The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 344: what you’re looking at

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

| | | : = have already traced the progress of Arabella to Sir Richard Blunt’s office, and ‘notwithstanding she was assured over and over again subsequently by Sir Richard that Johanna was now well protected, she could not bring herself to think so, or to leave the streef. It was by her lingering about in this way that | . re : rp 336 SHE STR S. | Se in the breast of Mrs. Lovett, which ghe was ‘scarcely aware slumbered there, These folks made their way, then, into Fleet Street ; and as the reader has' probably guessed already who they are, we may as weil make a merit of saying | that the big one was our old friend Ben, the beef-eater—the gentlemanly- looking man was Sir Richard Blunt, and the young lady was no other than Arabella Wilmot. Poor Arabella! Of all the personages concerned in our dramatis persone, we have no hesitation in saying that your sufferings are the greatest. From the moment that Johanna had started upon that desperate expedition to Sweeney Todd’s, peace left the bosom of her young friend. We we have seen what was the result of that decidedly judicious movement; but she became in the company of our friend Ben. The fact was, that the kind of | | | ‘Oh, pity me, Mr. Ben. Pity me ye ‘ | | | | | g i 4 3 : i t | i i { f FO tne i lh cara cpaqetnbcngcirersett 7 _- Saaprngnansiberatio-artrhne ‘statement or confession that Johanna had made to Ben on that occasion of his’ 'mine. Easy does it, you know. Always think of that, if anything goes amiss. ‘visit to her father’s house, when she found herself alone with him in the parlour, had made such an impression upon the poor fellow, that he described it himself | =n the most forcible possible language, by saying— | | ‘It interferes with my meals.” | | Now, everything that had such an effect as that, must to Ben be a matter for. the most serious consideration indeed. He accordingly, finding that | «The peace of the Tower was fled,”’ ‘so far as he was concerned, haa come into the City upon a sort of voyage of discovery, to see how matters were going on. As he was proceeding along Fleet Street, he chanced to cast his eyes into the entrance of a court, nearly | opposite Sweeney Todd’s, and there he saw a female form crouching. There | was something about this female form which Ben thought was familiar to him, | and upon a close look, he felt certain it was Johanna’s friend, Arabella Wilmot. ' Full of surprise at finding her there, Ben paused, and stared at her so long, that she at last looked at him, and recognising him, immediately flew to his side, and srasping his arm, cried— | Hold!” said Ben, who was not, as the reader 1s aware, the fastest thinker | in the world. ‘‘Hold. Easy does it.”’ | Ben tried to look very wise then. «Oh, you will hate me, Ben.” «‘T say you will hate me, Ben, when you know all.’ | | Ben shook his head. i «‘Shan’t do any such thing,” hesaid. “ Lord bless your pretty eyes, [ hate — ou? I couldn't.” | ‘«* But—but os a ‘‘Come, come,” added Ben, “ just take your little bit of an arm under \ ‘ | Easy does it; and then you will find things come right in the long run. You may take my word for it.” : | CHAPTER LXXV. | COLONEL JEFFERYS OPENS HIS EYES. | , "4 ARABELLA was weeping, so that for some little time she could say nothing | more to Ben; and he did not, in the profundity of his imagination, very W® ‘know what to say to her, except now and then muttering the maxim of “ Kasy, does it,” which Ben thought singularly applicable to all human affairs. But this was a state of things which could not last; and Arabella Wilmot, nerving ee — ing ne I pinata ai TOIT cc Ag Toca ra ae alll Sp a le AN Ah EE OREO AE is apigeiiat eae o ————z = tO ——————S LOO _— % 2 —— eee fi, 8M a A