"Yes, Black."
"Do you think me so—" green, she was going to say, but the accidental conjunction of the colours—brown, black, and green—suddenly struck her as ludicrous, and she altered it to foolish. "Do you think me so foolish as for one moment to credit you?"
"Hark you, Mrs. Lovett," pursued Todd, suddenly assuming quite a different tone. "You have come here full of passion, because you thought I was deceiving you."
"You are."
"Allow me to proceed. It is, I believe, one of the penalties of all associations for—for—why do I hesitate about a word?—guilty purposes that there should be mutual1 distrust. I tell you again, that if I had not moved the money from Brown, we should have lost it all."
"But why not come to me and get my signature?"
"There—really—was—not—time," said Todd, dropping his words out one by one, with a staccato expression.
"That is too absurd."
Todd shrugged2 his shoulders, as though he would have said—"Well, if you will have it so, I cannot help it;" and then he said—
"I was in the City. I heard the rumour3 of the instability of Brown. I flew into a shop. I wrote the order like a flash of lightning. I went to Brown's like an avalanche4, and I brought away the money, as if Heaven and earth were coming together."
There was not the ghost of a smile upon Todd's face as he made use of these superlatives. Mrs. Lovett began to be staggered.
"Then you have it here?"
"No, no!"
"Black may be no colour, but it is not a delusion."
"You trifle with me. Beware!"
"In a word then, my charming Mrs. Lovett, I dreaded7 to bring the money here. I thought my house the most unsafe place in the world for it. I and you stand upon the brink8 of a precipice—a slumbering9 volcano is beneath our feet. Pshaw! Where is your old acuteness, that you do not see at once how truly foolish it would have been to bring the money here?"
"Hard words, Mrs. Lovett."
She dashed her hand across her brow, as though by that physical effort she could brush from her intellect the sophistical cobwebs that Todd had endeavoured to move before it, and then she said—
"I know not. I care not. All I ask—all I demand—is my share of the money. Give it to me, and let me go."
"I will."
"When?"
"This day. Stay, the day is fast going, but I will say this night, if you really, in your cool judgment11, insist upon it."
"I do. I do!"
"Well, you shall have. This night after business was over and the shop was closed, I intended to have come to you, and fully12 planned all this that you have unfortunately tortured yourself by finding out. I regret that you think of so quickly leaving the profits of a partnership13 which, in a short time longer, would have made us rich as monarchs14. Of course, if you leave, I am compelled."
"You compelled?"
"Yes. How can I carry on business without you? How could I, without your aid, dispose of the—"
"As you please," said Todd. "I only say, I regret that a co-partnership that promised such happy results should now be broken up. However, that is a matter for your personal consideration merely. If I had thought of leaving, and being content with what I had already got, of course it would have compelled you to do so. Therefore I cannot complain, although I may regret your excuse of a right of action that equally belonged to me."
"If I only thought you sincere—"
"And why not?"
"If I could only bring myself to believe that the money was once more rightly invested—"
"You shall come with me yourself, if you like, in the morning to Mr. Black the broker18 in Abchurch Lane, No. 3, and ascertain19 that all is right. You shall there sign your name in his book, so that he may know it, and then you will be satisfied, I presume?"
"Yes, I should then."
"And this dream of leaving off business would vanish?"
"Perhaps it would. But—but—"
"But what?"
"Why did you say to Brown that our union was to take place?"
"Because it was necessary to say something, to account for the sudden withdrawal20 of the money; and surely I may be pardoned, charming Mrs. Lovett, for even in imagination dreaming, that so much beauty was mine."
The horrible leer with which Todd looked upon her at this moment made her shudder16 again; and the expression of palpable hatred21 and disgust that her countenance22 wore, added yet another, and not the least considerable, link to the chain of revenge which Todd cherished against her in his cruel and most secret heart. While he was philosophising about guilty associations producing a feeling of mutual distrust, he should have likewise added that they soon produce mutual hatred. For a few moments they looked at each other—that guilty pair—with expressions that sought to read each other's souls; but they were both tolerable adepts23 in the art of dissimulation24. The silence was the most awkward for Todd, so he broke it first by saying—
"You are satisfied, let me hope?"
"I will be."
