There was no one now to say to him "Where is my share?" He had all the produce of another's awful criminality to add to his own. Was he not thus a very happy man for a little while? The sunshine of the heart was not a thing to last long in such a bosom
as Sweeney Todd's. His was not that sweet and lasting hilarity of soul
that can alone arise from a deep and sincere consciousness of right. No! The fierce delight of a successful stroke of villany may for a time
resemble happiness, but it is a resemblance as weak as that between the
faint watery ray of a winter's sun and the full blaze of the god-like
luminary in all the beauty of the vernal season. But for the time, we say, Todd was pleased, and the demoniac triumph of
his soul beamed forth from his eyes and played around the puckered
corners of his huge mouth. "Well, Charley," he said, "how goes it with you, my lad?" Johanna stared as well she might to hear Todd speak in such a mild
pacific sort of way. "Sir?" she said. "I say, how goes it with you, my good boy. How have you passed the time
in my unavoidable absence upon a little business?" "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 I 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 is 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
this 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 through 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!" Todd actually rubbed his hands together, and then he took a good drop of
brandy, and felt himself quite a pleasant sort of character, and one
upon whom the fickle goddess, Fortune, had taken to smiling in her most
bland and pleasant way. "When I am snug and comfortable at Hamburgh," he said, "how eagerly I
shall look for the London papers, to let me know how far the fire in
Fleet Street, that is to happen to-night, has extended. How I shall
laugh if it travel to the old church, and burns that down likewise. Ha! I think I shall take to laughing as a regular thing when I am fairly
abroad with all my money, and safe--so safe as I shall be, so very--very
safe." Yes, there sat Sweeney Todd rejoicing. He might have said with Romeo in
Mantua--

    "My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne,
    And all this day an unaccustomed spirit
    Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts." But as it was with the young husband of the sainted Juliet, the day of
reckoning was coming to Todd, and the spirit that spoke of comfort, joy,
and security to his heart and brain, was after all a false one. But we must leave Todd to his self-felicitations, while we request the
reader's kind company to Bell Yard, for certain things had taken place
in the establishment of Mrs. Lovett which it is highly necessary should
find a place in this veracious and carefully collected narrative. When Mrs. Lovett, with a full notion of the projected perfidy of Todd,
left home for the purpose of bringing that individual to a sense of his
wrong doings, and insisting upon a settlement, she did not awaken
popular remark or popular interest by shutting up her shop, but she took
such measures as she believed would last very well until she got back
again. She was not sanguine upon the subject of getting back very soon, for she
had made up her mind that back she would not come without the money. Previously, then, to leaving, she sought the narrow opening in the
strong iron-door through which she was accustomed to speak to the
discontented cook, and fastening a bottle of wine by the neck to a piece
of cord, she let it down into the prison-house of pie-manufactory,
saying as she did so--

"I keep my word with you. Here is wine. I trust that you will keep your
word with me. A batch is wanted at twelve to-day, as you know." "Very well," said the cook. "Very well. They shall be ready.