CHAPTER CIX.

JOHANNA HAS PLENTY OF COMPANY AT TODD'S.

We return to Johanna, whom for a few hours, owing to the pressure of

other circumstances, we have been compelled, with all manner of

reluctance, to neglect.

Recent events, although they had by no manner of means tended to

decrease the just confidence which Johanna had in her own safety, had

yet much agitated her; and she at times feared that she should not be

able to carry on the farce of composure before Todd much longer.

"Charley, my dear boy," said Todd, "you are a very good lad, indeed, and

I like you."

"I am very glad to hear you say so, sir--very glad."

"That is right; but when I say I like any one, I do not confine myself

to that mere expression of liking, and there an end. Of course, as a

religious man, I love my enemies, and feel myself bound to do so--eh,

Charley?"

"Of course, sir."

Poor Johanna had no resource but to seem to be deceived by this most

disgusting hypocrisy.

"But although," continued Todd, waving a razor in the air; "although I

may love my enemies, I need not to go out of my way, you know, Charley,

to do good things to them as I would to my friends; but you I will do

all I can for; and as it may very materially help you to get an honest

independence in the course of a little time, I will manage to

accommodate you with sleeping here to-night and all nights henceforth."

"How kind of you, sir!"

"I am glad you appreciate it, Charley; and I feel quite sure that your

slumber will be most profound."

Todd, upon this, made one of his diabolical faces, and then, taking his

hat, he marched out, merely adding as he crossed the threshold of the

door--

"I shall not be long gone, Charley."

The day was on the decline, and a strong impression came over Johanna's

mind that something in particular would happen before it wholly passed

away into darkness. She almost trembled to think what that something

could be, and that she might be compelled to be a witness to violence,

from which her gentle spirit revolted; and had it not been that she had

determined nothing should stop her from investigating the fate of poor

Mark Ingestrie, she could even then have rushed into the street in

despair.

But as the soft daylight deepened into the dim shadows of evening, she

grew more composed, and was better able, with a calmer spirit, to wait

the progress of events.

"I am alone once more," said Johanna, "in this dreadful place. Again he

leaves me with all my dark and terrible thoughts of the fate of him whom

I have so fondly loved thronging around my heart; and this night, no

doubt, he thinks to kill me! Oh, Mark Ingestrie! if I were only but

quite sure that you had gone to that world from whence there is no

return, I think I could, with scarce a sigh, let this dreadful man send

me after you!"

Johanna rested her head upon her hands, and wept bitterly.

Suddenly a voice close to her said--

"St. Dunstan."

She sprang from the little low seat upon which she was, and, with a cry

of alarm, was about to make a rush from the shop, when the intruder

caught her by the arm, saying--

"Don't you know me, Johanna?"

"Ah, Sir Richard! my dear friend, it is, indeed, you, and I am safe

again--I am safe!"

"Certainly you are safe; and permit me to say that you have all along

been tolerably safe, Johanna. But how very incautious you are. Here I

have come into the shop, and actually stood by you for some few moments,

you knowing nothing of it! What now if Todd had so come in?"

"He would have killed me."

"He might have done so. But now all danger is quite over, for you will

have protectors at your hand. Do you know where Todd has gone?"

"I do not."

"Well, it don't matter. Let me look at this largest cupboard. I wonder

if it will hold two of my men? Let me see. Oh, yes, easily and

comfortably. I will be back in a moment."

He went no further than the door, and when he came back, he brought with

him Mr. Crotchet and another person, and pointing to the cupboard, he

said--

"You will stow yourselves there, if you please, and keep quiet until I

call upon you to come out."

"I believe you," said Crotchet. "Lord bless you, we shall be snug

enough. How is you, Miss O.? I suppose by this time you feels quite at

home in your breech--"

"Silence!" said Sir Richard. "Go to your duty at once, Crotchet. Miss

Oakley is in no humour to attend to you just now."

Upon this, Mr. Crotchet and the other man got into the cupboard, and a

chair was placed against it; and then Sir Richard said to Johanna--

"I will come in to be shaved when I know that Todd is here, and your

trials will soon be over."

"To be shaved?--By him?"