"You shall be."
"Yes, when I have my money. Henceforward, Todd, we will have much shorter reckonings, so shall we keep much longer friends. If you keep, in some secret place, your half of the proceeds of our—our—"
"Business," said Todd.
Mrs. Lovett made a sort of gulph of the word, but she adopted it.
"If you, I say, keep your half of the proceeds of our business, and I keep mine, I don't see how it is possible for us to quarrel."
"Quite impossible."
He began to strop a razor diligently25, and to try its edge across his thumb nail. Mrs. Lovett's passion—that overwhelming passion which had induced her to enter Todd's shop, and defy him to a species of single combat of wits—had in a great measure subsided26, giving place to a calmer and more reflective feeling. One of the results of that feeling was a self-question to the effect of, "What will be the result of an open quarrel with Todd?" Mrs. Lovett shook a little at the answer she felt forced to give herself to this question. That answer was continued in two words—mutual destruction! Yes, that would be the consequence.
"Todd," she said in a softened27 tone, "if I had forged your name, and gone to the city and possessed28 myself of all the money, what would you have thought? Tell me that."
"Just what you thought—that it was the most scandalous breach29 of faith that could possibly be; but an explanation ought to put that right."
"It has."
"Then you are satisfied?"
"I am. At what time shall we go together, to-morrow morning, to Mr. Black's in Abchurch Lane?"
"Name your own time," said Todd with the most assumed air in the world. "Black lives at Ballam Hill, and don't get to business until ten; but any time after that will do."
"I will come here at ten, then."
"So be it. Ah, Mrs. Lovett, how charming it is to be able to explain away these little difficulties of sentiment. Never trust to appearances. How very deceitful they are apt to be."
There was an air of candour about Todd, that might have deceived the devil himself. Notwithstanding all his hideous30 ugliness—notwithstanding his voice was of the lowest order, and notwithstanding that frightful31 laugh, and that obliquity32 of vision that seemed peculiar33 to himself in its terrible malignancy, there was a plausibility34 about his manner, when he pleased, that was truly astonishing. Even Mrs. Lovett, with all her knowledge of the man, felt that it was a hard struggle to disbelieve his representations. What must it have been to those who knew him not?
"No," said Mrs. Lovett, "it don't do to trust to appearances."
She still held the iron in her hand.
"Nor," added Todd, giving the razor he had been putting an edge to, a flourish, "nor will it do to listen always to the dictates35 of compassion36; for if we did, what miseries37 might we inflict38 upon ourselves. Now, here is a cure in point."
"Where?"
"I allude39 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 gallows40 would have risen up in our dreams."
"Horrible!"
"And it being easily discovered that it was no love of public justice or feeling of remorse41, 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 foes42; 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 purely44 isolated45, 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—"
"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.
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 pointed48 to his shop and said something to the other, who lifted up her hands as though in pious49 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 vigilant50. If any one should come, you can say I have stepped a few doors off to trim Mr. Pentwheezle's whiskers."
"Yes, sir."
Todd darted51 from the shop. Mrs. Ragg and her friend were in that deep and earnest course that is a foe43 to rapid locomotion52, so they had not got many yards from Todd's door. He was rarely seen, however, for either to—
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 discourse54 as before. Todd followed them closely, and yet with abundance of caution.
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1
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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2
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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4
avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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6
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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7
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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8
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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9
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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10
juggler
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| n. 变戏法者, 行骗者 | |
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11
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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12
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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14
monarchs
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| 君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
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15
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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16
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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17
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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18
broker
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| n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排 | |
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19
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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20
withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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21
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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22
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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23
adepts
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| n.专家，能手( adept的名词复数 ) | |
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24
dissimulation
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| n.掩饰，虚伪，装糊涂 | |
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diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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26
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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27
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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28
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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29
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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30
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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31
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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32
obliquity
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| n.倾斜度 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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34
plausibility
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| n. 似有道理, 能言善辩 | |
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35
dictates
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| n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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36
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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37
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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38
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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39
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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40
gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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41
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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42
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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43
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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47
hoard
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| n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积 | |
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48
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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49
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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50
vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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51
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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52
locomotion
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| n.运动，移动 | |
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53
adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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54
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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