CHAPTER CLI.

SHIFTS THE SCENE TO ONE OF QUIET GOODNESS AND SERENITY.

The necessities of our story force us for a short space of time to leave

Sweeney Todd in the pulpit of St. Dunstan's Church, and his house in

process of demolition by fire, while we take the reader back again to

Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where the Ingestries resided in such loving and

pleasant union.

The communication that Sir Richard Blunt had made to them, had had the

effect of disturbing the serenity of Mark Ingestrie to a much greater

extent than he would have liked to admit, or than he was at all likely

to let Johanna know.

She, too, the fair and gentle Johanna, felt an acute pang as she thought

on the stern, revengeful character of Todd; and began to fancy, that if

he wished to work her any woe, he would take a means of doing so which

would touch her much more severely than as if he aimed at her own life,

by attacking that of her husband, to whom, after so many perils, she was

at length so very happily united.

"Oh, Mark," she said, "you will, you must promise me that you will

depart at once from here."

"We will be gone directly, Johanna. But who have we here? Why, there is

an arrival already. I will go and see who it is. It is some one in a

coach."

"Oh, no--no, Mark, do not go."

"Not go?"

"No. You do not know but it may be some horrible scheme of that fiend in

the shape of man, Todd, to lure you to the door, and kill you. I am full

of fears, Mark, and cannot bear to let you go from my sight a moment."

"Oh, Johanna, this is unlike you, indeed. There now, look from the

window, dear, and you will soon see how little you have to fear. Why,

it's your father and your mother. Do you not see them, or does your

tears, and your fears together, blind you?"

"A little of both, Mark," said Johanna, with a faint smile; "but I see

that my dear father is there, and my mother, too. I will fly to welcome

them. They have heard of the escape of Todd, and cannot endure to have

us out of their sight."

As Johanna spoke, she hurried to the door to receive Mr. and Mrs.

Oakley. The old man caught her in his arms, as he said--

"Oh, my own dear child! Thank God I see you safe again!"

"Safe, father?"

"Yes, my darling. You know that dreadful man?--that--that--Oh, I don't

know what to call--"

"The horrid Todd," put in Mrs. Oakley, as she kissed Johanna. "He has

escaped, my dear, from Newgate; but, of course, Sir Richard Blunt has

been here to tell you, as he said he would; so you know all about it."

"Oh, yes--yes. Come in; I am so glad you have come."

"And so am I," said Mark Ingestrie, making his appearance in the hall;

"for here is Johanna starting at every little noise, and I do believe if

a mouse were now to run across the floor she would fancy that it was

that old rascal, Sweeney Todd."

"Ah! but, my dear boy," said Mr. Oakley; "you really don't seem to have

any idea of what a dreadful man he is--you don't, indeed."

"I don't care either, father; but I only wish one thing, and that is,

that he would be so good as to trust himself, for about half a minute,

within arms-length of me, that's all."

"Heaven forbid!" cried Mrs. Oakley. "My dear son, you don't know he used

to--to--what did he call it, Johanna?"

"Polish people off, ma."

"Ah, to be sure."

"Well, it's no use talking," said Mark; "but if ever I get hold of him,

I'll polish him off to some purpose. But you have just come in time for

me to say a very serious thing to you, mother, indeed."

"Oh, what is it?" cried Mrs. Oakley.

"Don't agitate us," said old Mr. Oakley, putting on his spectacles

upside-down. "Don't agitate us, my boy, but tell us at once what the

dreadful thing is."

"Why, pa," said Johanna, "Mark did not say it was a dreadful thing he

was going to say."

"Well, then, my dear, what is it?"

"Ah, that, indeed, I don't know; but I would wager--yes, I would wager

anything, that it is something not dreadful at all. Come, Mark, what is

it?--Speak out."

"Then, it's just this," said Mark. "We are going out of London, and I

want you both to come with us, for I know very well if you don't, that

you will be as miserable as possible, thinking of Johanna, and that

Johanna will be in much the same state thinking of you, and that you

will dream every night of Todd."

The old couple looked at each other with surprise and gratification. Mr.

Oakley took off his spectacles, and said--

"My dear boy, do you know, I was just going to say that--that--"

"That, in fact," put in Mrs. Oakley, "we would be glad to go with you,

if you would let us, for Sir Richard said he would advise you both to go

out of London, and leave him to find out and hang Todd at his leisure,

you know."

"Yes, that was it," said the old man. "That was the very thing that

brought us over here, my dears; so if you will only be so good--"

"Come, come," said Mark, "it is, you must be so good. I asked you first,

you know, so you do us the favour. Is not that it, Johanna? Of course it

is."

"You are very, very good and kind, Mark."

"Oh, stuff! not at all; I say what I like, that's all, and when I say

that it would please me mightily to have your father and mother with us,

Johanna, where we are going, I mean it from my heart, as you know well."

"I know you do, Mark. And poor Tobias, father, is to be with us

likewise. You have heard all about poor Tobias?"

"Oh, yes--yes."

"Well, then, Sir Richard Blunt told us that it would be the death of the

poor lad if he should be in London and hear that Todd has escaped from

Newgate. So we gladly agreed to take him with us, for he--more than any

one--has suffered deeply from Todd's wickedness."

