The String of Pearls (1850), p. 438

"Quite tolerable, sir, thank you, with the exception that a dog pushed his way into the shop, and, as you see, sir, has made some confusion."
"A dog?"
"Yes, sir. A large one, black and white. I had no strength to turn him out, so he had his will in the shop, and tossed the things about as you see, sir."
"My malediction upon that confounded dog. He is mad, Charley, I tell you, he is stark, staring mad. Why did you not throw open razors at him until one had transfixed him?"
"I don't like touching the razors, sir."
"You don't—you don't He! he! What will he think when one touches him?"muttered Todd to himself as he turned aside and made a movement as though cutting a throat. "You don't like touching the razors, Charley?"
"No, sir, I thought you would be angry if I had, so the dog had all his own way here. I would have put the place to rights, but I thought you aught to see it as it is."
"Right, my boy—right. To-morrow will be quite time enough to put it to rights. Yes, to-morrow. Has any one called, Charley?"
"No, sir."
"Well I am glad of that, for when one is off upon an action of charity one don't like one's business to suffer as well. It's quite unknown what I give away, and 1 always like to see the object myself, you know, Charley, as I find I can then better adapt my benevolence to their real wants, which in a great—a very great object."
"I should think it was, sir."
"You are a clever observant lad, Charley, and you will, when you leave me, I feel convinced, drop into a genteel independence. You will want for nothing then, I feel quite assured, Charley."
"You are very good, sir."
"I strive to be good, Charley, and by the help of the gospel we may all be good to some extent—sinners that we are. Now, simple as is, it's really a great thing to be supplied in an unlimited manner with cold water."
"No doubt of it, sir."
"Well, I have supplied the person to whom my benevolence has extended his morning, with, I hope, an unlimited quantity, and always fresh. He!"
Todd here executed one of his awful laughs, and then went into his parlour grinning at his own hideous facetiousness over the murder he had committed.
Johanna had managed to say, from time to time, what was expected by way of answer to him, but it was with a shuddering consciousness that he had been about some great crime that she did so ; and when he had left the shop, she said faintly to herself—
"He has murdered Mrs. Lovett."
It was sufficient, if Todd went out with an enemy and came home jocular, to conclude what had happened. That person then might be fairly presumed to be no more, and hence, with a shudder of horror pervading her frame, did Johanna whisper to herself—
"He has surely murdered Mrs. Lovett."
The first thing that Todd did when he was alone in his parlour, and the door fast, was to produce the memoranda he had made of all that he had to do previous to leaving England. One item ran thus:—
"Mem. To pay Mrs. Lovet in full."
After that item he wrote paid, and then he laughed again in his hideous way, and leaning his head upon his hand, or rather his chin upon it, he spoke in a chuckling tone.
"She will turn up some day—yes, she will turn up some day, and the swollen disgusting mass, that was once the bold and glittering Mrs. Lovett, will be pulled hrough the river mud by a boat-hook, and then there will be an inquest, and a verdict of found drowned, with a statement that the body was in too advanced a state of decomposition to be identified. Ha!"