Mrs. Hardman at once closed the door of communication between the two
rooms; for she quite despaired now of being able to make any apology to
her lodger, and she seemed much inclined to execute further vengeance
upon Ben, but Sir Richard Blunt interfered, saying--

"Come--come, Mrs. Hardman, you should recollect that what Ben said was
with the very best of motives, and any one, you know, may go wrong a
little in trying to do good. Let us all adjourn down stairs, and be no
further disturbance to this old gentleman, who, taking everything into
consideration, has, I think, shown quite an exemplary amount of
patience." Todd heard those words. They seemed to him quite like a reprieve from
death. "I will come down stairs, of course," said Mrs. Hardman, in an under
tone; "but for all that, this great monster of a Ben ought to be put in
one of his own cages, at the Tower, and there kept as a warning to all
people." "A warning o' what, mum?" said Ben. Mrs. Hardman was not very clear about what he would be a warning of, so
she got out of the difficulty by saying--"What's that to you,
stupid?" --and as Ben was rather slow in explaining that it did rather
concern him, she walked down stairs with a look of triumph that was
highly amusing to Sir Richard Blunt, as well as to Mr. Hardman, the
officer. How Todd listened to the footsteps as they went down the stairs! How his
heart beat responsive to every one of them! and when he felt for certain
that that immediate and awful danger had passed away, he peeped out from
amid the mass of bed-clothes, with his eyes almost starting from his
head. "Gone! gone!" he gasped. "He has really gone. My mortal enemy--the only
man who can make me tremble, that terrible Sir Richard Blunt! That he
should be within half-a-dozen paces of me; that he should hear me speak;
that he should only have to stretch out his hand to lay it upon my
shoulder, and yet that I should escape him! Oh, it cannot be real!" Todd heard some accidental noise in the house, and he immediately dived
his head under the bed-clothes again. "They are coming again!--they are coming again!" he gasped. The noise led to nothing, and after a few moments, Todd became convinced
that it had nothing to do with him, so he ventured, half-suffocated, to
look up again. "I must listen--I must listen," he said, in a low anxious tone. "I must
listen until he has gone. When I hear the street-door of the house shut,
I shall think that they have let him go and then I shall be able to
breathe again; but not before. Oh, no--no, not before--hush--hush! What
is that?" Every little accidental sound in the house now set the heart of Todd
wildly beating. If one had come into the room, and said--"You are my
prisoner,"--the probability was, that he would have fainted; but if he
did not, it is quite certain that he could not have offered any
resistance. A child might have captured him then, during the accession
of terror that had come over him in that house, whither he had slunk
purposely for safety and for secrecy. At length he heard a noise of voices in the passage, and then the
street-door was opened. As he lay, he could feel a rush of cold air in
consequence. Then it was closed again, and the house was very still. "He has gone! He has gone!" said Todd. The manner in which Todd pronounced these few words it would be
impossible to describe. No shivering wretch reprieved upon the scaffold,
with the rope round his neck, could feel a greater relief than did Todd,
when he found that the door of that house was really closed upon Sir
Richard Blunt. And then he began to felicitate himself upon the fact that, after all,
he had come to that place; "for now," he thought, "I know that, although
I have been in great danger, it has passed away; and as Sir Richard
Blunt has transacted all his business in this house, he is not likely to
come to it again." That was a pleasant thought, and as Todd dashed from his brow the heavy
drops that intense fear had caused to assemble there, he almost smiled. A very profound stillness now reigned in the house, for Mrs. Hardman was
resolved to make up to her lodger--as well as she could--for the noise
and disturbance that had been so unwittingly caused in her front room. She had made Ben go away, and as her husband had likewise gone, in
pursuance of the orders of Sir Richard Blunt, to take measures lest Todd
should make an escape by the Thames, the place remained as calm and
still as if no one were in it but herself. Todd closed his eyes, and wearied nature sought relief in sleep. Even
Sweeney Todd, with more than twenty mortal murders on his conscience,
slept calmly for no less than six hours of that, to him, most eventful
day. Twice during this long sleep of her lodger's had Mrs. Hardman stolen
into the front-room to listen, and been quite satisfied by the regular
breathing, that, at all events, her lodger was not dead; and she kept
herself upon the alert to attend to him whenever he should awake from
that deep sleep. The long shadows of the houses on the other side of the street had
fallen upon the windows of the Hardmans' abode, and a slight fog began
to make itself perceptible in London, when Todd awoke. "Help--help! Oh, God, where am I?" he cried. He sprang half out of the bed, and then the full tide of recollection
came back to him, and he fully comprehended his situation in a moment. "Hush!--hush!--hush!" he said; and he listened most intently to hear if
his sudden exclamation had attracted any attention. He heard a footstep on the stairs. "Hush!--hush!" he said again, "hush--who is it? I must be very careful
now!--Oh, very!" The footstep paused at his door, and then he heard it in the next room,
and Mrs. Hardman advancing to the folding doors, said, in the blandest
of accents--

"Are you awake, sir, if you please?" Todd at once assumed the tone in which he had formerly addressed her,
and replied--

"Yes, madam, yes. I am awake!" "And how do you feel now, sir, if you please?" "Oh, a great deal better, ma'am, a great deal better. Indeed, I feel
quite refreshed. I will come out directly, my dear madam. Pray have the
goodness to take this guinea. I shall want a cup of tea at times, and I
think I could take a cup now, my dear madam. You can get it out of that,
and keep the change, you know, till I want something else." "Oh, really, sir," said Mrs. Hardman, as she put her hand through a
small opening of one of the folding doors and took the guinea. "It is
quite delightful to have so pleasant a lodger as yourself--oh, quite.--I
will get the tea directly, my dear sir, and pray make yourself quite at
home, if you please." "Yes, ma'am, I will--I will." "Do, sir. I should be really unhappy now, if I did not think you were
comfortable." "Oh it's all right, ma'am. Eugh! Oh, dear! I do think my cough has been
better since I have been here." "How delightful to hear you say that!" exclaimed Mrs. Hardman, speaking
in quite a tremulous voice of sympathetic emotion.