"Not much, sir."
"Why it's a most expensive foreign liquor that is, and by all the best judges in the kingdom is never found fault with. Very few persons, indeed, have tasted it; but of those few, not one has come to me to say, Mr. Todd—"
"Good God!" said the man, as he clasped his head with both of his hands. "Good God, how strange I feel. I must be going mad!"
"Mad!" cried Todd, as he leant far over the table so as to bring his face quite close to the man's. "Mad! not at all. What you feel now is part of your death-pang. You are dying—I have poisoned you. Do you hear that? You have watched me, and I have in return poisoned you. Do you understand that?"
Todd Poisons Mrs. Lovett's Spy And Tells Him Of It.
The dying man made an ineffectual effort to rise from the chair, but he could not. With a gasping sob he let his head sink upon his breast—he was dead!
"They perish," said Todd, "one by one; they who oppose me, perish, and so shall they all. Ha! so shall they all; and she who set this fool on to his destruction shall feel, yet, the pang of death, and know that she owes it to me! Yes, Mrs. Lovett, yes."
He closed his arms over his breast, and looked at the body for some moments in silence; and then, with a sneer upon his lips, he added—
"No, Mrs. Lovett, you did not show your judgment in this matter. Had you wished to watch me, you should have done it yourself, and not employed this poor weak wretch who has paid the price of his folly. Go—go!"