The String of Pearls

truth, or your last hour is come! How long were you peeping through the door before you came in?'

'Peeping, sir?'

'Yes, peeping; don't repeat my words, but answer me at once, you will find it better for you in the end.'

'I wasn't peeping, sir, at all.'

Sweeney Todd drew a long breath as he then said, in a strange, shrieking sort of manner, which he intended, no doubt, should be jocose, 'Well, well, very well; if you did peep, what then? it's no matter; I only wanted to know, that's all; it was quite a joke, wasn't it--quite funny, though rather odd, eh? Why don't you laugh, you dog? Come, now, there is no harm done. Tell me what you thought about it at once, and we will be merry over it--very merry.

'I don't know what you mean, sir,' said the boy, who was quite as much alarmed at Mr Todd's mirth as he was at his anger. 'I don't know what you mean, sir; I only just come back because I hadn't any money to pay for the biscuits at Peterson's.'

'I mean nothing at all,' sa