CHAPTER LXXVII.

MRS. LOVETT VISITS THE BANK.

Mrs. Lovett, Mrs. Lovett, we are neglecting you! Excuse us, fascinating

piece of wickedness. We are now in Bell-yard again. It will be

recollected what a mental ferment the appearance of Ben, and Arabella,

and Sir Richard Blunt, at the window of her shop had put her in. Not

that she knew any of those parties--nor that she connected any of them

in any way with her feelings, except so far as their attitudes might at

that moment lead her to suppose. The attitudes certainly were such as to

create suspicion. All this, joined to the previous state of mind of Mrs.

Lovett, did not tend to produce that heavenly calm, which philosophers

tell us is such a remarkably nice thing. On the contrary, the mind of

Mrs. Lovett rather resembled a raging torrent, boiling and bubbling to

some destruction which was afar off, and which could only be reached

through the perils and dangers of some stormy passage. She was sighing

for peace. She had begun to sicken for the results of her life of

iniquity--not those results which an indignant and outraged public would

have visited her with, but those results which she and all persons, who

deliberately and systematically commence a career of guilt, picture to

themselves. Criminality is never engaged in for its own sake. There is

always some ultimate object in view, which makes the retrospect less

horrible, and the prospect dim and dubious, though it may be yet a thing

of pleasurable anticipation. Of course, we are only reasoning upon those

minds that reflect. There are many who lead a life of criminality, who

do so as the manifestation of an intellect that can picture nothing

else. But the reader knows that Mrs. Lovett was not of such an order.

She was to some extent an educated, and to a considerable extent a

clever woman. Hence, then, she had always pictured to herself wealth and

retirement, respect and power, as the ends for which she was striving

with such unscrupulous means. But of late, with a shuddering horror, she

had begun to dread that all she had hoped for was getting only more

distant. She had contracted a strong notion of the bad faith of Todd,

and if such were really the case, all was indeed lost. If he allowed his

cupidity just to induce him to commit the crime that would be one too

many, destruction must fall upon them both. If likewise he instantly

made an effort to take to himself all the profits of the unholy traffic

that they were mutually engaged in, all would be lost to both; for was

she a likely woman to crouch down in silence under such a blow? No! the

scaffold prepared by her instrumentality for Todd, would be scarcely

less a triumph to her that she herself would share it with him. He ought

to have known better than he did. How clear and long-sighted we find

people upon subjects that from this distance may be supposed to present

difficulties, and yet how shallow they are upon what is close to them.