"Yes. But believe me there is no danger. Any one may come here now to be

shaved with perfect safety. I have made such arrangements that Todd

cannot take another life."

"Thank Heaven!"

"Here is a letter from your friend, Miss Wilmot, which I promised her I

would deliver to you. Be careful how you let Todd see it. Read it at

once, and then you had better destroy it at once. I must go now; but, of

course, if you should be in any danger, call upon my men in the cupboard

to assist you, and they will do so at once, although it may spoil my

plot a little."

"Oh! how much I owe you."

"Nay, nay, no more upon that head. Farewell now, for a brief space. We

shall very soon meet again. Keep a fair and agreeable face to Todd, if

you can, for I do not wish, if it can possibly be helped, anything to

mar the plot I have got up for his absolute conviction upon abundant

testimony."

Sir Richard shook hands with Johanna, and then hastily left the shop,

for he did not wish just then to be found there by Todd, who might

return at any moment.

The moment he was gone Johanna eagerly opened the letter that had been

brought to her, and found it to contain the following words:--

"MY DEAR JOHANNA,--This is a selfish letter; for as I cannot see

you, I think I should go mad if I did not write to you; so I do so

for the ease of my own heart and brain. For the love of Heaven, and

for the love of all you hold dear in this world, get away from Todd

as quickly as you can; and when I see you again, I shall have

something to say to you which will give you more pleasure than ever,

with my bad advice, I have given you pain.

"Sir Richard Blunt has kindly promised to give this to you, and you

know that I am--Your ever affectionate

ARABELLA."

"Yes," said Johanna, when she had finished the epistle. "In truth I know

you are ever my affectionate Arabella, and I am most happy in such a

friend. But this must not meet Todd's eye. Ah! that footstep, I know it

too well. He comes--he comes."

She had just hidden the letter, when Sweeney Todd made his appearance.

"Anybody been?" he asked.

"Yes, one man, but he would not wait."

"Ah, wanted to be shaved, I suppose; but no matter--no matter; and I

hope you have been quiet, and not been attempting to indulge your

curiosity in any way, since I have been gone. Hush! here's somebody

coming. Why, it's old Mr. Wrankley, the tobacconist, I declare. Good-day

to you, sir--shaved, I suppose? I'm glad you have come, sir, for I have

been out till this moment. Hot water, Charley, directly, and hand me

that razor."

Johanna, in handing Todd the razor, knocked the edge of it against the

chair, and it being uncommonly sharp, cut a great slice of the wood off

one of the arms of it.

"What shameful carelessness," said Todd; "I have half a mind to lay the

strop over your back, sir; here you have spoilt a capital razor--not a

bit of edge left upon it."

"Oh, excuse him, Mr. Todd--excuse him," said the old gentleman; "he's

only a little lad, after all. Let me intercede for him."

"Very good, sir; if you wish me to look over it, of course I will; and,

thank God, we have a stock of razors, of course, always at hand. Is

there any news stirring, sir?"

"Nothing that I know of, Mr. Todd, except it's the illness of Mr.

Cummings, the overseer. They say he got home about twelve to his own

house, in Chancery-lane, and ever since then he has been as sick as a

dog, and all they can get him to say is, 'Oh, those pies--oh, those

pies!'"

"Very odd, sir."

"Very. I think Mr. Cummings must be touched in the upper story, do you

know, Mr. Todd. He's a very respectable man, but, between you and I, was

never over bright."

"Certainly not, sir--certainly not. But it's a very odd case. What pies

can he possibly mean, sir? Did you call when you came from home?"

"No. Ha, ha! I can't help laughing; but, ha, ha! I have come away from

home on the sly, you see. The fact is, my wife's cousin--hilloa!--I

think you have cut me."

"No, no--we can't cut anybody for three-halfpence, sir. I think I will

just give you another lather, sir, before I polish you off. And so you

have the pearls with you; well, how odd things come round, to be sure."

"What do you mean?"

"This shaving-brush is just in a good state now. Always as a

shaving-brush is on the point of wearing out, it's the best. Charley,

you will go at once to Mr. Cummings, and ask if he is any better; you

need not hurry, that's a good lad. I am not at all angry with you now.

