The String of Pearls (1850), p. 178

"Lord bless you, yes. If I was now to go to my estates in South America, there would be a jubilee of ten days at the very least, and the people as well as the government would not know how to make enough of me, I can assure you.
In fact, I have as much right to take the rank of general as of major, but the natural modesty of a military man, and of myself in particular, steps in and says
'A major be it.'"
"Then you have property?"
"Property—property? I believe you, I have. Lots!"
The major dealt his forehead a slap as he spoke, which might be taken as an indication that that was where his property was situated, and that it consisted of his ignorance and impudence—very good trading capitals in this world for,
strange to say, the parties solely possessing such qualifications get on much better than education, probity, and genius can push forward their unhappy victims. Mrs. Lovett was silent for some minutes, during which the major saluted her again. Then, suddenly rising, she said—
"I will give you an answer to-morrow. Go away now. We shall be soon interrupted. If I do consent to be yours, there will be something to do before we leave England."
"By Jove, only mention it to me, and it is as good as done. By-the-bye, there is something to do before I leave here, and that is, my charmer, to pay you for the pies,"
"Oh, no—no."
"Yes, yes—my honour. Touch my honour, even in regard of a pie, and touch my life.—I put two guineas in one end of my purse, to pay my glover in the Strand, and at the other end are some small coins—where the deuce—can—I—have—put—it."
The major made an affectation of feeling in all his pockets for his lost purseand then, with a serio-comic look, he said,—
"By Jove, some rascal has picked my pocket."
"Never mind me," said Mrs. Lovett, "I don't want payment for the pies."
"Well, but—the—the glover. Poor devil, and I promised him his money this morning. For a soldier and a man of honour to break his word is death. What shall I do?—Mrs. L., could you lend me a couple of guineas until I have the happiness of seeing you again ?"
"Certainly, major, certainly I can."
The gallant son of Mars pocketed the coins, and after saluting Mrs. Lovett some half score of times—and she, the beast, liked it—he left the shop and went
chuckling into the Strand, where in a few minutes he was in a pot-house, from whence he emerged not until he had liquidated one of the guineas. Was Mrs.
Lovett taken in by the major? Did she believe his title, or his wealth, and his common honesty Did she believe in the story of the purse and of the two guineas that were to be paid to tne poor glover because he wanted them? No—no—certainly not. But for all that, she admired the major.—He was her beau ideal of a fine man! That was sufficient. Moreover, being what he was—a rogue, cheat, and common swindler—she could exercise, so she thought, a species of control over him which no decent man would put up with, and so in her own mind she had determined to marry the major and fly; but as she said—"There was a little something to be done first." Did that relate to the
disposal of Todd? We shall see. If she calculated upon the major putting Sweeney Todd out of the way, she sadly miscalculated; but the wisest heads will blunder. Compared to Todd, the major was indeed a poor creature; but Mrs. Lovett, in the stern courage of her own intellect; could not conceive the possibility
of the great, puffy, bloated, fierce Major Bounce being as arrant a coward as ever was kicked. He was so, though, for all that. After he had left her, Mrs. Lovett sat for a long time in a profound reverie, and as it happened that no one came into the shop, the current of her evil thoughts was uninterrupted.
"I have sufficient," she said; " and before it gets too late, I will leave this mode of life. Why did I—tempted by the fiend Todd—undertake it, but that