"Crotchet, Todd very nearly got me into a line. He was going out with the person we saw go to the shop, but I got away, or else, as he said, he would have polished me off."
"Not a doubt of it, in this here world, Foster," said Crotchet. "Ah, he's a rum 'un, he is. We haven't come across sich a one as he for one while, and it will be a jolly lot o' Sundays afore we meets with sich another."
"It will, indeed. Is Fletcher keeping an eye on the shop?"
"Oh, yes, right as a trivet. He's there, and so is Godfrey."
While this brief conversation was going on between the officers who had been left to watch Sweeney Todd's shop, that individual himself accompanied the customer, whom he had been conversing with, to Norfolk Street, Strand. The well-dressed personage stopped at a good-looking house, and said—
"Mr. Mundell only lodges here for the present. His state of mind, in consequence of a heavy loss he has sustained, would not permit him to stay in his own house at Kensington."
"Mr. Mundell?" said Todd.
"Yes. That is the gentleman you are to shave and dress."
"May I presume to ask, sir, what he is?"
"Oh, he is a—a—kind of merchant, you understand, and makes what use of his money he thinks proper."