The String of Pearls (1850), p. 36

"I know what being pursued is/' replied the man, "and yet I know nothing of you."
"That is not at all astonishing," said Sweeney, "seeing that I never saw you before, nor you me; but that makes no difference. I'm in difficulties, and I suppose a man may do his best to escape the consequences?"
"Yes, he may, yet that is no reason why he should come here; this is the place for free friends, who know and aid one another."
"And such I am willing to be; but at the same time I must have a beginning. I cannot be initiated without some one introducing me. I have sought protection, and I have found it; if there be any objection to my remaining here any longer, I will leave."
"No, no," said a tall man on the other side of the table, "I have heard what you have said, and we do not usually allow any such things; you have come here unasked, and now we must have a little explanation—our own safety may demand it; at all events we have our customs, and they must be complied with."
"And what are your customs?" demanded Todd.
"This: you must answer the question which we shall propound unto you; now answer truly what we shall ask of you."
"Speak," said Todd, "and I will answer all that you propose to me, if possible."
"We will not tax you too hardly, depend upon it: who are you?"
"Candidly, then," said Todd, "that's a question I do not like to answer, nor do I think it is one that you ought to ask. It is an inconvenient thing to name oneself—you must pass by that inquiry."
"Shall we do so?" inquired the interrogator of those around him, and gathering his cue from their looks, he, after a brief space, continued—
"Well, we will pass over that, seeing it is not necessary, but you must tell us what you are—cutpurse, footpad, or what not?"
"I am neither."
"Then tell us in your own words," said the man, "and be candid with us.
"What are you ?"
"I am an artificial pearl-maker—or sham pearl-maker, whichever way you please to call it."
"A sham pearl-maker! that may be an honest trade for all we know, and that will hardly be your passport to our house, friend sham pearl-maker!"
"That may be as you say," replied Todd, "but I will challenge any man to equal me in my calling. I have made pearls that would pass with almost a lapidary, and which would pass with nearly all the nobility."
"I begin to understand you, friend; but I would wish to have some proof of what you say; we may hear a very good tale, and yet none of it shall be true; we are not men to be made dupes of, besides, there are enough to take vengeance, if we desire it."
"Ay, to be sure there is," said a gruff voice from the other end of the table, which was echoed from one to the other, till it came to the top of the table.
"Proof! proof! proof!" now resounded from one end of the room to the other.
"My friends," said Sweeney Todd, rising up, and advancing to the table, and thrusting his hand into his bosom and drawing out the string of twenty-four pearls, "I challenge you, or any one, to make a set of articial pearls equal to these; they are my make, and I'll stand to it in any reasonable sum, that you cannot bring
a man who shall beat me in my calling."
"Just hand them to me," said the man who had made himself interrogator.
Sweeney Todd threw the pearls on the table carelessly, and then said—
"There, look at them well, they'll bear it, and I reckon, though there may be some good judges amongst you, that you cannot any of you tell them from real pearls, if you had not been told so."