom of even such a heart as yours, there must be some touch of humanity; and by that I conjure you to say if you have told the truth to me in this matter concerning my child." "I have," said Lupin. "If you have not, I will say nothing to you, I will be guilty of no attempt at revengeful violence. Only tell me so, and you shall go in peace." "What I have told you of the maiden is true," said Lupin. "I saw herwith these eyes I saw her." The spectaclemaker slipped off his working apron and the black sleeves he wore over his coat to protect it from the dust and other destructive matters incidental to his workbench, and then he snatched his hat from a peg upon which it hung in the shop. "Come," he said. "Come. You and I will walk together to the house, where I was told Johanna was to be; and if I do not find her there, I will thank you for the information you have given to me. I will not stop to inquire what were your motives in giving it, but I will thank you for it. Come. Come with me." "Truly I will come with you," said Lupin, "for I am curiousthat is to say, I am in a religious point of view, anxious to know what has become of the maiden, who was so fair to look upon always, although she had not a godly spirit." Oakley locked up his shop, and put the key in his pocket. Then taking the preacher by the arm, he set off at a fast pace for the house of Arabella Wilmot. CHAPTER LXXXVIII. TODD ASTONISHES MRS. LOVETT'S SPY. We return to Todd. After he had put up his own shutters, and properly secured his doors for the night, he lit the lamp in his parlour, and glancing curiously around him, he muttered "Yes. This will assuredly be the last night here. How I hate the look of anything, and how eagerly I shall banish from my mind all kind of remembrance of this place when I am in another land, as I shall be shortly. Let me see I will embrace the catholic religion, and I will be most devout. The regularity of my religious exercises shall do much for me. Indeed, I do not think I could have remained so long in London, if I had not had the prudence to be regular at the church. It is true that of late I have neglected all that, but then I am going soon, and it does not matter." Todd sat down, and looked over the memoranda of things he had to do that he had made. He felt tolerably satisfied with the condition of affairs. That Colonel Jeffery and that others suspected him, he could not doubt; but he felt quite confident that he should be far off, before those suspicions repaired into anything dangerous to him. He still clung to the idea that they knew nothing, or else they would arrest him; and while such did not ensue, he considered himself as in a tolerably safe position. He then set about the preparations for firing his house. We need not follow him through those preparations. We need not state how he soaked clothes in turpentine and oil, and how he placed them in such positions, combined with small packages of gunpowder, and lumps of rosin, that if a torch were to be applied at the lower part of the house, the whole would be in a few moments in a blaze. Suffice it to say, that Todd worked hard for the next two hours, and that by the time they had gone, he had got everything ready for the perpetration of that last crime which he intended to commit, before he crossed the threshold of his house upon the following night, to leave it for ever. Todd Preparing Combustibles To Fire His House. Todd Preparing Combustibles To Fire His House. More than once during these two hours he drank brandy. The ardent spirit had become necessary to the existence of Todd now; and when he took a draught at the conclusion of his labours, he smiled grimly as he said "Charley Green will have quite a funeral of flame. He shall die, and his body shall be consumed in the blazing fragments of this house, and it will go hard but this side of Fleet Street suffers. Oh, if the flames would only spread to the old church, I should rejoice much at that, and they may do so.Yes, they may do so. Ha! ha! I shall be remembered in London." As he spoke, a dull heavy sort of sound at the outer door of his house came upon his ears. It was as though something heavy had been thrown against it. With fear expressed upon every feature of his face, Todd listened for a repetition of the sound. It did not come again. Todd began to breathe a little more freely, and yet he kept asking himself"What was it?"and the utmost powers of his imagination could return him no feasible answer to the interesting inquiry. But nothing was more easy than to go to the door and see if any one was there, or if anything had happened to it. Should he open it for such a purpose? Should he unbar and unbolt at the risk of he knew not what? No he would, from the first floor balcony, and there was a frail one, reconnoitre the street. He should then be easily able to see if there were any danger. He had no sooner made this determination, than he carried it out, by ascending the dark blackened staircase, conducting to the upper part of his house, that staircase which was now so completely covered by combustible materials. At every few steps he took he listened attentively. He thought there might yet be a repetition of the sound; but noall was still; and by the time he reached his first floor, he was in some sort recovered from his first fright. That was something. He left his light upon the stairhead, for he had no wish to point himself out to the chance passengers in Fleet Street, or perhaps to some enemy, by going into that room with a light in his hand. No, Todd was much too acute for that; so carefully closing the door, so that no ray of