"Hilloa!" cried Mark, as he glanced from the window. "If here is not

another coach at the door!"

"Oh, who is it?" said Mrs. Oakley. "It's Todd, of course, come to kill

us all!"

"I hope it is," said Mark. "I'll soon set you all at rest about him. But

only look! If it ain't the colonel, and Arabella, and Tobias. Well, if

Todd wants to be down upon us all at once, now is his time certainly to

do so."

In a few moments, the colonel and Arabella were shown into the room, and

they were quite surprised to see the Oakleys there; but while Johanna

and Arabella were embracing each other, Mark Ingestrie went up to the

colonel, and pointing slightly to Tobias, he whispered--

"Does he know?"

"Oh, no--no."

"Very good; but he had better, I am convinced, for it will be sure to

slip out in conversation, some time or another, and then the poor lad

will think much more of it than as if it were told to him in a quiet

manner by his friends, for he will think that there is more to conceal

than there really is. I am convinced that such will be the case."

"Then we will take an opportunity of telling him, but not just now. I

want to speak to Johanna."

"There she is, then."

"And what does he want to say to me?" said Johanna, as she shook hands

with the colonel.

"Why, a--the fact is that--that, in fact, Sir Richard told me he would

advise you to go out of town; and as I am pretty well aware that you set

sufficient store by his advice to follow it, I think it is very likely

you will go out of town."

"And so, dear," put in Arabella, "and so, dear, in a word, we want to go

with you, if you think that such an arrangement will not be disagreeable

to you."

"Now, that is the unkindest thing you have said, Arabella, for a long

time. How could you suppose that it would be other than most agreeable

to me to have with us such valued friends?"

"There, I told you that," said the colonel. "Of course it will be all

right, and we shall make quite a merry party, I'll be bound; so that's

as good as settled, and a very satisfactory thing it is, and the sooner

we all set off the better. Here's Tobias quite delighted with the idea

of his little excursion."

"Ah, yes," said Tobias, "and it is so kind and good of you, colonel, and

of all of you; but you know I leave my heart in London still, let me go

where I may."

"Never mind, Tobias," said Johanna. "I feel quite sure that you will

find it in good keeping when you do come back again; so now we will make

preparations at once for departure, and I hope we shall be quite

delighted with where we are going. It is one of the pleasantest places,

they tell me, on the coast, and will in time be a place of great

importance."

"Well," said the colonel, with a laugh, "it's quite a pleasant thing to

hear that it is on the coast, for that is something towards a knowledge

of where it is."

"Ah, my dear--By-the-by," said Mrs. Oakley, "I should like to know where

you really intend to take us all."

"To the little fishing village of Brighthelmstone, for it is nothing

more; but then it lies pleasantly between the hills, and you can see the

Channel opening fairly before you, and there is an air upon the Downs

that is full of life and joy. You will be sure to like it, mother, and

so will you, father, and you, colonel, and you, my dear Arabella."

"You don't mention me," said Mark.

"Oh, that is because you know you are of no sort of consequence at all.

You are nobody."

"Thank you!"

"Well now, my dears," said Mrs. Oakley, "don't begin to quarrel now, I

beg of you, for that is the worst thing you can do; and so long as we

get out of the way of having all our throats cut by that horrid Todd, I

don't care where I go to or how many inconveniences I put up with, so

long as it is a great way off; and I do hope that Sir Richard will soon

catch him again, and regularly hang him, as he deserves, the wretch,

that I do."

A complete silence followed the utterance of the indiscreet speech of

Mrs. Oakley's, which, if it did not at once open the eyes of poor Tobias

to the real reason of the sudden journey, nothing would. All eyes were

bent upon the lad; and rising from the seat which Johanna had made him

take, he looked about him with dismay.

"Oh, tell me, some one," he then said, "what does it all really mean?

Believe me, my kind and dear friends, that I shall suffer less from the

truth than as if I were left to make myself mad by thought. Oh, tell me

all!"

"You shall know all," said the colonel.

"Oh, mother--mother," said Johanna. "Why did you--"

Mrs. Oakley sat looking the picture of dismay, and Colonel Jeffrey

added--

"This is an accident that I don't think is to be much lamented. Tobias

must have known at some time, and it is better that he should know now

that he is surrounded by his friends. Give me your hand, Tobias. You see

that I smile, so it cannot be of great moment after all."

"Oh, tell me--tell me!"

"I will. Todd has made his escape from Newgate, that is all; but he is

friendless and penniless, and it will be quite impossible that he can

remain many days at large, as Sir Richard Blunt is already upon his

track. Let me beg of you not to be in the least alarmed at this

intelligence. It ought not to alarm you. Todd will have too much to do

to look after his own affairs to enable him to give a thought to anybody

else."

"You will save me?" said Tobias.

"I will. We will all stand between you and any harm; but, I repeat, I do

not apprehend any danger to you."

They all spoke to Tobias cheeringly, and in the course of half an hour

they got him into quite a different state of mind; and then, as he was

to form one of the party, it was quite a relief to them all that they

did not feel compelled to keep a guard upon their tongues in his

presence. In the evening of that day they were all at Brighton.

[Illustration: Johanna And Company Leave Chelsea To Avoid The Vengeance

Of Todd.]