The String of Pearls (1850), p. 502

"Ay, sir, suspicions, for even you must admit that you know nothing."
"Know nothing, sir?"
"Absolutely nothing You will find, if you come to consider the affair, that, as I say, you know nothing, but suspect much; and so upon mere suspicion you will make your future life miserble. I would not so bend to circumstances if the whole world stood up before me, and told me I was right in my dread thoughts of one whom I had loved."
The poor cook glanced at Sir Richard Blunt, and for the space of about half a minute, not one word passed between them. Then in a low voice, the cook said—
"You have read Romeo and Juliet, sir?"
"Yes—what then?"
There is one line there, in which we read that

'He jests at scars who never felt a wound.'"

"Well, how would you apply that line to the present circumstances?"
"I would say you have never loved, sir, and I have loved."
"A broad assumption that, my friend," said Sir Richard Blunt, "a very broad assertion, indeed. But come, I have to spare a short time. Will you, in recompense for what I have done for you, relate to me more fully than you have done, how it is that you suspect her whom you love of falsehood to you?"
"Do not say loved, sir; I love her still."
"I am glad to hear it. I pray you to go on, and tell me now all, if you feel that you can have sufficient confidence in me, and that you can view me with a sufficient friendly feeling."
"Oh, sir, why do you doubt me? Do I not owe to you my life? Do I not owe it to you that I escaped the death that without a doubt was designed for me by Todd? and was it not by your persevering, that at length I had patience enough to wait until the proper time had come for my release, when it could be accomplished without the shadow of a doubt as to the result?"
"Well," said Sir Richard Blunt, with a smile, "I hope then that I have established some claim upon you ; so now tell me your story, my friend, and at the end of it I will, from my experience, do what I can to bring you substantial comfort."
"You shall hear all, sir," said the cook, "but comfort and I have parted long since, I fear, from each other for ever."

CHAPTER CXV.
THE COOK BECOMES A VERY IMPORTANT PERSONAGE.

At this last delaration of Mrs. Lovett's late cook, regarding the tender adieu that he and comfort had taken of each other, Sir Richard Blunt only smiled faintly, and slightly inclined his hand as much as to say—
"That is all very well, but I am waiting to hear your story, if you please."
"Well, sir," added the cook. "You already know that I am not exactly what I seem, and that my being in that most abominable woman's employment as a cook, was one of those odd freaks of fortune, which will at times detract the due order of society, and place people in the most extraordinary positions."
"Exactly."
"I am, sir, an orphan, and was brough up by an uncle with every expectation that he would be kind and liberal to me as I progressed in years; but he had taken his own course and had made up his mind as to what 1 was to be, how I was to look, and what I was to say and to do, without asking himself the question, if nature was good enough to coincide with him or not. The