The String of Pearls (1850), p. 452

"Oh!" he said, "I do indeed feel that life is with me again, and that I can be happy. Where is Minna?"
"She cannot remain here always," replied the colonel; "but she will be in the house shortly, upon a visit to your mother, and you shall yourself have the pleasure of communicating the welcome news of Todd's death to her news which to her bears as great a significance as it does to you."
"Oh, yes," replied Tobias. "Minna will be pleased. We ought not to rejoice at the death of any one; but then Todd was so very, very bad a man that his dying is a good thing, as It keeps him from loading his soul with more wickedness."
"That," said the medical man, "is the proper view to take of the matter Tobias; but now you will permit me to say to you that you should not talk too much, nor overtax your young strength. I will darken the room, by closing the shutters; and it is highly desirable that you should enjoy a few hours calm sleep, which now, with the conviction that Todd is dead, I do not see any difficulty in your doing."
"Oh, no—no," said Tobias, with quite a bright expression upon his face.
"Oh, no, I shall sleep well now. Quite well, for what have I to fear now?"
These few words were spoken in such a tone of calm composure, that the colonel had every reason to rejoice in the experiment he had tried, upon the advice of the medical man. The latter closed the shutters of the room all but one, so that there was but a soft and chastened light in th room; and then, with a smile upon his face, Tobias—after hoping that they would arouse him when Minna should come, and receiving a promise that way—turned his face to his pillow, and composed himself to the first pure rest he had had since the attack that the villain Todd had made upon him in the colonel's house.
"It is not much of a deception," said Colonel Jeffery to the surgeon, when the latter was leaving the house, "for I believe now that Todd's hours are indeed numbered. He will be arrested to-night."
"I am glad to hear it," replied the surgeon. "Such a notable villain ought to be as quickly as possible put out of the world."
"He ought, indeed; and from what I hear from Sir Richard Blunt, I believe that before twenty-four hours are gone over my head, the whole of London will ring with the name of Todd, and the story of his frightful criminality."
Tobias slept quietly, and securely for four hours, during which space of time he was twice visited by Minna Gray, who had arrived while he was in that state of repose. The colonel, although be felt the danger of letting Mrs. Ragg know was premature, felt no such scruple with regard to Minna. Indeed he considered that it would have been an insult to her judgment not to have told her exactly how the case stood.
When she heard it all, and upon visiting Tobias's bed-room, found what a sweet sleep he was in, and what a quiet gentle smile was upon his face, she tearfully acknowledged what a good thing the innocent deception was which had produced such a result.
"It will save him," she said.
"It will," replied the colonel; "and be sure that you keep sufficient guard over yourself to keep from betraying the secret."
"Oh, sir, trust me, I will."
"And remember that in this house, inny it is known onlyt you and to me. If Tobias should ask you anything about it, you had betterknow nothing, for I promised him that he should have the pleasure of making [his] ommunication to you himself, therefore you cannot be puzzled by uestions regarding particulars where he is your informant."
Minna joyfully concurred with all that the colonel said upon this head; and then after a long talk with Mrs. Ragg in the kitchen—that good lady having most implicit faith in the story of the death of Todd, and the profoundest hope that she would soon hear the full particulars of that