"Nay, be not offended. You know I am your sincere friend."
"I know you are, and that is what makes it so grievous to me to hear you talk in such a strain, sir."
"Then I will say no more."
"I thank you, Sir Richard; and I will forget what you have said, because I will recollect nothing from you, or committed with you, but kindness and consideration."
Sir Richard smiled slightly for a moment, as he turned aside and spoke to his friend the fruiterer for some minutes in a low tone. The young girl who had before behaved with such kindness to Johanna, took her by the hand, and led her up-stairs.
"Come," she said, "you shall tell me all you have suffered opposite since we parted last, and I will speak to you of him whom you love."
"You are too good to me."
While all this was going on so close to him, Todd, with many oaths and execrations, was putting up his own shutters, which he did with a violence that nearly knocked the front of the window in. When he had finished, he walked into his house, and closing the door, he said, in a low tone—
"I must make up my mind what to say to Mrs. Lovett in the morning. I am afraid she will be hard to pacify."
At this moment a man peered out from the inn gateway opposite, and said to himself—