light got in from the staircase, he crept to the window. The shutters had to be unfastened, for Todd's house was always carefully closed up like the Duke of Wellington's at the present day. He very quickly unclosed one of the longdisused windows, and opening it gently, looked out over the edge of the little crazy balcony into the street. Something big and black was against his door. The more Todd bent his gaze upon this object, the more a kind of undefined terror took possession of him, and the more puzzled he was to give a name to the dark mass that had been laid upon his threshold. There was no lamp very near his house, or else, miserable as was the light from those old oil apologies for illuminators, some few rays might have fallen upon the dark mass, and told Todd what it was. But noall was dark and dubious, and he strained his eyes in vain to penetrate the mystery. "I must go down," he said; "I must open the door. Yes, I cannot live and not know what this is. I must open the door, however reluctantly, and ascertain precisely. Ah!" While Todd was talking, and still keeping his eyes fixed upon the mysterious object at his door, he saw suddenly in the midst of it a bright luminous spark, as if something connected with it was of a red heat, and slowly smouldering on fire. If he was before puzzled to account for the phenomenon of a dark object, without shape or form, lying propped up against his door, he was now more than ever confounded, and his imagination started some of the most improbable conjectures in the world, to account for the appearance. He thought that it must be some combustible, which, in the course of a few moments, would go off with a stunning report, and blow his streetdoor to atoms; but then again, what could be the object of such a thing? The more he considered the affair from above, the more he was puzzled and terrified; so at last, with a feeling of desperation, he ran down stairs and began to unfasten the streetdoor. He did not pause in his work until he had flung it open, and then the mystery was explained. A man, half asleep, with a lighted pipe in his mouth, rolled backwards into the shop; and as he did so, with the dreamy halfconsciousness that he was upon some sort of duty, he said "I'll watch him, Mrs. Lovett. He shan't get away without your knowing of it, ma'am." Todd understood the man's errand in a moment. Of course he had been employed to watch him by Mrs. Lovett, who had a slight idea that he might not be forthcoming for the promised morning settlement. Todd seized the man by the collar, and dragging him fairly into the shop, closed the door again. "Ah!" he said, "a good joke." "What's a joke, sir?" said the man. "What's a joke? Murder! Where am I?where am I? Help!" "Hush!" said Todd. "Hush! It's of no consequence. I know all about it man. Mrs. Lovett employed you to watch me. She was a little jealous, but we have made it all right now, and she asked me, if I saw you, to pay you and give you a glass of something, beside." "Did she, sir?" "To be sure she did; so come in, and you can tell her when you see her in the morning, that you had of me a glass of as good liquor as could be found in London. Bythebye, what am I to pay you?" "A guinea, sir." "Exactly. It was a guinea, of course. This way, my friend, this way. Don't fall over the shavingchair, I beg of you. You can't hurt it, for it is a fixture; but you might hurt yourself, and that is of more importance to you, you know. While we do live in this world, if it be for ever so short a time, we may as well live comfortably." Talking away thus all suspicion from the man who was not one of the brightest of geniuses in the world, Todd led the way to the parlourthat fatal parlour which had been the last scene of more than one mortal life. He closed the door, and then in quite a goodhumoured way, he pointed to the seat, saying "Rest yourself, my friendrest yourself, while I get out the bottle. And so it is one guinea that I am to give you, eh?" "Yes, sir; and all I can say is that I am very glad to hear that you and Mrs. Lovett have made matters all right again. Very glad, indeed, sir, I may say. In course, I shouldn't have took the liberty of sitting down by your door, sir, if she had not told me to watch the house and let her know, if so, be as you come out of it, or if I saw any packages moving. She didn't say anything to me what it was for; but a guinea is just as well earned easy as not, you see, sir!" "Certainly, my friend, certainly. Drink that." The man tossed off the glass of something that Todd gave him, and then he licked his lips, as he said "What is it, sir? It's strong, but I can't say, for my part, that I like the flavour of it much." "Not like it?" "Not much, sir." "Why it's a most expensive foreign liquor that is, and by all the best judges in the kingdom is never found fault with. Very few persons, indeed, have tasted it; but of those few, not one has come to me to say, Mr. Todd" "Good God!" said the man, as he clasped his head with both of his hands. "Good God, how strange I feel. I must be going mad!" "Mad!" cried Todd, as he leant far over the table so as to bring his face quite close to the man's. "Mad! not at all. What you feel now is part of your deathpang. You are dyingI have poisoned you. Do you hear that? You have watched me, and I have in return poisoned you. Do you understand that?" Todd Poisons Mrs. Lovett's Spy And Tells Him Of It. Todd Poisons Mrs. Lovett's Spy And Tells Him Of It. The dying man made an ineffectual effort to rise from the chair, but he could not. With a gasping sob he let his head sink upon his breasthe was dead! "They