The String of Pearls (1850), p. 205

was upon the point of passing out of the room, and going down stairs, when he
heard a confused sound approaching the attic, and he paused instantly. The
sound came nearer and nearer, until Crotchet found that some half dozen people
were upon the landing, and all talking together in anxious whispers.
"What the deuce is up now?" he thought.
He approached the door and listened.
"I tell you what it is, Mr. Otton," said a female voice. "It's now getting on for ten o'clock, and I positively can't sleep in my bed unless I know some-
thing more about this horrid attic."
"Well, but, mum--"
"Don't speak to me. Here's an attic, and two men go into it. Then all at
once there's no men in it; and then all at once, one man comes down and walks
out as cool as a cucumber, and says nothing at all; and then we know well enough as there was two men, and only one—"
"But, mum—"
"Don't speak to me, and only one has come down."
"And here's the t'other!'" cried Crotchet, suddenly bouncing out of the attic.
The confusion that ensued baffles all description. A grand rush was made into the apartments of the lady who was fond of putting her feet into hot water and in the midst of the confusion, Crotchet quickly enough went down stairs and made his escape from the shoemaker's house.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE GREAT SACRIFICE.

While all these things were going on at Sweeney Todd's, in Fleet-street, Mrs. Lovett was not quite idle as regarded her own affairs and feelings. That lady's—what shall we say—certainly not affections, for she had none—passions
is a better word—were inconceivably shocked by the discovery she had made of
the perfidy of her flaunting and moustachied lover. It will be perceived, by this little affair of Mrs. Lovett's, how strong-minded women have their little weaknesses. The hour of the appointment, which she (Mrs. Lovett) had made with her military-looking beau, came round; and there she sat, looking rather disconsolate.
"Am I never to succeed," she muttered to herself, "in finding one with
whom I can make my escape from this sea of horrors that surrounds me? Am I, notwithstanding I have so fully accomplished all I wished to accomplish, by—by"—she shuddered and paused.—"Well, well, the time will come—I must go alone. Let Todd go alone, and let me go alone. Why should he wish to trammel my actions? He cannot surely think, for a moment, that with him I will consent to pass the remainder of my life!"
The scornful curl of the lip, and the indignant toss of the head, which accompanied these words, would have been quite sufficient to convince Todd, had he seen them, of the hopelessness of any such notion.
"No," she added, after a pause, "I shall be alone in the world, or, if I make
ties, they shall be made in another country. There it is possible I may be—oh,
no, no—not happy; but I may be powerful, and have cringing slaves about me,
who, finding that I am rich, will tell me that I am beautiful, and I shall be able to drink deeply of the intoxicating cup of pleasure, in some land where prudery,
or what is called propriety, has not set up its banner as it has in this land of outward virtue. As for Todd—I—I will try to be assured that he is a corpse before I breathe freely; and if I fail in that, I will hope that we shall be thou-
sands of leagues asunder."
A shadow passed the window. Mrs. Lovett started to her feet.