One would have thought that such a man as Todd could easily have said to

himself, with regard to Mrs. Lovett, "I dare not tamper with the objects

of that woman," and he would have said it with truth; but on the

contrary, he only looked upon her as a convenient tool, which was to be

thrown aside when it had served all the purposes for which he intended

it. There could not have been a more fatal mistake upon the part of Todd

as concerned his safety. But to return to Mrs. Lovett. The brandy she

had promised to the prisoner was quite forgotten. She sat revolving in

her mind, how she could put an end to the state of horrible doubt and

perplexity in which she was. There were some little difficulties in the

way of Mrs. Lovett emerging from her present condition. It has been

before hinted at, that Todd and the fair lady of the pie-shop had

between them accumulated a large sum of money, and that the money was

duly deposited in the hands of a stock-broker, who was by no means to

part with it to either of them, except upon an order signed by both. So

far all looked fair enough; and as they were likewise bound together by

such a bond of mutual guilt, it did not look likely that either would

make an endeavour to get the better of the other. Suppose there was

£40,000 in the hands of the stock-broker, it did not seem, we say, under

all the circumstances likely that Todd--being fairly entitled as between

them, to £20,000--would peril the safety of both their necks, by getting

up a quarrel about the division equitably of the spoil. The same

reasoning will apply to Mrs. Lovett. But these unlikely things are the

very things that do come to pass to upset the finest plans. Todd never

from the first--whenever that was--meant that Mrs. Lovett should share

with him; no, he thought that he, as the superior genius, the greater

villain, would manage to cheat her, and that she would, for her own

safety's sake, be obliged to put up with what he chose to give her. That

would have been only such a pittance, as to keep her constantly in a

state of dependance upon him. Now, to do Mrs. Lovett justice upon the

old equitable principle of giving the devil his due, she never had any

intention, until she saw symptoms of bad faith in Todd, of attempting to

act otherwise than fairly by him. She loathed him; and all she meant to

do, was when the division of the spoil should take place, to ascertain

where he was going, and then to get as far off him as possible. Of late,

however, finding that Todd was getting lucky, and feeling quite

convinced that he aimed at her life, other views had dawned upon her, as

we are already well aware. She did not so much care for all the money as

she would have liked in her retirement, wherever it was, to have felt

sure that Todd was not

"An inhabitant of the earth;"

and hence she had taken the pains, all of which had been frustrated, to

put him into another world. But a feeling, superstitiously consequent

upon her failure, had started up in her mind that he bore a charmed

life; and hence she bethought herself of flying from England; but the

money--how was she to get the money to do so? How was she, without his

cognisance, to get her share of the funds which had been placed in the

hands of a stock-broker? Now, since she had begun to feel uncomfortable

regarding the faith of Todd, Mrs. Lovett had kept what cash she saved at

home; therefore some weeks had elapsed since she had paid a monetary

visit to the city. If she had gone as usual, she might have got some

news. To a woman of lively and discursive imagination like Mrs. Lovett,

a plan of operation was not long in suggesting itself. Why, she asked

herself, should she hesitate to put Todd's name to the document

necessary to get her half of the money from the stock-broker? What a

natural consequence from this question it was to ask herself another,

which was--If I am forging Todd's signature at all, might I not do it

for the whole amount as for half, and so take the only revenge upon him

which he would feel, or which I dare offer myself the gratification of

exacting from him? When such a question as this is asked, it is

practically answered in the affirmative. Mrs. Lovett felt quite decided

upon it. She was a woman of courage. No faint-hearted scruple interposed

between the thought and the execution of a project with her. The recent

scene that had taken place in front of her window decided her. Now or

never! she told herself. Now or never is the time to escape. I have

nothing to encumber myself with. Let Todd keep his jewels and trinkets.

All I want is the money which is in the hands of Mr. Anthony Brown, the

stock-broker, and that I will have forthwith. Mrs. Lovett did not know

the exact amount; but as it was a joint account, such an amount of

ignorance need not appear at all surprising to the stock-broker; so she

drew up an order for the money, and signed it with both Todd's name and

her own, leaving a blank for the amount. She then carefully locked up

all doors but that of the outer shop, and having procured the services

of a young girl from a greengrocer's shop in the vicinity, to mind the

place for an hour, as she said, she considered she was all right. The

girl had attended to the shop before for Mrs. Lovett at times when no

batches of pies were expected from the regions below, so she did not

feel at all surprised at the call upon her services.

"I shall be an hour," said Mrs. Lovett. "You can take a pie or two for

yourself if you feel at all hungry; and if Mr. Todd should come in, say

I'm gone to call upon a dress-maker in Bond-street."

"Yes, mum!"

Mrs. Lovett left the shop. At the corner of Bell-yard she turned and

cast a glance at it. She hoped it was a farewell one--She shuddered and

passed on; and then she muttered to herself--

"If I am--which assuredly I shall be--successful in the city, I will

take post-horses there at once for some sea-port, and from thence reach

the Continent, before Todd can dream of pursuit, or find out what I have

done, or where bestowed myself."

She was not so impudent as to pass Todd's shop, but she went down one of

the streets upon the opposite side of Fleet-street, and came up another,

which was considerably past the house which was so full of horrors. A

lumbering old hackney coach met her gaze. It was disengaged, and Mrs.

Lovett got into it.