perish," said Todd, "one by one; they who oppose me, perish, and so shall they all. Ha! so shall they all; and she who set this fool on to his destruction shall feel, yet, the pang of death, and know that she owes it to me! Yes, Mrs. Lovett, yes." He closed his arms over his breast, and looked at the body for some moments in silence; and then, with a sneer upon his lips, he added "No, Mrs. Lovett, you did not show your judgment in this matter. Had you wished to watch me, you should have done it yourself, and not employed this poor weak wretch who has paid the price of his folly. Gogo!" He struck the chair from under the dead man with his foot, and the corpse that had partially been supported by it and the table, fell to the floor. Another kick sent it under the large table, and then, as another of Todd's victims had once done, it disappeared. "Tomorrow night, by this time," said Todd, musingly, "where shall I be!" CHAPTER LXXXIX. MR. OAKLEY IS IN DESPAIR AT THE LOSS OF JOHANNA. The anxiety of poor Mr. Oakley increased each moment as he and the preacher neared the house of Arabella Wilmot's friends. We regret to say that Mr. Lupin did enjoy the mental agony of the father; but it was in his nature so to do, and we must take poor humanity as we find it. It must be recollected that Mr. Lupin had, through Johanna, suffered great malefactions. The treatment he had received at the hands of Big Ben, although most richly deserved, had been on account of Johanna, and as regarded the old spectaclemaker himself, he had always occupied an antagonistic position as regarded Mr. Lupin. No wonder then, we say, that human nature, particularly in its evangelical variety, was not proof against the fascination of a little revenge. Now, Mr. Lupin felt so sure that he had made no mistake, but that it was no other than the fair Johanna whom he had seen in what he called the unseemly apparel, that he did not feel inclined to draw back for a moment in the matter.


Curiosity, as well as a natural (to him) feeling of malignity, urged him to stick by the father in order that he might know the result of inquiries that he, Lupin, had no opportunity or excuse for making, but which Mr. Oakley might institute with the most perfect and unquestionable profundity. As we have before had occasion to remark, the distance between Oakley's shop and the residence of the friends of Arabella was but short, so that, at the speed which the excited feelings of the fond father induced him to adopt, he soon stood upon the threshold of the residence, beneath the roof of which he hoped, notwithstanding the news so confidently brought by Lupin, to find his muchloved, idolized child. "You shall see," he said to Lupin, catching his breath as he spoke; "you shall see how very wrong you are." "Humph!" said Lupin. "You shall see," continued poor Oakley, still dallying with the knocker; "you shall see what an error you have made, and how impossible it is that my childmy good and kind Johannacould be the person you saw in Fleetstreet." "Ah!" said Lupin. Mr. Oakley knocked at the door, and, as one of the family had seen him through the blinds of the parlourwindow, he was at once admitted, and kindly received by those who knew him and his worth well. He asked, in an odd gasping manner, that Mr. Lupin might have permission to come in, which was readily granted; and with a solemn air, shaking his head at the vanities he saw in the shape of some profane statuary in the hall, the preacher followed Oakley to the diningroom. It was an aunt of Arabella's to whom they were introduced, and, with a smile, she said "Really, Mr. Oakley, a visit from you is such a rarity that we ought not to know how to make enough of you when you do come. Why, it must have been Christmas twelvemonths since you were last beneath this roof. Don't you remember when your dear, good, pretty Johanna won all hearts?" "Yes, yes," said Oakley, glancing triumphantly at Lupin. "My dear child, whom all the world lovesGod bless her!She is pure, and good, and faultless as an angel." "That, Mr. Oakley," said the lady, "I believe she is. We are as fond of her here, and always as glad to see her, as though she belonged to us. Indeed, we quite envy you such a treasure as she is." Tears gushed into the grateful father's eyes, as he heard his childhis own Johannashe who reigned all alone in his heart, and yet filled it so completelyso spoken of. How glad he was that there was some one besides himself present to hear all that, although that one was an enemy! With what a triumphant glance he looked around him. "Humph!" said Lupin. That humph recalled Oakley to the business of his visit, and yet how hot and parched his lips got, when he would have framed the allimportant question, "Is my child here?"and how he shook, and gasped for breath a moment before he could speak. At length, he found couragenot to ask if Johanna was there. Nono. He felt that he dared not doubt that. It would have been madness to doubt it, sheer insanity. So he put the question indirectly, and he contrived to say "I hope the two girls are quite well, quitequitewell." "Two girls!" said the aunt. "Two girls!" "Yes," gasped Oakley. "Johanna and Arabella, you knowyour Arabella, and my Johannamy child." "You ought to know, Mr. Oakley, considering that they are at your house, you know. I hope that neither of them have been at all indisposed? Surely that is not the case, and this is not your strange way of breaking it to us, Mr. Oakley?" The bereaved fatheryes, at that moment he felt that he was a bereaved fatherclutched the arms of the chair upon which he sat, and his face turned of a