The String of Pearls (1850), p. 360

"Sticks to the table?" said Mrs. Ragg.
"Yes, mum, sticks. But as you was a saying?"
"Well, Martha, in course I know that what goes to you goes no farther."
"Not a step."
"And you won't mention it to no one?"
"Not a soul. Another glass?"
"No, no."
"Only one. Nonsense! it don't get into your head. It's as harmless as
milk, Mr. Juggus says."
"But ain't you afeard, Martha, he may come in?"
"Not he, Mrs. Ragg. Chambers won't see him agin till night. Oh, he's a shocking young man. Well, Mrs. Ragg, as you was a saying?"
"Well, it is good. As I was a saying, Martha, I don't feel uneasy now about Tobias, poor boy; for if ever a poor lad, as was a orphan in a half-and-half kind of way, seeing that I am his natural mother, and living, and thanking God for the same, and health, leastways, as far as it goes at this present moment
of speakin, I—I—Bless me, where was I?"
"At Tobias."
"Oh, yes, I was at Tobias. As I was saying, if ever a poor body was well provided for, Tobias is. The colonel—"
"The who?"'
"The colonel, Martha—the colonel as has took the care of him, and who, sooner or later, will have all the truth out of him about the Toddey Sween."
"Who? Who?''
"Bless my poor head, I mean Sweeney Todd. Dear me, what am I thinking of?"
"The barber?"
"Yes, Martha; that horrid barber in Fleet-street; and between you and me, there isn't in all the mortal world a more horrid wretch living than he is."
"I'm all of a shake."
"He—he—"
"Yes, yes. What—"
"He takes folks in and does for 'em,"
"Kills 'em?"
"Kills 'em."
"What—why—what—You don't mean to 'say—why—? Take another glass Mrs. Ragg. You don't mean to say that Tobias says, that Todd the
barber is a murderer?—My dear Mrs. Ragg, take another glass, and tell us all about it; only look at the cream on the top of it."
"You'll excuse me, Mrs. Jones, but the truth is, I aught not to say more than I have said; and if the colonel only knew I'd said as much, I can tell you, I
think he'd be like a roaring lion. But Tobias is quite a gentleman now, you see, and sleeps in as fine a bed as a nobleman could have for love or money. The colonel is very good to him; and there never was such a kind good—good—"
Mrs. Ragg began to run over with tears of ale.
"Bless me, and where does he live?"
"Who?"
"The colonel. The good, kind, colonel—colonel—a—a dear me, I forget what you said his name was."
"Jeffery, and may his end be peace. He will get the reward of all his good actions in another world than this, Martha. Ah, Martha, such men as he can afford to smile at their latter ends.—No—no, I couldn't."
"Only half a glass; look at the—"
"No—no—"
"Cream on it."
"I must go, indeed. In course the colonel, since I have been his cook, knows what cooking is, for though I say it, perhaps as should not, I am a cook,