The String of Pearls (1850), p. 355

"Then you have it here?"
"No, no!"
"You have. Tell me that you have, and that this Mr. Black you mentioned is a mere delusion."
"Black may be no colour, but it is not a delusion."
"You trifle with me. Beware !"
"In a word then, my charming Mrs. Lovett, I dreaded to bring the money here. I thought my house the most unsafe place in the world for it. I and you stand upon the brink of a precipice—a slumbering volcano is beneath our feet. Pshaw! Where is your old acuteness, that you do not see at once how truly foolish it would have been to bring the money here?"
"Juggler! fiend!"
"Hard words, Mrs. Lovett.
She dashed her hand across her brow, as though by that physical effort she could brush from her intellect the sophistical cobwebs that Todd had en-
deavoured to move before it, and then she said—
"I know not. I care not. All I ask—all I demand—is my share of the money. Give it to me, and let me go."
"I will."
"When?"
"This day. Stay, the day is fast going, but I will say this night, if you really, in your cool judgment, insist upon it."
"I do. I do!"
"Well, you shall have. This night after business was over and the shop was closed, I intended to have come to you, and fully planned all this that you have unfortunately tortured yourself by finding out. I regret that you think of so quickly leaving the profits of a partnership which, in a short time longer, would have made us rich as monarchs. Of course, if you leave, I am compelled."
"You compelled?"
"Yes. How can I carry on business without you? How could I, without your aid, dispose of the—"
"Hush, hush!"
Mrs. Lovett shuddered.
"As you please," said Todd. "I only say, I regret that a co-partnership that promised such happy results should now be broken up. However, that is a matter for your personal consideration merely. If I had thought of leaving, and being content with what I had already got, of course it would have compelled you to do so. Therefore I cannot complain, although I may regret your excuse of a right of action that equally belonged to me."
"If I only thought you sincere—"
"And why not?"
"If I could only bring myself to believe that the money was once more rightly invested—"
"You shall come with me yourself, if you like, in the morning to Mr. Black the broker in Abchurch Lane, No. 3, and ascertain that all is right. You shall there sign your name in his book, so that he may know it, and then you will be satisfied, I presume?"
"Yes, I should then."
"And this dream of leaving off business would vanish?"
"Perhaps it would. But—but—"
"But what?"
"Why did you say to Brown that our union was to take place?"
"Because it was necessary to say something, to account for the sudden withdrawal of the money; and surely I may be pardoned, charming Mrs. Lovett, for even in imagination dreaming, that so much beauty was mine."
The horrible leer with which Todd looked upon her at this moment made her shudder again; and the expression of palpable hatred and disgust that her countenance wore, added yet another, and not the least considerable, link to