ghastly paleness. He made an inarticulate effort to speak, but could only produce a strange gurgling noise. "Gracious Heavens! he is ill," cried Arabella's aunt. "No, madam," said Lupin. "He is only convinced." "Convinced of what?" "Of what he himself will tell you, madam." "Help! help!" cried Oakley. "Help! My childmy Johannamy beautiful child. Mercyhelp. Give her to my arms again. Oh, nonono, she could not leave me thus. It is falseit is some desperate juggle! My childmy child, come once again to these arms.GodGod help me!" Arabella's aunt rose in the greatest alarm, and rung the bell so sharply, that it brought everybody that was in the house to that room, and Mr. Lupin, when he saw what a congregation there was, rose up and said in a snuffling voice "Is there any objection to a prayer?" "The greatest at present, sir," said Arabella's aunt. "Sir, there is a time for all things. The state of poor Mr. Oakley, now claims all our care. If you are his friend" At these words, Oakley appeared to shake off much of the prostrating effects of the first dreadful conviction, that what Lupin had told him was true, and he said "Nono, he is no friendhe is a bitter enemy. The enemy of my peace, and of my dear child. I am calmer now, and I demandI implore, that that man be made to leave this house." "Brother Oakley," said Lupin, "you brought me here." "And I now command you hence. Begone, villain, begone; go and exult over the heartbroken father's grief; go and tell the tale where you will. You cannot move me nowgogogo." "Truly I will go presently, but first of all, I say to you, brother Oakley, hardened sinner as you are, repent. Down upon your knees all of you, and join me in prayer, that the unbelievers may roll upon billows of burning brimstone, and that" "Come," said a man, who happened to be in the house upon some domestic errand, "Mrs. Wilmot says you are to go, and go you shall. Come, be offI know who you are. You are the rascal that married the widow in Moorfields, but who, they say, has another wife in Liverpool. If you don't go, I shall give you in charge for bigamy, and the widow says she will spend her last penny in prosecuting you." Mr. Lupin Unmasked. Mr. Lupin Unmasked. To meet any one half so well informed about his affairs, would have been a terrible blow to Mr. Lupin; but when he found that this man, who was a kind of jobbing cabinetmaker, knew so much, his great goggle eyes opened to an alarming width, and he made a movement towards the door. Still, he did not like to go without saying something. "Flee, ye wretches," he said, "from the wrath to come! You will all go into the bottomless pit, you will, and I shall rejoice at it; and sing many songs of joy over you. Scoffers and mockers, I leave you all to your fate. The devil will have you all, and that is a great comfort and gratification to the elect and to the saints." With this, Mr. Lupin made a precipitate retreat, having achieved about as little in the way of satisfying his curiosity as could very well be conceived. It was a reliefa great relief to Mr. Oakley to be rid of such a witness to his feelings as Lupin; and when he had fairly gone, and the outer door was closed upon him, the spectaclemaker, with clasped hands, and countenance expressive of the greatest possible amount of mental agony, spoke "Dismiss all but ourselves, madam," he said. "There's that to say which may be said to you alone, but which it would break my heart to say to many." The room was soon clear, and then Oakley continued in a low faltering voice to make those inquiries, each answer to which was so fatal to his peace of mind. "Madam," he said, "is not my childmy Johannahere staying on a visit with Arabella?" "No, nocertainly not." This was so frightfully conclusive, that it was some few moments before he could go on; but when he did, he said "Is Arabella in the house?" "That, Mr. Oakley," replied the aunt, "is a question I cannot answer you at the moment; but rest and compose yourself for a few moments, and I will ascertain myself if she be in or out, and if the latter, when she was last seen." "I am much beholden to you, madam. I am a poor old man, much broken in spirit, and with but one strong tie to bind me to a world which has nearly done with me. That tie is the love of my dear child, Johanna. Alas! if that be broken, I am all adrift, and at the mercy of the winds and waves of evil fortune; and the sooner I close my eyes in the long sleep of death, the better for me and all who feel for me." "Nay, Mr. Oakley, I look upon it as a thing almost criminal to despair. There is one maxim which I have learnt in my experience of life, and which I am sure you must have had abundant opportunities of learning likewise. It is, 'Never to trust to appearances.'" The old man looked at her with a saddened aspect. It was quite evident his feelings had been too strongly acted upon to make any philosophy available to him; and when she left the room to make the inquiries concerning Arabella, he wrung his hands, and wept. "Yes," he said, "yes, I am indeed alone nowa wrecka straw upon the ocean of society. The sooner I drift in the grave now, the better for me, and all who pity the old man. Oh, JohannaJohanna. My childmy beautiful, why did you not wait until I was dead before you left me? Then I should have slept calmly, and known nothing; but now my days and nights will be dreams of horror." The door opened and the aunt reappeared. "Arabella is not within," she said, "and has not been seen for some hours now. When last seen her manner was evidently perturbed. But now, Mr. Oakley, sit down by me and tell me as clearly and as