"Nor," added Todd, giving the razor he had been putting an edge to, a
flourish, "nor will it do to listen always to the dictates of
compassion; for if we did, what miseries might we inflict upon
ourselves. Now, here is a cure in point." "Where?" "I allude to this little affair between us. If you had flown to
Bow-street, and there, to spite me, made a full disclosure of certain
little facts, why, the result would have been that we might both have
slept in Newgate to-night." "Yes, yes." "And then there would have been no recal. You could not have freed us by
telling the police that you had made a mistake. Then the gallows would
have risen up in our dreams." "Horrible!" "And it being easily discovered that it was no love of public justice or
feeling of remorse, that induced you to the betrayal, they would have
shown you no mercy, but you would have swung from the halter amid the
shouts and execrations of--"

"No, no!" "I say yes." "No more of this--no more of this. Can you bear to paint such a
picture--does it not seem to you as though you stood upon that scaffold,
and heard those shouts? Oh, horror, horror!" "You don't like the picture?" "No, no!" "Ha! ha! Well, Mrs. Lovett, you and I had far better be friends than
foes; and above all, you ought by this time to feel that you could trust
me. The very fact that to all the world else I am false, ought to prove
to you that to you I am true. No human being can exist purely isolated,
and I am not an exception." "Say no more--say no more. We will meet to-morrow." "To-morrow be it, then." "At ten." "At ten be it, and then we will go to Black. Come now, since all this is
settled, take a glass of wine to our--"

"No, no. Not that. I--I am not very well, A throbbing head-ache--a--a. That is, no!" "As you please--as you please. By-the-by, did Black give me a receipt,
or did he say it was not usual? Stay a moment, I will look in my
secretaire. Sit down a moment in the shaving chair; I will be with you
again directly." "We will settle that to-morrow," said Mrs. Lovett; "I feel convinced
that Black did not give you a receipt. Good-day." She left the shop, unceremoniously carrying the iron with her. Todd
breathed more freely when Mrs. Lovett was gone. He gave one of his
horrible laughs as he watched her through the opening in his window. "Ha! ha! Curses on her; but I will have her life first, ere she sees one
guinea of my hoard!" He saw Charley Green crossing the road. "Ah, the boy comes back. 'Tis well. I don't know how or why it is, but
the sight of that boy makes me uneasy. I think it will be better to cut
his throat and have done with him. I--"

Todd was suddenly silent. He saw two women pass, and as they did so, one
pointed to his shop and said something to the other, who lifted up her
hands as though in pious horror. One of these women was Mrs. Ragg, poor
Tobias's mother. The other was a stranger to Todd, but she looked like
what Mrs. Ragg had been, namely, a laundress in the temple. "Curses," he muttered. Johanna entered the shop. Todd caught up his hat. "Charley?" "Yes, sir." "I shall be gone five minutes. Be vigilant. If any one should come, you
can say I have stepped a few doors off to trim Mr. Pentwheezle's
whiskers." "Yes, sir." Todd darted from the shop. Mrs. Ragg and her friend were in that deep
and earnest course that is a foe to rapid locomotion, so they had not
got many yards from Todd's door. He was rarely seen, however, for either
to--

    "Paint a moral or adorn a tale"

Mrs. Ragg turned suddenly and pointed to the shop, and then both the
ladies lifted up their hands as though in horror, after which they
resumed their deep and all-absorbing discourse as before. Todd followed
them closely, and yet with abundance of caution. CHAPTER LXXX. TODD TAKES A JOURNEY TO THE TEMPLE. The two females took their way to the Temple. Todd had been quite right
in his conjectures. The friend of Mrs. Ragg was one of the old
compatriots of the laundress tribe; and that good lady herself,
although, while there was no temptation to do otherwise, she had kept
well the secret of her son's residence at Colonel Jeffery's, broke down
like a frail and weak vessel as she was with the weight of the secret
the moment she got into a gossip with an old friend. Now Mrs. Ragg had
only come into that neighbourhood upon some little errand of her own,
and with a positive promise of returning to the colonel's house as soon
as possible. She would have kept this promise, but that amid the
purlieus of Fetter-lane she encountered Martha Jones her old
acquaintance. One word begot another, and at last as they walked up
Fleet-street, Mrs. Ragg could not help, with many head-shakings and
muttered interjectional phrases, letting Martha Jones know that she had
a secret. Nay, as she passed Todd's shop, she could not help intimating
that she fully believed certain persons, not a hundred miles off, who
might be barbers or who might not, would some day come to a bad end in
front of Newgate, in the Old Bailey. It was at this insinuation that
Martha Jones lifted up her hands, and Mrs. Ragg lifted up hers in
sympathy. Todd had seen this action upon the part of the ladies. To
overhear what they were saying was to Todd a great object. That it in
some measure concerned him he could not for a moment doubt, since the
head-shaking and hand-uplifting reference that had been made to his shop
by them both as they passed, could not mean anything else. And so, as we
have said, he followed them cautiously, dodging behind bulky passengers,
so that they should not see him by any sudden glance backwards. One
corpulent old lady served him for a shield half up Fleet Street, until,
indeed, she turned into a religious bookseller's shop, and left him
nothing but thin passengers to interfere between him and the possibility
of observation. But Mrs. Ragg and her friend Martha Jones were much too
fully engaged to look behind them. In due course, they arrived opposite
to the Temple; and then, after much flurrying, in consequence of real
and supposed danger from the passing vehicles, they got across the way. They at once dived into the recesses of the legally-learned Temple. Todd
dashed after them. "Now, my dear Mrs. Ragg," said Martha Jones, "you must not say No. It's
got a beautiful head upon it, and will do you good." "No--no. Really." "Like cream." "But, really, I--I--"

"Come, come, it ain't often you is in the Temple, and I knew very well
he don't miss a bottle now and then; and 'twix you and me and the pump,
I think we has as much a right to that beautiful bottled ale as Mr.
Juggas has, for I'd take my bible oath, he don't mean to pay for it,
Mrs. Ragg." "You don't say so?" "Yes, I does, Mrs. Ragg. Oh, he's a bad 'un, he is. Ah, Mrs. Ragg, you
don't know, nor nobody else, what takes place in his chambers of a
night." "Is it possible?" "Yes.