"Disappear without coming down stairs?" said Todd.
"Yes, and my wife says—"
Todd made an impatient gesture.
"Gentlemen, I will look in my attic myself. The fact is, that the flooring is rather out of order, and unless you know exactly where to step you will be apt to fall through a hole into the second floor."
"The deuce you are!" said Otton.
"Yes; so I would not advise either of you to make the attempt. Just remain there, and I'll go at once."
The proposition suited both parties, and Mr. Todd immediately passed through a door at the back of his shop, which he immediately closed behind him again. Instead of going up stairs, however, he slid aside a small opening in the panel of this door, and placed his ear to it. "If people say anything impudent, it is the moment they are free from the company that has held them in check," was one of Sweeney Todd's maxims. His first notion that the beadle and the shoemaker had come covertly to search his house, had given way a little, and he wanted to convince himself of the innocency or the reverse of their intentions, before he put himself to any further trouble.
"I don't like it," said the shoemaker.
"Like what? Conwulsions! what don't you like?"
"Intruding upon Mr. Todd. What does he care about my lodgers? It ain't as if he let any of his own house, and had a fellow feeling with us."