distinctly, all you know and all you fear. There are few evils in this world but there are some remedies for, and you shall have my true and calm opinion if you will tell me all." It is something astonishing, and yet one of the most ordinary of mental phenomena, to note what a power a cool and clear intellect will exert over one that is distracted and full of woe and clamorous grief. Mr. Oakley did sit down by the side of Arabella's aunt, and he told her all that happened the girl of which, of course, was the real or supposed appearance of Johanna in Fleet Street, in male attire. The collateral circumstances, such as the hurried and half frantic farewell of him in the shop by Johanna, and the misrepresentation by Arabella, that she (Johanna) was going to stop there, evidently made a deep impression upon the aunt. Her countenance changed visibly, as she said faintly "God help us all." "Lost! lost," cried Oakley. "Yes, youeven you, hopeful as you were, and hopeful as you would fain have made meeven you, now that you know all, feel that she is lost. God, indeed, only can help me now." "No, Mr. Oakley," said the aunt, rallying, "I will not yet trust to appearances, although I own that they are bad. I will come to no conclusion until I have seen Arabella, and got the truth from her. It is quite clear that there is some secret between the two young creatures. It is quite clear that there is something going on that we know nothing of, and to speculate upon which may only involve us in an inextricable labyrinth of conjectures. I say, there is some secret, but it may not be a guilty one." "Notnot guilty?" "No, Mr. Oakley, there are many degrees of indiscretion to pass through ere the gulf of guilt is reached at last. I have faith in ArabellaI have faith in Johanna; and even now, admitting for a moment the truth of what that man whom you brought with you here, reports, Johanna may only have to be blamed for folly." "Dodo you think he did so see her?" "I doubt it much." "Mother," said a lad of fifteen, coming hastily into the room. "Mother I" He paused upon seeing Mr. Oakley there, and stammered out some apology "He had only come to tell his mother that a whole suit of his clothes were missing from his room and that he could find them nowhere, and he could not make it out; and one of his hats was gone too, and a pair of shoes, and" Old Oakley fell back in his chair with a groan. "She has them," he said. "She has them. My child, whom I shall never see again, has them." CHAPTER XC. MORNING IN FLEET STREET AGAIN. Another day has dawned upon the great cityanother sun has risen upon the iniquities of hosts of men, but upon no amount of coldblooded, hardened, pitiless criminality that could come near to that of Sweeney Todd. No, he certainly held the position of being in London, then, the worst of the worst. But who shall take upon himself now to say that in this pestridden, loyaltymad, abuseloving city of London, there are not some who are more than even Sweeney Todd's equals? Who shall say that hidden scenes of guilt and horror are not transacting all around us, that would, in their black iniquity, far transcend anything that Sweeney Todd has done or dreamt of doing? Let the imagination run riot in its fanciful conjectures of what human nature is capable of, and in London there shall be found those who will reduce to practice the worst frenzied deeds that can be conceived. Yes, the dawn of another day had come, and Todd had made all his preparations. Nothing was wanting, but the match that was to set Fleet Street, he fondly hoped, in a blaze. His own house, he felt quite certain, could not escape. It would be a charred mass long before any effectual means could be procured to check the devastation of the flames, and then as the good ship spread its swelling sails to the wind to bear him to another shore, he should be lighted upon his way by the glare of the great fire in Fleet Street, that no one would be able to guess the origin of. So he told himself. Shortsighted mortals that we are! How little Todd, with all his clevernessall his farseeing thrift and fancydreamt of the volcano upon which he stood. How little he for one moment imagined it was possible that the sword of justice hung over him by so slender a thread. How he would have glared at any one who might have told him that he only moved about by sufferance; and yet such was the fact. Sir Richard Blunt could put his hand upon him at any moment, and say, "Todd, you are my prisoner. To Newgateto Newgate, from whence only you will emerge to your trial, and to the scaffold!" No, Todd, good easy soul, had not the slightest idea of his real position upon that morning. He waited rather impatiently for the arrival of Johanna to take down the shutters, and she urged upon Sir Richard Blunt and her friends at the fruiterer's, the propriety of her going and doing that morning piece of work; but they would not hear of it. She at length used an argument which made Sir Richard adopt another course than keeping her at the fruiterer's until Todd should get out of all patience and open his shop himself. "It is possible," she said, "that I may be subjected to illusage if I am not there; and then being compelled to call for aid as I might, you would feel that you were forced to take Todd into custody before the time at which you have resolved so to do." "That is true," said Sir Richard; and then, after some little consideration, he added, "I have a plan that will save you both ways. You shall be in time, and yet you shall not take down Todd's shutters." They could none of them conceive at the moment how Sir Richard intended