The String of Pearls (1850), p. 253

"Oh, dear no," cried the stranger, who had come in to be shaved, suddenly
starting up, "I really could not think of such a thing. I will call again."
"It's only in Norfolk Street," said the applicant for the dressing of the artificial hair, "and two minutes can't make any difference to my friend, at all."
"Do you think," said the other, "that I would really interrupt business in
this way? No, may I perish if I would do anything so unhandsome—not I.
I will look in again, Mr. Todd, you may depend, when you are not going out.
I shall be passing again, I know, in the course of the day. Pray attend to this
gentleman's orders, I beg of you."
So saying, the shaving customer bounced out of the shop without another
word; and as he crossed the threshold, he gave a wink to Crotchet, who was
close at hand, and when that gentleman followed him, he said—
"Crotchet, Todd very nearly got me into a line. He was going out with the
person we saw go to the shop, but I got away, or else, as he said, he would have
polished me off."
"Not a doubt of it, in this here world, Foster," said Crotchet. "Ah, he's a
rum 'un, he is. We haven't come across sich a one as he for one while, and it will be a jolly lot o' Sundays afore we meets with sich another."
"It will, indeed. Is Fletcher keeping an eye on the shop?"
"Oh, yes, right as a trivet. He's there, and so is Godfrey."
While this brief conversation was going on between the officers who had been
left to watch Sweeney Todd's shop, that individual himself accompanied the
customer, whom he had been conversing with, to Norfolk Street, Strand. The
well-dressed personage stopped at a good-looking house, and said—
"Mr. Mundell only lodges here for the present. His state of mind, in con-
sequence of a heavy loss he has sustained, would not permit him to stay in his
own house at Kensington."
"Mr. Mundell," said Todd.
"Yes. That is the gentleman you are to shave and dress."
"May I presume to ask, sir, what he is?"
"Oh, he is a—a—kind of merchant, you understand, and makes what use of his money he thinks proper."
"The same!" gasped Todd.
The door of the house was opened, and there was no retreat, although, at the
moment, Todd felt as though he would much rather not shave and dress the
man of whom he had procured the £8,000 upon the string of pearls; but to
show any hesitation now might beget enquiry and enquiry might be awkward, so
summoning all his natural audacity to his aid, Todd followed his guide into the
house. He was a little puzzled to know who this person could be, until a
woman made her appearance from one of the rooms upon the ground floor, and
cried—
"There now, go out, do. We don't want you any more; you have got your
pocket money, so be off with you, and don't let me see your face again till
night."
"No, my dear," said the well-dressed personage. "Certainly not. This is
the barber."
"Good God, Blisset, do you think I am blind, that I can't see the barber.
Will you go? The captain is waiting for me to pour out his coffee, and attend
to his other concerns, which nobody knows better than you, and yet you will be
perpetually in the way."
"No, my dear, I— I only—"
"Hoity toity, are we going to have a disturbance, Mr. B? Recollect, sir,
that I dress you well and give you money, and expect you to make yourself
agreeable while I attend to the gentlemen lodgers, so be off with you; I'm sure,
of all the troublesome husbands for a woman to have, you are about the worst,
for you have neither the spirit to act like a man, nor the sense to keep out of the
way."