"I tell you what it is, master barber: if you come that laugh again, I will get up and go. I don't like it, and there is an end of it."
"Very good," said Sweeney Todd, as he mixed up a lather. "Who are you? where did you come from? and where are you going?"
"That's cool, at all events. Damn it! what do you mean by putting the brush in my mouth? Now, don't laugh; and since you are so fond of asking questions, just answer me one."
"Oh, yes, of course: what is it, sir?"
"Do you know a Mr. Oakley, who lives somewhere in London, and is a spectacle-maker?"
"Yes, to be sure I do—John Oakley, the spectacle-maker, in Fore-street, and he has got a daughter named Johanna, that the young bloods call the Flower of Fore-street."
"Ah, poor thing! do they? Now, confound you! what are you laughing at now? What do you mean by it?"
"Didn't you say, 'Ah, poor thing?' Just turn your head a little a one side; that will do. You have been to sea, sir?"
"Yes, I have, and have only now lately come up the river from an Indian voyage."
"Indeed! where can my strop be? I had it this minute; I must have laid it down somewhere. What an odd thing that I can't see it! It's very extraordinary; what can have become of it? Oh, I recollect, I took it into the parlour. Sit still, sir, I shall not be gone a moment; sit still, sir, if you please. By the by, you can amuse yourself with the Courier, sir, for a moment."