to manage this; but they quickly saw that it was easy enough. Opening just a little way one of the windows of the first floor at the fruiterer's, he blew a whistle that he had suspended round his neck by a small chain. In the course of a few moments, Crotchet walked into the shop. "Governor here?" he said. "I heard him a chirping for me just nowdidn't I?" "Yes, Crotchet," said the fruiterer, who knew him quite well. "Step upstairs; you will find him there." Crotchet was soon in the presence of Sir Richard, and Johanna, and the fruiterer's daughter. He made a rough sort of salute to the whole party, and then remarked again that he had heard the governor a chirping, he rather thought. "Yes, Crotchet," said Sir Richard, "you're quite right. You know this young lady here?"indicating Johanna. "Reether!" said Crotchet. "Well, then, you will seem to be passing Todd's shop when she commences taking down the shutters; and, seeing that they are too heavy for such a mere boy, you goodnaturedly take them down for himyou understand? It is the last time that they will be taken down for Todd, I think." "All's right," said Crotchet; "I understandsit's as good as done. Lord! what a scrouge there will be at the hanging o' that barber, to be sure, unless he manages to cheat the gallows; and I takes notice in my hexperieace as them 'ere wery bad 'uns seldom does try that 'ere game on, with all their bounce." "Now, Miss Oakley," said Sir Richard Blunt, "I think, then, your time has come; and, as Crotchet will take down the shutters, you may as well go over at once. I think you thoroughly understand what you have to doand if Todd asks you where you lodged, you had better say that the servants here offered to let you sleep by the kitchen fire, and you accepted the offerfor he may be watching for you now, and see you come out of this house, for all we know to the contrary. And now remember, without any reference to my plans or what I would rather do, if you feel yourself, or fancy you feel yourself in the least danger, take the means I have pointed out to you of summoning aid, and aid will come to you." "I will," said Johanna. "Heaven speed you, then! This will be the last day, I think, of the career of that bold bad man. I intend to make such an effort to get under his house today, as I hope and expect will enable me to come at the grand secret, namely, of how he disposes of his victims so quicklyfor that there is some wonderful jugglery in it, I am certain." Johanna took a kind leave of the fruiterer's daughter, who had lavished upon her all those attentions which, in Johanna's position, became so precious from one of her own sex; and then, assuming a careless manner, with her hat put on in a boyish slovenly sort of way, she boldly crossed the road to Sweeney Todd's. He had been watching through a hole in the upper part of one of the shutters. In a moment all sorts of ugly suspicions took possession of his mind. What could Charley Green, his errandboy from Oxford, who knew no one, and was unknown to all London, doing at a tradesman's house in Fleet Street at such an hour in the morning? How came he to know the people of that house? How came he to dream of going there? Todd was boiling with anger and curiosity when he opened the door and admitted Johanna, a thing that he was unmindful enough to do before she knocked for admission, which alone would have been amply sufficient to point out to her that she had been watched from some peephole in the house. He stretched out his hand and dragged her in. He controlled his temper sufficiently to enable him to gratify his curiosity. He made quite certain that Charley Green would tell him some story of where he had been, which should not convict the fruiterer. By the light of a miserable candle that Todd had burning in the dark closed shop, he glared at Johanna. "Wellwell," he said. "A good night's rest, Charley?" "Tolerable, sir!" "Humph! ha! And did you find a place to sleep at cheaply and decently, my good lad, eh?" "I was very fortunate indeed, sir." "Oh, you were very fortunate indeed?" "Yes, sir. I am, through being country bred I suppose, fond of fruit, so when I left you last night, I bought an apple at a shop opposite." "Oh, at Mr. aa" "I don't know the name, sir," said Johanna, "but I can run out and ascertain, I dare say." Todd gave a low sort of growl. He did not know if he were being foiled by innocence or by art. With an impatient gesture, he added "Never mind the apples, I wish to know where you slept, Charley, that I may judge if it was a proper place, there are so many wicked people in London." "Are there, sir?" "Bah! Go on. Where did you sleep?" "Well, sir, as there was a kind temperedlooking servant in the fruiterer's shop, I thought she might be able to tell me of some place where I could lodge, and when she had heard my story" "Storystory? What story?" "How destitute I was, sir, and how kind you had been to employ me without a character, and how happy and contented I was in your service, sir. So when she had heard all that, she said, 'It is too late for you to go lodginghunting tonight. There is an old bench in our kitchen, and if you like you may sleep on that.'" Todd gave a growl. "And so you slept there?" "Yes, sir." He paced the shop for some few moments in deep thought, knitting his brows and trying to make something out of what he had heard, contrary to what it seemed; but Johanna's story was too straightforward and simple for him to find any flaw in it, and after a few moments he felt compelled to admit to himself that it must be the truth. Turning to her with something of the amount of amiability