The Gift of the Sailor: The String of Pearls & Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street — page 203: what you’re looking at

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

expense to go to court, and see dukes. Oh, the devil. Eh? Eh?” “Sir!” “Stop. What an odd thing. Why, you are very—very—” “Very what, sir?” said Todd, making a hideous face. “Like the duke, or my fancy leads me astray. Wait a bit. Don’t move.” Mundel placed his hands over his eyes for a moment, and then suddenly withdrawing them he looked at Todd again. “Yes, you are like the duke. How came you to be like a duke, the villain. Oh, if I could but see my pearls.” “What duke, sir?” “T would give five hundred pounds—no, I mean one hundred pounds, that is fifty pounds, to know what duke,” screamed Mundel with vehemence. Then suddenly lapsing into quietness, he added—“Shave me. Shave me, I will go to court, and St. James’s shall ring again with the story of my pearls. Lost! lost! lost! Did he abscond from his wife with them, or was he murdered? I wonder? I wonder? —eight thousand pounds gone all at once. I might have borne such a loss by degrees, but damn it—” “Really, sir, if you will go on talking about pearls and dukes, the shaving brush will go into your mouth, and there’s no such thing as avoiding it.” “Confound you. Go on. Shave me and have done with it. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” John Mundel now contented himself by uttering drawn sighs, with now and then the accompaniment of a hideous groan, while Todd lathered his face with great affected care. The sighs and the groans both, however, ceased soon, and Todd became aware that the eyes of John Mundel were fixed upon him with a steady stare. No doubt, the usurer was recalling bit by bit to his memory the features of the sham duke, and comparing them with Todd’s. To be sure, upon the occasion of his visit to Mundel Villa, Todd had taken every precaution to disguise his features; but then it must be admitted that the features of the barber were rather peculiar, and that John Mundel was professionally a more than ordinary keen observer, and thus it was that, as Todd lathered away, he became more and more impressed by the fact that there was a startling resemblance between Todd and the nobleman who had borrowed eight thousand pounds upon the string of pearls. “What’s your name?” he said. “Todd.” “Humph! a well-to-do man.” “Poor as Job.” “How very like you are to a great man. Do you ever go to court? I think—I am sure I have seen you somewhere.” “Very likely,” said Todd, “for I often go there.” “What, to court?” “Nay, sir, not to court, but somewhere. Will you have the whiskers left just as they are, or taken off entirely, sir?” Tap! tap! came at the chamber door, and a boy peeped in, saying— “Please, sir, the tailor has brought the things.” @9OOOOGOOO CORniclooo S CO)