And so, sir, they think at home that you have gone after some business

over the water, do they, and have not the least idea that you have come

to be shaved? There, be off, Charley--shut the door, that's a good lad,

bless you."

* * * * *

When Johanna came back, the tobacconist was gone.

"Well," said Sweeney Todd, as he sharpened a razor very leisurely, "how

is Mr. Cummings?"

"I found out his house, sir, with some difficulty, and they say he is

better having gone to sleep."

"Oh, very good! I am going to look over some accounts in the parlour, so

don't choose to be disturbed, you understand; and for the next ten

minutes, if anybody comes, you will say I am out."

Sweeney Todd walked quite coolly into the parlour, and Johanna heard him

lock the door on the inside; a strange, undefined sensation of terror

crept over her, she knew not why, and she shuddered, as she looked

around her. The cupboard door was not close shut, and she knew not what

prompted her to approach and peep in. On the first shelf was the hat of

the tobacconist: it was rather a remarkable one, and recognised in a

moment.

"What has happened? Good God! what can have happened?" thought Johanna,

as she staggered back, until she reached the shaving-chair, into which

she cast herself for support. Her eyes fell upon the arm which she had

taken such a shaving off with the razor, but all was perfectly whole and

correct; there was not the least mark of the cut that so recently had

been given to it; and lost in wonder, Johanna, for more than a minute,

continued looking for the mark of the injury she knew could not have

been, by any possibility, effaced.

And yet she found it not, although there was the chair, just as usual,

with its wide spreading arms and its worn, tarnished paint and gilding.

No wonder that Johanna rubbed her eyes, and asked herself if she were

really awake?

What could account for such a phenomenon? The chair was a fixture too,

and the others in the shop were of a widely different make and

construction, so it could not have been changed.

"Alas! alas!" mourned Johanna, "my mind is full of horrible surmises,

and yet I can form no rational conjecture. I suspect everything, and

know nothing. What can I do? What ought I to do, to relieve myself from

this state of horrible suspense? Am I really in a place where, by some

frightful ingenuity, murder has become bold and familiar, or can it be

all a delusion?"

She covered her face with her hands for a time, and when she uncovered

them, she saw that Sweeney Todd was staring at her with looks of

suspicion from the inner room.

The necessity of instantly acting her part came over Johanna, and she

gave a loud scream.

"What the devil is all this about?" said Todd, advancing with a sinister

expression. "What's the meaning of it? I suspect--"

"Yes, sir," said Johanna, "and so do I; I must to-morrow have it out."

"Have what out?"

"My tooth, sir--it's been aching for some hours; did you ever have the

toothache? If you did, you can feel for me, and not wonder that I lean

my head upon my hands and groan."

Todd looked about half satisfied at this excuse of Johanna's, and for a

few moments as he looked at her, she thought that after all she should

have to call upon her friends in the cupboard to save her from the

danger that his eyes, in their flashing ghastliness, threatened. Another

moment, and her lips would have parted with the shrill cry of "Murder!"

upon them, and then Heaven only knows what might have been the result;

but he turned suddenly, and went into the parlour, muttering to

himself--

"It is not worth while now, and this night ends it all--yes, this night

ends it all."

He slammed the door violently behind him, and Johanna was relieved from

the horror which his gaze had awakened, in her heart. She stood still,

but gradually she recovered her former calmness--if calmness it could at

all be called, seeing that it was only a stiller species of agitation.

But she now began to recall the words of Sir Richard Blunt to the effect

that measures had been taken that no more murders could be committed by

Todd, and she began to feel comforted.

"There is something that I do not know yet," she said; "Sir Richard

should have told me how there could be no more murders done here, and

then I should not have suffered what I did, and what I still suffer with

the thought that almost before my eyes a fellow creature has been

hurried into eternity; and yet I ought to have faith, and in defiance of

all the seeming evidences of a horrible deed about me, I ought, I

suppose, to believe that it has been prevented in some most strange and

miraculous way."

The more Johanna thought over this promise of Sir Richard Blunt's the

more she became convinced that he would never have given utterance to it

if he had not felt perfectly sure it would be fulfilled, and so she got

comforted, and once again resolved to play her part in that dreadful

drama of real life, in the vortex of which, with the purest and the

holiest of motives, she had plunged recklessly, we will admit, but yet

from motives entitling her to sympathy on earth, and protection in

heaven.