one might expect from a bear, he said "Open the shop!" "Yes, sir, directly." Johanna propped the door wide open, and then having, by the dim light of the miserable candle, found a screw which fastened a bar across the shutters, she speedily released it, and then went into the street. At that moment Crotchet came along, whistling in so thoroughly careless a manner, that even Johanna thought he had forgotten his instructions and was about to pass the shop. She had her hand upon the bar when he stopped, saying, in an offhanded manner "Why little 'un, them 'ere shutters is too much for you, I'll give you a helping hand. Lor bless you, don't say anything about it. It ain't no sort o' trouble to me my little chap. Here goes." Mr. Crotchet began opening Todd's shop with such a fury and a vengeance, that the clatter and the speed with which the operation was being accomplished, brought Todd out of the parlour to see what on earth Charley was about. When he saw Crotchet coming in with three shutters in his arms at once, he could scarcely believe his eyes, and he roared out "What's this? Who are you?" "Easyeasy," said Crotchet. "Don't get in the way old gentleman. Easy. There now!" Crotchet managed to give Todd such a rap on the side of the head with the shutters, that a thousand lights danced in his eyes, and he writhed with pain. "Well, I never," said Crotchet, "I hope I haven't hurt you, old man? You see I was a passing, and seed as these here shutters was rather a bit topheavy for your little son here, and I thought I'd give him a helping hand. To be sure he didn't want me to, but you see I would, and perhaps as your old head is getting better, you wouldn't mind a pint of beer, old gentleman?" "You atrocious villain," yelled Todd, "I'll cut your throat. I'll polish you off. I'llI'llwould you like to be shaved?" "I've had a scrape already," said Crotchet, "and if you won't stand the beer, why you won't, and there's no bones broke arter all. Good morning, old Grampus. Good morning my little chap, I wishes you good luck; and if I am passing again, I don't mind lending you a helping hand, though the governor is about one o' the ugliest, nastiest tempered brutes, I ever came near in all my life." Crotchet went away whistling with great composure. CHAPTER XCI. MR. TODD'S FIRST CUSTOMERS. Todd seized Johanna by the arm, and dragged her into the shop. He locked the door, and then confronting her, he said "How kind it was of your friend, to take down the shutters for you, Charley Green." "My friend, sir?" "Yes, your friend who declined being shaved, you know, because you told him last night that he had better go to some other shop." "Really, sir," said Johanna, "I don't know what you mean." "Come, come, Charley, confess that you do know some one in London, as well as you know me. Confess, now, that people are so fond of interfering in other folk's affairs, that you have been set on to watch me. I shall not be at all angry, indeed, I shall not, I assure you. Not the least; only tell me the truth. That is all I ask of you, my boy, and you will find that it is no bad thing to make a friend of Sweeney Todd." "If I had, sir, anything to confess," replied Johanna, "except that at times I do feel that I wish I had not run away from my motherinlaw at Oxford, I should soon tell it all to you." "And so that is all, Charley?" "All at present, sir." "What a good lad. What an exemplary lad. Light the shop fire, if you please, Charley. Humph! I am wrong," muttered Todd to himself; "but yet I will cut his throat before I leave tonight. It will be safer and more satisfactory to do so, and besides, he has given me some uneasiness, and I hate him for his quiet gentle ways. I hate everybody. I would cut the throats of all the world if I could. Light the fire quickly, you young hound, will you?" Johanna trembled. She felt that anything but a blow from Todd she could put up with, but in her pocket she kept a jagged piece of flint stone, which would go through the window in a moment; and she felt that through she must throw it, if he only so much as raised his hand against her. The fire blazed up, and Todd at that moment had no further excuse for abusing Charley. With a sulky growl, he said "You can call me out if any one comes," and then he retired to his back parlour, closing and locking the door as usual. The morning felt rather raw, and Johanna was glad to warm her hands at the fire in the shop, which soon burnt brightly; but she did not venture upon keeping up a bright blaze for long. Todd's mode of managing the fire, was always to keep a dry turf smouldering upon the top of it, from which ample heat enough was emitted to keep the shavingpot upon the simmer. She now placed upon the fire one of those turfs, a small pile of which were always ready in the corner of the shop. She had scarcely done so, when the shop door opened, and a man walked in. "Is Mr. Todd in, my little man?" he said. "Yes, sir. Do you wish to see him?" Johanna wished, if it were possible, to discourage visitors, but the man sat down at once in the shaving chair, and placed his hat upon the floor, adding as he did so "Yes, a right down good shave I want. As good as if St. Dunstan himself wanted one." The manner in which the man pronounced the words St. Dunstan was so marked that Johanna felt convinced at once he was a friend, and she felt quite a gush of pleasure at the thought that Sir Richard Blunt had such a continual supervising eye upon her safety. She felt that she must not look at this man otherwise than as a stranger. She felt that the least word of recognition might be fatal both to him and to her. She