The String of Pearls (1850), p. 246

They hastily left the spot and hurried away in the direction of Ludgate Hill,
but the confusion at the shop door of the barber did not terminate for some
time. The people took the part of the dog and his new master, and it was in
vain that Sweeney Todd exhibited his rent garments to show where he had been
attacked by the animal. Shouts of laughter and various satirical allusions to
his beauty were the only response. Suddenly, without a word, Todd then
gave up the contest and retired into his shop, upon which the ostler conveyed
Pison over the way and shut him up in one of the stables of the Bullfinch. Todd,
it is true, retired to his shop with an appearance of equanimity, but it was like
most appearances in this world---rather deceitful. The moment the door was
closed between him and observation he ground his teeth together and positively
howled with rage.
"The time will come---the time will come," he said, "when I shall have the
joy of seeing Fleet Street in a blaze, and of hearing the shrieks of those who are
frying in the flames. Oh, that I could with one torch ignite London, and
sweep it and all its inhabitants from the face of the earth. Oh, that all those
who are now without my shop had but one throat. Ha! ha! how I would cut it."
He caught up a razor as he spoke, and threw himself into a ferocious attitude
at the moment that the door opened, and a gentleman neatly dressed looked in,
saying---
"Do you dress artificial hair?"

CHAPTER LII.
TODD'S ANNOUNCEMENT.
"Yes," said Todd, as he commenced stropping the razor upon his hand as
though nothing at all was the matter. "I do anything in an honest and religious
sort of way for a living in these bad times."
"Oh, very well. A gentleman is ill in bed and wants his peruke properly
dressed, as he has an important visit to make. Can you come to his house?"
"Yes, of course. But can't the peruke be brought here, sir?"
"Yes. But he wants a shave as well, and although he can go in a sedan
chair to pay his visit, he is too ill to come to your shop."
Todd looked a little suspicious, but only a little, and then he said—
"It's an awkward thing that I have no boy at present, but I must get one—I
must get one, and in the meantime when I am called out I have no resource but
to shut up my shop."
At this moment a stout man came in, saying—
"Shaved—oh, you are busy. I can wait, Mr. Todd—I can wait, and down he sat."
Todd looked at the new-comer with a strange sort of scowl, as he said—
"My friend, have not I seen you here before, or somewhere else?"
"Very likely," said the man.
"Humph, I am busy and cannot shave you just now, as I have to go out with
this gentleman."
"Very well, I can wait here and amuse myself until you come back."
Todd fairly staggered for a moment, and then he said—
"Wait here—in my shop—and amuse yourself until I come back? No, sir, I don't suffer any one. But it don't matter. Ha! ha! Come in, I am ready
to attend you. But stop, are you in a very great hurry for two minutes, sir?"
"Oh, dear no, not for two minutes."
"Then it will only just take me that time to polish off this gentleman; and if,
you will give the address I am to come to, I will be with you almost a s soon, sir, as you can get home, I assure you."