The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

way car te Te Sl —_ = = ald. & PERe SEP ARTE. RT _ Aafia teicetlinicgtinineaniyi canis ceilidh scisegeaitae, ar oe tsps i-inr tnt a THE STRING OF PEARLS. 17 et lteter ell ret ca ele ae He walked up to the shaving chair as it was called, which was a large, old- fashioned piece of furniture, made of oak, and carved ; and, as the boy threw him: || self into it, he said— | ‘What an odd thing it is that this chair is screwed so tight to the floor! Here is a complete fixture, and Sweeney Todd says it is so because it’s in fhe best possible light, and if he were not to make it fast in such a way, the cus- tomers would shift it about from place to place, so that he could not conveniently | shave them ; it may be true, but I don’t know.” | “ And you have your doubts,” said: the voice of Sweeney Todd, as that indivi- dual, with a noiseless step, walked into the shop—‘‘you have your doubts, | Tobias? I shall have to cut your throat, that is quite clear.”’ | ‘* No, no, have mercy upon me; I did not mean what [ said.” “Then it’s uncommonly imprudent to say it, Tobias. Do you remember our | last conversation ? Do you remember that 1 can hang your mother when I please, | sre if you do not, I bee to put you in mind of that pleasant little circum- | stance F” “T cannot forget-—lI do not forget.” - iw i ‘Ns well; and mark me, I will not have you assume such an aspect as you | wear when Lam not here. You don’t look cheerful, Tobias; and, notwithstanding | your excellent situation, with little to do, andthe number of Lovett’s pies you eat, || you fall away.”’ J “TJ cannot help it,” said Tobias, “since you told me what you did concerning my | mother. I have been so anxious that I cannot help-——” i “ Why should you be anxious? Her preservation depends upon yourself, and | upon yourself wholly. You have but to keep silent, and she is safe; but if you | | utter one word that shall be displeasing to me about my affairs, mark me, Tobias, she comes to the scaffold; and if I cannot conveniently place you in the same mad- house where the last boy I had was placed, I shall certamly be under the trouble- some necessity of cutting your throat.” “TY will be silent—I will say nothing, Mr. Todd. I know I shall die soon, and then you will get rid of me altogether, and I don’t care how soon that may be, for I am quite weary of my life—TI shall be glad when it is over.” “Very good,” said the barber ; ‘‘ that’s alla matter of taste. And now, Tobias, | T desire that you look cheerful and smile, for a gentleman is outside feeling || his chin with his hand, and thinking he may as well come in and be shaved. || I may want you, Tobias, to go to Billingsgate, and bring me a pennyworth of || shrimps.” | | “Yes,” thought Tobias, with a groan—" yes, while you murder him.” | | CHAPTER XV. | THE SECOND INTERVIEW BETWEEN JOHANNA AND THE COLONEL IN THE TEMPLE GARDENS. Now that there was a great object to gain by a second interview with Colonel Jeffery, the anxiety of J ohanna Oakley to have it became extremely great, and she counted the very hours until the period should arrive when she could again proceed to the Temple-gurdens with something like a certainty of finding him. The object, of course, was to ask him for a description of Mr. Thornhill, sufficiently accurate to enable her to come to something like a positive conclusion as to whether she ought to call him to her own mind as Mark Ingestrie or not. And Colonel Jeffery was ingen li A tat lA ie cpt many a voice that hat, to his mind, in divers lands he had looked upon many a fair face, and heard had sounded soft and musical in his ears, he had seen none t not a bit the less anxious to sce her than she was to look upon him ; for although comicbooks.com