The String of Pearls (1850), p. 370

"Indeed?"
"Yes, sir, and the deaf 'un, he goes quick too, cos as he hears nothink, he thinks as there never was sich a quiet place as he's go's, and he does it out o' feeling and gratitude, sir, yer sees."
"Be quick then, and charge your own price."
Todd sprang into the vechicle, and stimulated by the idea of charging his own price, the coachman certainly did make the bits of blood do wonders, and in
quite an incredably short space of time, Todd found himself in the immediate neighbourhood of the Colonel's house. It was now getting dark, but that was what he wished. He dismissed the coach, and took from the angle of a wall near at hand, a long and earnest look at the Colonel's house, and as he did so dark and hideous thoughts concerning Tobias passed through his mind.

CHAPTER LXXXII.
TOBIAS IN JEOPARDY.

"Well, Tobias," said Colonel Jeffery, as he entered the pretty, cheerful room into which the now convalescent boy had been removed. "Well, Tobias how are you now?"
"Much better, sir. Oh, sir,——I—"
"What would you say?"
"I feel that when I see you, sir, I ought to say so much to convince you of how truly, and deeply grateful I am to you, and yet I can scarcely ever say a word about it. I pray for your happiness, sir, indeed I do. Your name and my mother's, and—and Minna Gray's, are always uttered to God by me."
"Now, Tobias," said Colonel Jeffery gravely. I am quite satisfied that as regards all that has passed, you feel as you ought to feel, and for my own part, I beg you to feel and to know that your saying anything about it only distresses me."
"Distresses you, sir?"
"Yes, it does, indeed. I see your eyes are upon the door. You expect Minna, to day, I am sure."
"Yes, sir,—she—she—my mother was to bring her, sir."
A ringing at a bell now came upon Tobias's ear, and his colour went and came fitfully.
"You are still very weak, my poor boy," said the colonel, "but you are certainly much improved. Do you feel any confusion in your head now?"
"None at all, only when I think of Todd suddenly, ever it makes me feel cold and sick, and something seems to rush through my heart.
"Oh, that will go away. That is nothing. There, I will draw up the blind for you. The evening is coming, and the sky is overclouded. You can see
better now, and there is one coming whom I know you wish to lose no sight of."
"I hear her foot upon the stairs," 3 said Tobias.
"Do you?—It is more than I do."
"Ah, sir, the senses are sharpened, I think, by illness."
"Not so much as by love. Tobias! do you hear her footstep now?"
"Yes, and it is like music."
He had his head on one side in an attitude of listening; and then with joy sparkling from every feature of his face, he spoke again—
"She comes—she comes. Ah, she comes fast. My own—my beautiful. She come—she comes."
"This is real love," said the colonel, and he stepped from the room. Nearly on the landing at the head of the stairs, he met Minna Gray."

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