The String of Pearls (1850), p. 262

he has done for me, I shall consider myself the worst person in the world. Aye,
as bad, quite as—as Sweeney Todd."
Tobias shuddered perceptibly as he pronounced Todd's name, and it was quite
evident that even in safety, as he could not but feel himself, and profoundly protected from the deadly malice of his late master, he could not divest himself of the absolute horror which even a mere remembrance of him engendered,
"Well, Tobias," said the colonel, as he drew a chair close to him, "since you
have named Todd, pray tell us all about him."
"All?"
"Yes, all, Tobias."
"I will tell all I know. Come closer to me, Minna; I feel, when you are near
me, as though God had sent one of his angels to keep Todd from me. Oh, yes,
I will tell all I know. How can he harm me now?"
"How indeed, Tobias?" said Minna.
Tobias still trembled. What a shock that bold, bad, unscrupulous man had
given to the nerves of that boy. His bodily health might be restored, and his
mind once more be brought back to sanity, but if Tobias Ragg were to live to the
age of a patriarch, the name of Todd would be to him a something yet to shrink from, and the tone of his nervous system could never be what it once was. Minna looked up in his face, and the colonel, too, gazed fully upon him, so that Tobias found he was absolutely called upon to say something.
"Yes," he began, "I remember that people came to the shop, and—and that
they never went out of it again."
"Can you particularise any instance?"
"Yes, the gentleman with the dog."
Colonel Jeffery showed by his countenance how much he was interested.
"Go on," he said. "What about the gentleman with the dog?"
"I don't know how it was," added Tobias, "but that circumstance seemed to
tell more upon my fancy than any other. I suppose it was the conduct of the
dog."
"What sort of a dog was it?"
"A large handsome dog, and Todd would not let it remain in the shop, so his
master made him wait outside."
"Did he name the dog?"
Tobias passed his hand across his brow several times, and then his countenance
suddenly brightening up, he said—
"Hector! Yes, Hector!"
Colonel Jeffery nodded.
"What then happened, Tobias?" said Minna.
Why, I think Todd sent me out upon some message, and when I came back
the gentleman was gone, but not the dog."
"Now, Tobias, can you tell us what sort of a man the man with the dog was?"
"Yes, fresh-coloured, and good-looking rather, with hair that curled. I should know him again."
"Ah, Tobias," said the colonel, "I am afraid we shall none of us ever see him
again in this world."
"Never," said Tobias. "Todd killed him. How he did it, or what he did with the body, I know not; but he did kill him, and many more, I am certain as that I am now here. Many people came into the shop that never left it again."
"No doubt; and now, Tobias, how came you in the street by London Bridge
so utterly overcome and destitute?"
"The madhouse."
"Madhouse?"
"Yes, I shall recollect it all. Where are you, mother?"
"Bless us and save us!—here, to be sure," said Mrs. Ragg.
"Did I not come to you at your room and find you ironing, and did I not tell
you that I had something to say about Todd, and ask you to fetch somebody?"