"Yes," said Todd, as he commenced stropping the razor upon his hand as though nothing at all was the matter. "I do anything in an honest and religious sort of way for a living in these bad times."
"Oh, very well. A gentleman is ill in bed and wants his peruke properly dressed, as he has an important visit to make. Can you come to his house?"
"Yes, of course. But can't the peruke be brought here, sir?"
"Yes. But he wants a shave as well, and although he can go in a sedan chair to pay his visit, he is too ill to come to your shop."
Todd looked a little suspicious, but only a little, and then he said--
"It's an awkward thing that I have no boy at present, but I must get one--I must get one, and in the meantime, when I am called out I have no resource but to shut up my shop."
At this moment a stout man came in, saying--
"Shaved--oh, you are busy. I can wait, Mr. Todd--I can wait," and down he sat.
Todd looked at the new-comer with a strange sort of scowl, as he said--
"My friend, have not I seen you here before, or somewhere else?"
"Very likely," said the man.
"Humph, I am busy and cannot shave you just now, as I have to go out with this gentleman."
"Very well, I can wait here and amuse myself until you come back."
Todd fairly staggered for a moment, and then he said--
"Wait here--in my shop--and amuse yourself until I come back? No, sir, I don't suffer any one. But it don't matter. Ha! ha! Come in, I am ready to attend you. But stop, are you in a very great hurry for two minutes, sir?"
"Oh, dear no, not for two minutes."
"Then it will only just take me that time to polish off this gentleman; and if, you will give the address I am to come to, I will be with you almost as soon, sir, as you can get home, I assure you."
"Oh, dear no," cried the stranger, who had come in to be shaved, suddenly starting up, "I really could not think of such a thing. I will call again."
"It's only in Norfolk Street," said the applicant for the dressing of the artificial hair, "and two minutes can't make any difference to my friend, at all."
"Do you think," said the other, "that I would really interrupt business in this way? No, may I perish if I would do anything so unhandsome--not I. I will look in again, Mr. Todd, you may depend, when you are not going out. I shall be passing again, I know, in the course of the day. Pray attend to this gentleman's orders, I beg of you."
So saying, the shaving customer bounced out of the shop without another word; and as he crossed the threshold, he gave a wink to Crotchet, who was close at hand, and when that gentleman followed him, he said--
"Crotchet, Todd very nearly got me into a line. He was going out with the person we saw go to the shop, but I got away, or else, as he said, he would have polished me off."
"Not a doubt of it, in this here world, Foster," said Crotchet. "Ah, he's a rum 'un, he is. We haven't come across sich a one as he for one while, and it will be a jolly lot o' Sundays afore we meets with sich another."
"It will, indeed. Is Fletcher keeping an eye on the shop?"
"Oh, yes, right as a trivet. He's there, and so is Godfrey."
While this brief conversation was going on between the officers who had been left to watch Sweeney Todd's shop, that individual himself accompanied the customer, whom he had been conversing with, to Norfolk Street, Strand. The well-dressed personage stopped at a good-looking house, and said--
"Mr. Mundell only lodges here for the present. His state of mind, in consequence of a heavy loss he has sustained, would not permit him to stay in his own house at Kensington."
"Mr. Mundell?" said Todd.
"Yes. That is the gentleman you are to shave and dress."
"May I presume to ask, sir, what he is?"
"Oh, he is a--a--kind of merchant, you understand, and makes what use of his money he thinks proper."
"The same!" gasped Todd.
The door of the house was opened, and there was no retreat, although, at the moment, Todd felt as though he would much rather not shave and dress the man of whom he had procured the £8,000 upon the string of pearls; but to show any hesitation now might beget enquiry and enquiry might be awkward, so summoning all his natural audacity to his aid, Todd followed his guide into the house. He was a little puzzled to know who this person could be, until a woman made her appearance from one of the rooms upon the ground floor, and cried--
"There now, go out, do. We don't want you any more; you have got your pocket money, so be off with you, and don't let me see your face again till night."
"No, my dear," said the well-dressed personage. "Certainly not. This is the barber."
"Good God, Blisset, do you think I am blind, that I can't see the barber. Will you go? The captain is waiting for me to pour out his coffee, and attend to his other concerns, which nobody knows better than you, and yet you will be perpetually in the way."
"No, my dear. I--I only--"
"Hoity toity, are we going to have a disturbance, Mr. B? Recollect, sir, that I dress you well and give you money, and expect you to make yourself agreeable while I attend to the gentlemen lodgers, so be off with you; I'm sure, of all the troublesome husbands for a woman to have, you are about the worst, for you have neither the spirit to act like a man, nor the sense to keep out of the way."
"Ha!" said Todd.
Both the lodging-house keeper and his wife started at the odd sound.
"What was that?" said the woman.
"Only me, madam," said Todd, "I laughed slightly at that blue-bottle walking on the ceiling, that's all."
"What a laugh," said Blisset, as he left the house; and then the lady of the mansion turning to Todd, said--
"You are to attend to Mr. Mundell, poor man. You will find him in the front room on the second floor, poor man."
"Is he ill, madam?"
"Oh, I don't know, I rather think he's grizzling about some of his money, that's all, but it don't matter one way or the other. They say he is as rich as a Jew, and I'll take good care he pays enough here."
"Mrs. B--Mrs. B," cried a voice from the parlour.
"Yes, captain, I'm coming.--I'm coming, captain."