knew that Todd had some small orifice through which from his parlour he peeped into the shop, and that his eye was now upon her she did not doubt. "I will call Mr. Todd, sir," she said in a moment. "He is close at hand." "Thank you," replied the man. "I sit here as comfortable as St. Dunstan." "Yes," said Johanna, as she heard the watchword of safety and friendship once more uttered by that man who was in truth one of Sir Richard's most confidential and trustworthy officers. She at once now proceeded to the door of the parlour, and tapped at it until Todd opened it, and popped his head out with a grim smile. "Oh, Charley my dear," he said, "does a gentleman want me?" "Yes, sir." "Ahem! Good morning, sir," added Todd, as he advanced, tying on his apron. "A shave, I presume, sir? A close shave, sir? I do think of all the luxuries in life, sir, a good close shavewhat I call a regular polish off, siris one of the greatest in a small way. Charley, ain't it near breakfast time, my good lad?" "Yes, sir," said Johanna. "I daresay it is." "Very good. The hotwater. Thank you my dearyou will take two pence from the till, Charley, and get yourself somewhere about the market aWell now?" A thin man in a cloak made his appearance at the door of the shop, and taking off his hat, made a bow, as he said "I believe I have the pleasure of speaking to the pious Mr. Todd?" "My name is Todd, sir. What is it?" "I am truly delighted," said the tall thin man sitting down upon the nearest seat, and placing his hat upon his knees. "I am truly delighted to see you. Pray go on shaving that gentleman, as I shall be some time." "Some time about what?" almost screamed Todd. "Finding the tract, from which I purpose reading to you a few extracts upon the allimportant subject of the election of grace, and the insufficiency of works." Todd stropped a razor, and glared at the intruder, who, fitting on his nose with great precision a pair of blue spectacles, began rummaging in his hat. "Humph! this is it. Nothis is not it. Well, I thought I had it here, and so I have. This isno. This is an imaginary and highly religious discourse upon saints, and St. Dunstan in particular." Johanna knew in a moment that this other man was a friend likewise. He, too, had pronounced the words St. Dunstan in a peculiar manner. Todd suddenly became quite calm. "Sir," he said, "I take it as a very particular favour, indeed, that you should have called here upon such an errand, and I only beg that you will not hurry yourself in the least; I can go on shaving this gentleman, and perhaps when he is gone, you will permit me the honour of operating upon you?" "With great pleasure," replied the man. "Dear me, where can the tract be? Is this it? Nothis is about the pious milkmaid, who always put up a prayer for the milkingpail, to prevent the cow from kicking it over. Dear me, where can it be? Oh, is this it? Nothis is the story of the pious barber's boy, who, when he had an opportunity, went over the way and found his father there! Dear me, where can it be?" Johanna started. "The barber's boy," she thought, "who went over the way and found his father there? Those words are for me." She was now in quite a fever of anxiety to leave the shop, for she did not doubt but that by some means her father had heard of her position, and she felt that then nothing but the actual sight of her in perfect health and safety would satisfy him. But she dared not show the anxiety she felt. She bent over the fire, and affected to be stirring the turf. "You can go and get your breakfast, Charley," said Todd. "Thank you, sir." Johanna would not betray any haste, but she shook with agitation as she neared the door; and then she recollected that she had not taken the twopence from the till as she had been told to do, and that the circumstance of not doing so might create suspicion. She crept back and possessed herself of the pence. Todd watched her with the eyes of a demon. "Are you going, my dear Charley?" he said. "Yes, sir." She left the shop, and then her first impulse would have induced her to hurry over the road to the fruiterer's shop, but her eyes fell upon the figure of Sir Richard Blunt standing in the fruiterer's doorway. He moved his hand signifying that she should go towards the market, and she did so. He quickly followed her. She did not look behind her, until she was quite in the old Fleetmarket; and then, just as she looked round, Sir Richard Blunt touched her arm. "You understood my message?" he said. "Yes. My father." "Exactly. It is concerning him. It appears that some busybody, a man I understand named Lupin, has seen you in your present disguise, and informed him of it." "I know the man. He is one of those saintly hypocrites, who make religion the cloak for their vices." "Yes, there are not a few of them," said Sir Richard. "They revel in vice, and daily try to make the Almighty an accomplice in their offences against society. Well, then, Johanna, this man has tortured your father with an account of your being in this disguise." "It would torture him." "Naturally, without he knew all the reasons for it; but it appears that he went to the house of Miss Wilmot, and after some trouble saw her, when she, finding that he knew quite enough to make him wretched, and not enough to explain your position, frankly told him all, and brought him to me." "It was the best." "Most decidedly it was, and I need only say that he is anxiously waiting to see you, at our friend the fruiterer's house; but as it would not do for you to go direct from Todd's door to there, I have intercepted you, you see, to take you by a safer route.