The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 134: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“326 «#«=5§©. THE STRING OF PEARLS. 5 niaipncasieupilinlahsnabalen Saennantemenenness ee CT Thornhill and Mark Ingestrie be one and the same person; and when I say that l love her with a depth and a sincerity of affection that makes her happiness of greater importance to me than my own—you know, I think, enough of me to feel convinced that I am speaking only what | really feel.” ‘‘T can,” said the captain, “and I do give you credit for the greatest possible amount of sincerity, and I feel sufficiently mterested myself in the future fate | of this fair young creature to wish that she may be convinced her lover is no more, and may so much better herself, asl am quite certain she would, by becoming your wife; for all we can hear of this Ingestrie seems to prove that he is not the most stable-minded of individuals the world ever produced, and perhaps not exactly the sort of man—however, of course, she may think to the contrary, and he may in all sincerity think so likewise—to make such a girl as Johanna Oakley happy.” ‘‘T thank you for the kind feeling towards me, my friend, which has dictated that speech, but 2 ‘Hush!’ said the captain, suddenly, ‘‘ hush! look at the barber !” «The barber ? Sweeney Todd ?” i “Yes, yes, there he is; do younot seehim? There he is, and he looks as if he had come off a long journey. What can he have been about, | wonder? He is draggled in mud !”’ Yes, there was Sweeney Todd, opening his shop from the outside with a key, that after a vast amount of fumbling, he took from his pocket ; and, as the captain said, he did indeed look as if he had come offa long journey, for he was draggled with mud, and his appearance altogether was such as to convince any one that he must have been out in most of the heavy rain which had fallen during the early part of the morning upon London and its suburbs. And this was just the fact, for after staying with the madhouse-keeper in the hope that the bad weather which had set in would be alleviated, he had been compelled to give up all chance of such a thing, and as no conveyance of any description was to be had, he enjoyed the pleasure, if it could be called such, of walking home up to his- knees in the mud of that dirty neighbourhood. It was, however, some satisfaction to him to feel that he had got rid of Tobias, who, from what he had done as regarded the examination of the house, had become extremely troublesome indeed, and perhaps the most serious enemy that Sweeney Todd had ever had. i ‘Hal’ he said, as he came within sight of his shop in Fleet-street,—** ha !” Master Tobias is safe enough ; he will give me no more trouble, that is quite clear. What a wonderfully convenient thing it is to have such a friend as Fogg, who fora consideration will do sd} much towards ridding one of an uncomfortable encumbrance. Itis possible enough that that boy might have compassed my destruction. J wish I dared now chance, with the means I have for the sale of the string of pearls, joined to my other resources, leaving business, and so not be obliged to run the risk and have the trouble of:another boy.” Yes, Sweeney Todd would have been glad now to shut up his shop in Fleet- street at once and for ever, but he dreaded that when John Mundel found that his customer did not come back to him to redeem the pearls, that he (John Mundel) would proceed to sell them, and that then their beauty and great worth would excite much attention, and some one might come forward who knew more about their early history than he did. “1 must kecp quiet,’ he thought,—‘ 1 must keep quiet; for although I think I was pretty well disguised, and it is not at alli likely that any one—no, not even the acute John Mundel himself—would recognise in Sweeney Todd, the poor barber of Fleet-street, the nobleman who came from the queen to borrow £8,000 upon a string of pearls; yet there is a remote possibility of danger ; and should there be a disturbance about the precious stones, it is better that I should remain in obscurity until that disturbance is completely over.” This was no doubt admirable policy on the part of Todd, who, although he | found himself a rich man, had not, as many people do when they make that most A et ne I a a a comicbooks.com