Todd remained for a considerable time in the parlour; and when he came

out, Johanna saw that he had made some alteration in his apparel. The

first words he uttered were--

"Keep a good fire, Charley."

"Yes, sir."

"Did you ever see a house on fire, my boy?"

"I never did, sir."

"Ah! It must be an amusing sight--a very amusing sight, especially if

the conflagration spreads, and one has an opportunity of viewing it from

the water. Talking of water, the lady who was here this morning--Mrs.

Lovett--was very fond of water, and now she has got plenty of it. Ah!"

"Really, sir? Has she gone to the sea-side?"

Johanna looked Todd rather hard in the face as she spoke these words,

and the close observation seemed to anger him, for he spoke hastily and

sharply--

"What is it to you? Get out of my way, will you? and you may begin to

think of shutting up, I think, for we shall have no more customers

to-night. I am tired and weary. You are to sleep under the counter, you

know."

"Yes, sir, you told me so. I daresay I shall be very comfortable there."

"And you have not been peeping and prying about, have you?"

"Not at all."

"Not looking even into that cupboard, I suppose, eh? It's not locked,

but that's no reason why you should look into it--not that there is any

secrets in it; but I object to peeping and prying upon principle."

Todd, as he spoke, advanced towards the cupboard, and Johanna thought

that in another moment a discovery would undoubtedly take place of the

two officers who were there concealed; and probably that would have been

the case, had not the handle of the shop door been turned at that

moment, and a man presented himself, when Todd turned quickly, and saw

that he was a substantial-looking farmer, with dirty top-boots, as if he

had just come off a journey.

"Well, master," said the visitor, "I wants a clean shave."

"Oh," said Todd, not in the best of humours, "it's rather late; but I

suppose you would not like to wait till morning, for I don't know if I

have any hot water."

"Oh, cold will do."

"Cold? Oh, dear no; we never shave in cold water; and if you must, you

must; so sit down, sir, and we will soon settle the business."

"Thank you, thank you. I can't go to bed comfortable without a clean

shave, do you see? I have come up from Braintree with beasts on

commission, and I'm staying at the Bull's Head, you see."

"Oh, indeed," said Todd, as he adjusted the shaving cloth, "the Bull's

Head."

"Yes, master; why I brought up a matter o' 220 beasts, I did, do you

see, and was on my _pooney_, as good a stepper as you'd wish to see; and

I sold 'em all, do you see, for 550 _pun_. Ho, ho! good work that, do

you see, and only forty-two on 'em was my beasts, do you see; I've got a

missus at home, and a daughter; my girl's called Johanna--a-hem!"

Up to this point Johanna had not suspected that the game had begun, and

that this was no other than Sir Richard himself, most admirably

disguised, who had come to put an end to the mal-practices of Sweeney

Todd; but his marked pronunciation of her name at once opened her eyes

to that fact, and she knew that something interesting must soon happen.

"And so you sold them all?" said Todd.

"Yes, master, I did, and I've got the money in my pocket now, in

bank-notes; I never leaves my money about at inns, do you see, master;

safe bind, safe find, you see; I carries it about with me."

"A good plan, too," said Todd; "Charley, some hot water; that's a good

lad--and--and--Charley?"

"Yes, sir."

"While I am finishing off this gentleman, you may as well just run to

the Temple to Mr. Serjeant Toldrunis and ask for his wig; we shall have

to do it in the morning, and may as well have it the first thing in the

day to begin upon; and you need not hurry, Charley, as we shall shut up

when you come back."

"Very good, sir."

Johanna walked out, but went no further than the shop window, close to

which she placed her eyes, so that, between a pomatum jar and a lot of

hair brushes, she could clearly see what was going on.

"A nice-looking little lad, that," said Todd's customer.

"Very, sir; an orphan boy; I took him out of charity, poor little

fellow; but then, we ought to try to do all the good we can."

"Just so; I'm glad I have come to be shaved here. Mine's rather a strong

beard, I think, do you see."

"Why, sir, in a manner of speaking," replied Todd, "it is a strong

beard. I suppose you didn't come to London alone, sir?"