The Gift of the Sailor: The String of Pearls & Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

“Never to leave it?” “Never, unless you leave it for good and for all; if upon those conditions you choose to accept the situation, you may, and if not, you can go about your business at once, and leave it alone.” “Alas, madam, I have no resource; but you spoke of having a man already.” “Yes; but he has gone to his friends; he has gone to some of his very oldest friends, who will be quite glad to see him, so now say the word:—are you willing or are you not, to take the situation?” “My poverty and my destitution consent, if my will be averse, Mrs. Lovett; but, of course, I quite understand that I leave when I please.” “Oh, of course, we never think of keeping anybody many hours after they begin to feel uncomfortable. If you be ready, follow me.” “T am quite ready, and thankful for a shelter. All the brightest visions of my early life have long since faded away, and it matters little or indeed nothing what now becomes of me; I will follow you, madam, freely, upon the conditions you have mentioned.” Mrs. Lovett lifted up a portion of the counter which permitted him to pass behind it, and then he followed her into a small room, which was at the back of the shop. She then took a key from her pocket, and opened an old door which was in the wainscoting, and immediately behind which was a flight of stairs. These she descended, and Jarvis Williams followed her, to a considerable depth, after which she took an iron bar from behind another door, and flung it open, showing her new assistant the interior of that vault which we have already very briefly described. “These,” she said, “are the ovens, and I will proceed to show you how you can manufacture the pies, feed the furnaces, and make yourself generally useful. Flour will be always let down through a trap-door from the upper shop, as well as everything required for making the pies but the meat, and that you will always find ranged upon shelves either in lumps or steaks, in a small room through this door, but it is only at particular times you will find the door open; and whenever you do so, you had better always take out what meat you think you will require for the next batch.” “T understand all that, madam,” said Williams, “but how does it get there?” “That’s no business of yours; so long as you are supplied with it, that is sufficient for you; and now I will go through the process of making one pie, so that you may know how to proceed, and you will find with what amazing quickness they can be manufactured if you set about them in the proper manner.” She then showed him how a piece of meat thrown into a machine became finely minced up, by merely turning a handle; and then how flour and water and lard were mixed up together, to make the crusts of the pies, by another machine, which threw out the paste thus manufactured in small pieces, each just large enough for a pie. Lastly, she showed him how a tray, which just held a hundred, could be filled, and, by turning a windlass, sent up to the shop, through a square trap-door, which went right up to the very counter. “And now,” she said, “I must leave you. As long as you are industrious, you will go on very well, but as soon as you begin to be idle, and neglect the orders which are sent to you by me, you will get a piece of information which will be useful, and which, if you be a prudent man, will enable you to know what you are about.” “What is that? you may as well give it to me now.” “No; we seldom find there is occasion for it at first, but, after a time, when you get well fed, you are pretty sure to want it.” So saying, she left the place, and he heard the door by which he had entered, carefully barred after her. Suddenly then he heard her voice again, and so clearly and distinctly, too, that he thought she must have come back again; but, upon looking up at the door, he found that that arose from her speaking through a small grating at the upper part of it, to which her mouth was closely placed. “Remember your duty,” she said, “and I warn you, that any attempt to leave here will be as futile as it will be dangerous.” “Except with your consent, when I relinquish the situation.” “Oh, certainly—certainly, you are quite right there, everybody who relinquishes the situation goes to his old friends, whom he has not seen for many years, perhaps.” “What a strange manner of talking she has!” said Jarvis Williams to himself, when he found he was alone. “There seems to be some singular and hidden meaning in every word she utters. What can she mean by a communication being made to me, if I neglect my duty! It is very strange; and what a singular looking place this is! I think it would be quite unbearable if it were not for the delightful odour of the pies, and they are indeed delicious—perhaps more delicious to me, who has been famished so long, and have gone through so much wretchedness; there is no one here but myself, and I am hungry now—frightfully hungry, and whether the pies be done or not, I’ll have half a dozen of them at any rate, so here goes.” He opened one of the ovens, and the fragrant steam that came out was perfectly delicious, and he sniffed it up with a satisfaction such as he had never felt before, as regarded anything that was eatable. “Ts it possible,” he said “that I shall be able to make such delicious pies? At all events one can’t starve here, and if it be a kind of imprisonment, it’s a pleasant one. Upon my soul, they are nice, even half-cooked—delicious! I’ll have another half-dozen, there are lots of them—delightful! I can’t keep the gravy from running out of the comers of my mouth. Upon my soul, Mrs. Lovett, I don’t know where you get your meat, but it’s all as tender as young chickens, and the fat actually melts away in one’s mouth. Ah, these are pies, something like pies!—tthey are positively fit for the gods!” Mrs. Lovett’s new man ate twelve threepenny pies, and then he thought of leaving off. It was a little drawback not to have anything to wash them down with but cold water; but he reconciled himself to this. “For,” as he said, “after all it would be a pity to take the flavour of such pies out of one’s mouth—indeed, it would be a thousand pities, so I won’t think of it, but just put up with what I have got and not complain. I might have gone further and fared worse with a vengeance, and I cannot help looking upon it as a singular piece of good fortune that made me think of coming here in my deep CORniclooo S CO)