The String of Pearls (1850), p. 230

drink to the speedy restoration to perfect health of Tobias. Come, Rathbone,
what do you think? Shall we be one too many yet for Todd?"
"I begin to think we shall."
"I feel certain of it. So soon as we see that Tobias is sufficiently well to make any statement, it will be necessary to send for Sir Richard Blunt."
"Certainly."
"And then I hope and trust that we shall get at something that will elucidate the mystery that is still attached to the fate of poor Thornhill."
"Ah, I fear he is gone!"
"Dead?"
"Yes. That fatal string of pearls has heralded him to death, I fear; but, perhaps we shall hear a something concerning that yet from Tobias."
They all sat down in the drawing-room, and with tearful pleasure Minna Gray drank a glass of wine to the health of Tobias, after which Mrs. Ragg saw her home again to Milford Lane, and no doubt all the road from the colonel's
house to there did not want for a prolific subject of conversation. How happy
Minna felt when she put up to Heaven her simple prayer that night, previous to
seeking repose.

CHAPTER XLVIII.
JOHANNA MAKES A NEW CONFIDANT.

We left the spectacle-maker and his family rather in a state of confusion. Big
Ben the Beef-eater had had his revenge upon both Mrs. Oakley and the Saint,
and it was a revenge that realty did them no harm, so that in that respect it had
turned out well. The Rev. Josiah Lupin did not return to the house, but
Mrs. Oakley, in a terrible state of prostration from the effects of the sickness that
had 'come over her, staggered again into the parlour. She looked at Mr.
Oakley, as she said—
"If you were half a man you would take the life of that villain for treating
me in the way he has; I have no doubt but he meant to take the life of the
pious Mr. Lupin, and so add him to the list of martyrs."
"My dear," said the spectacle-maker, "if Mr. Lupin intrudes himself into
my house, and any friend of mine turns him out, I am very much obliged to
him."
"Perhaps you would be equally obliged to this monster, whom you call your friend, if he would turn me out?"
Mr. Oakley shook his head as he said—
"My dear, there are some burthens which can be got rid of, and some that
must be borne."
"Come—come, Mother Oakley," said Ben. "Don't bear malice. You
played me a trick the last time I came here, and now I have played you one.
That's all. It wasn't inhuman nature not to do it, so don't bear malice."
Mrs. Oakley, if she had been in a condition to do so, no doubt would have
carried on the war with Big Ben, but she decidedly was not, and after a shudder
or two, which looked as though she thought the toad was beginning again to
oppress her, she rose to leave the room.
"Mother," said Johanna, "it was not a real toad.''
"But you are !" said Mrs. Oakley, sharply. "You have no more feeling for
your mother than as if she were a brickbat."
Feeling now that at all events she had had the last word at somebody, Mrs.
Oakley made a precipitate retreat, and sought the consolations and solitude of
her own chamber. Mr. Oakley was about to make some speech, which he prefaced .with a sigh, when some one coming into the shop called his attention,
and he left Johanna and Big Ben the Beefeater together in the parlour. The