The String of Pearls (1850), p. 476

"Oh, yes. I&£8212;really&£8212;fine times. Old Tom Todd&£8212;cream of the Todd."
It was quite clear that she was too far gone in drunkenness for anything distinct or to be relied upon to be got from her, and the only thing Mrs. Lovett had to do, was to consider what to do with her. If she threw her out of the shop into the court, the probability was, that a crowd would collect round her, and that was just what Mrs. Lovett did not want. Indeed, for all she. Mrs. Lovett knew, the drunken woman might stagger round to Todd's, and let him know what of all things she wished to keep secret from him, namely, that
she had returned.
Mrs. Lovett had not yet formed her plans, and certainly until she had done so, she did not want any premature knowledge of her rescue from drowning to reach the ears of Todd.
But what to do with the drunken woman was the question. Mrs. Lovett had to think a little over that. At length, however, she made up her mind, and approaching the lady who had such a partiality for Old Tom, she said&£8212;
"Did you ever taste my cordial spirit, that I have up stairs in my bedroom?"
"Eh?"
"Come, I will give you a bottle of it, if you will walk up stairs. Only try."
By the assistance of Mrs. Lovett, the gin Jheroine rose and tottered to the staircase; Mrs. Lovett pushed her on, and stair by stair she managed to mount to the first floor. It was by far too great a job to get her any further, so opening the door of the back-room, Mrs. Lovett pushed her in with violence, and slammed the door upon her.
"Lie there and rot," she said, "so that you are out of my way. Lie there and rot, idiot."
Without then pausing to cast another thought or look at her victim, Mrs. Lovett walked down the staircase again to the shop.
When there, she felt a kind of faintness come over her, and she was compelled to sit down for a few minutes to recover herself.
"How much I have to think of," she said, when she had a little recovered. "How much I have to think of, and how little a time in which to think. Something must be done before midnight. Todd will fly if I do not do something."
A racking pain in her head, compelled her to rest it upon her hands.
"If I thought," she said, "that I should get very ill&£8212;if I thought that there was any chance that I should die, 1 would go at once to the police office and denounce him. But no&£8212;'tis only a passing pang, and I shall soon be better&£8212;shall soon be myself again."
She did not speak now for some few moments, and during that time she rocked to and fro, for the pain in her head was excessive. It did not last, however, but gradually went off, leaving only a sensation of dulness behind it, with some amount of confusion.
Then Mrs. Lovett, as well as she was able, set about thinking calmly and dispassionately, as she hoped, about the best means of satisfying her revenge against Todd, That that revenge should be complete and ample, she was resolved.
Gradually she began to work out a plan of operations, and as she did so, her eyes brightened, and something of her old expression of bold confidence came back to her.
She rose and paced the shop.
"Yes, the villian shall die," she said, "by the hands of the executioner&£8212;swear it! And he shall know, too, that it is I who have doomed him to such a death. He shall feel that, had he kept faith with we all would have been well; but now he shall hang&£8212;hang!&£8212;and I shall look on and see his torments!"