"To Lothbury," she said; and after swaying to and fro for a few moments,

the machine was set in action, and duly steering up Ludgate Hill.

The impatience of Mrs. Lovett was so great, that she would gladly have

done anything to induce the horses to go at a faster rate than the safe

two miles and a half an hour to which they were accustomed, but she

dreaded that if she exhibited any signs of extreme impatience she might

excite suspicion. To the guilty, any observation of a more than ordinary

character is a thing to dread. They would fain glide through life

gently, and not at all do they sigh to be--

"The observed of all observers."

But the longest journey even in the slowest hackney coach must come to

an end. As Ben the beef-eater would have said--"Easy does it;" and as

Mrs. Lovett's journey was anything but a long one, the gloomy precincts

of Lothbury soon loomed upon her gaze. After the customary oscillations,

and wheezing and creaking of all its joints and springs, the coach

stopped.

"Wait," said Mrs. Lovett with commendable brevity; and alighting, she

entered a dark door-way upon the side of which was painted, in letters

that had contracted so much the colour of the wood-work that they were

nearly illegible, "Mr. Anthony Brown."

This was the stock-broker, who held charge of the ill-gotten gains of

that pair of un-worthies, Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd. A small door,

covered with what had been green baize, but which was now of some

perfectly original brown, opened into the outer office of the man of

business, and there a spruce clerk held dominion. At the sound of the

rustling silks of Mrs. Lovett, he raised his head from poring over the

cumbrous ledger; and then seeing, to use his own vernacular, it was "a

monstrous fine woman," he condescended to alight from his high stool,

and he demanded the lady's pleasure.

"Mr. Brown."

"Yes, madam. Certainly. Mr. B. is in his private room. What name shall I

have the pleasure of saying?"

"Lovett."

"Lovett? Yes, madam. Certainly--a-hem! Pray be seated, madam, if you

please."

Mrs. Lovett made a gesture of dissent, and the clerk went upon his

errand. He was scarcely absent a moment, and then holding open a door,

he said, with quite a chivalric air--

"This way, if you please, madam.--A monstrous fine woman," he added to

himself.

The door closed after Mrs. Lovett, and she was in the private room of

Mr. Anthony Brown.

"Ah, Mrs. Lovett. Pray be seated, madam. I am truly glad to see you

well. Well, to be sure, you do look younger, and younger, and younger,

every time I have the pleasure of a visit from you."

"Thank you, Mr. Brown, for the compliment. My visits have not been so

numerous as usual of late."

"Why, no ma'am, they have not; but I hope we are going to resume

business again in the old way?"

"Not exactly."

"Well, my dear madam, whatever it is that has procured me the honour and

the pleasure of this visit, I am sure I am very glad of it, and shall

not quarrel with it. He! he! Nice weather, Mrs. Lovett."

"Very."

"Ah, madam--ah, it was a world of pities to disturb the investments. It

was indeed. But ladies will be ladies."

"Sir?"

"I--I merely said ladies will be ladies you know. And indeed--he! he!--I

fully expected the interesting ceremony had come off before now, I did

indeed; and I should have wagered a new hat."

"Mr. Brown, what are you talking about?"

"About?"

"Yes, what do you mean?"

"Why, a--a--that is--the--a--a--about--concerning--the--my dear madam,

if I have inadvertently trodden upon your sensibilities, I--I really--"

"You really what?"

Mr. Brown looked perplexed. Mrs. Lovett looked a little furious.

"Sir," she said. "Before I explain the cause of my visit to you, I

insist upon knowing to what all your mysterious hints and remarks

allude. Speak freely and plainly, sir."

"Well then, madam, when Mr. Todd was last here, he said that you had at

last consented to reward years of devotion to you by becoming his, and

that the ceremony which was to make him a happy man by uniting him to so

much excellence and beauty, was to come off almost immediately, and that

that was the reason you had both agreed to withdraw all the money I had

in such snug and comfortable safe investments for you both. He! he! he!"