The lady bounced into the breakfast-parlour and closed the door, leaving Todd to find his way up stairs as he best could. After a hideous chuckle at the thought of Mr. Blisset's singular position in society, he commenced ascending the stairs. He accomplished the first flight without meeting with any one, but upon the second he encountered a servant girl with a pail, and Todd gave her such a hideous glance, accompanied by such a frightful contortion of his visage, that down went the pail, and the girl flew up stairs again, and locked herself in one of the attics. Without waiting to ascertain what effect the descent of the pail might have upon the nerves of the captain and the landlady, Todd pursued his course to the room whither he had been directed, and tapped at the door.
"Come in," said a meek, tremulous voice. "Come in."
Todd opened the door, and stood in the presence of the man over whose long tried skill and habitual cunning he had obtained such a triumph in the affair of the pearls at Mundell Villa. John Mundell now, though, was far from looking like the John Mundell of the villa. He sat by the fire, wrapped up in a flannel dressing-gown, with a beard of portentous length. His cheeks had fallen in. His brow was corrugated by premature wrinkles, and the corners of his mouth were drawn down as though a look of mental distress had become quite a thing of habit with him now.
"Who are you?" he growled out, as Todd came into the room, and with a show of carefulness closed the door after him. "Who are you, eh?"
"Come to shave you, sir, and dress your hair."
"Ah!" cried Mundell, as he gave a start. "Where have I heard that voice before? Why does it put me in mind of my loss? My £8000! My money--my money. Am I to lose another £8000? That will make £16,000. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh dear! Who are you? Speak, friend. Who are you?"
"Only a barber, sir," said Todd, "come to shave you, and dress your hair. Ain't you well, sir? Shall I call again?"
"No--no--no! My losses distracts me. Only the barber? Ah, yes to be sure--only the barber. I must go to court, and ask for the duke of something. Good God, yes! I will see all the dukes, until I find out my duke. He who had my £8000, and has left me so poor and so wretched. Oh, dear! Oh, dear, my money--my hard-earned money. Oh, gracious, if I were to lose another £8000, I should go mad--mad--mad!"
"Shall I begin, sir?" said Todd.
"Begin? Begin what? Oh, yes, my hair; and I must be shaved too, or they won't let me in at all. I will have the pearls or my money. I will see all the dukes, and pounce upon my duke. Oh, yes, I will have the pearls or the money."
"Pearls, sir?" said Todd, as he began to arrange the shaving apparatus he had brought with him. "Did you say pearls?"
"Bah! what do you know about pearls, who, I dare say, never saw one. Bah! You--a poor beggarly barber. But I will have them back, or my money. I will raise London, but I will find them. I will see the queen herself, and know what duke she gave the pearls to, and then I will find him and have my money."
"Now, sir. A little this way." "Oh, dear--oh, dear! What do you charge?"
"Anything you please, sir. When I come to a gentleman, I always leave it to his generosity to pay me what he pleases."
"Ah! more expense. More expense. That means that I am to pay for the service done me, and something else besides for the sake of a compliment upon my liberality. But I ain't liberal. I won't be generous. Where's my money, my pearls; and now to go to all sorts of expense to go to court, and see dukes. Oh, the devil. Eh? Eh?"
"Sir?"
"Stop. What an odd thing. Why, you are very--very--"
"Very what, sir?" said Todd, making a hideous face.
"Like the duke, or my fancy leads me astray. Wait a bit. Don't move."
Mundell placed his hands over his eyes for a moment, and then suddenly withdrawing them he looked at Todd again.
"Yes, you are like the duke. How came you to be like a duke, the villain. Oh, if I could but see my pearls."
"What duke, sir?"
"I would give £500--no, I mean £100, that is £50, to know what duke," screamed Mundell with vehemence. Then suddenly lapsing into quietness, he added--"Shave me. Shave me, I will go to court, and St. James's shall ring again with the story of my pearls. Lost! lost! lost! Did he abscond from his wife with them, or was he murdered? I wonder? I wonder?--£8000 gone all at once. I might have borne such a loss by degrees, but d--n it--"
"Really, sir, if you will go on talking about pearls and dukes, the shaving brush will go into your mouth, and there's no such thing as avoiding it."
"Confound you. Go on. Shave me and have done with it. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"
John Mundell now contented himself by uttering drawn sighs, with now and then the accompaniment of a hideous groan, while Todd lathered his face with great affected care. The sighs and the groans both, however, ceased soon, and Todd became aware that the eyes of John Mundell were fixed upon him with a steady stare. No doubt, the usurer was recalling bit by bit to his memory the features of the sham duke, and comparing them with Todd's. To be sure, upon the occasion of his visit to Mundell Villa, Todd had taken every precaution to disguise his features; but then it must be admitted that the features of the barber were rather peculiar, and that John Mundell was professionally a more than ordinary keen observer, and thus it was that, as Todd lathered away, he became more and more impressed by the fact that there was a startling resemblance between Todd and the nobleman who had borrowed £8000 upon the string of pearls.
"What's your name?" he said.
"Todd."
"Humph! a well-to-do man?"
"Poor as Job."
"How very like you are to a great man. Do you ever go to court? I think--I am sure I have seen you somewhere."
"Very likely," said Todd, "for I often go there."
"What, to court?"
"Nay, sir, not to court, but somewhere. Will you have the whiskers left just as they are, or taken off entirely, sir?"
Tap! tap! came at the chamber door, and a boy peeped in, saying--
