The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
who knows but what he may come to himself?"
With an intuitive tact that belongs to some minds, and which Minna Gray,
despite the many disadvantages of her social position, possessed in an
eminent degree, she understood at once the whole affair. Tobias was
suffering from some aberration of intellect, which the voice and the
presence of one whom he loved fondly might dissipate. Would she shrink
from the trial?--would her delicacy take the alarm and overcome her
great desire to recover Tobias? Oh, no; she loved him with a love that
far outstripped all smaller feelings, and, if ever there was a time when
that love took complete possession of her heart, it was at this
affecting moment, when she was told that her voice might have the magic
power of calling back to him the wandering reason that harshness and
ill-usage had for a time toppled from its throne.
"Take me to him!" she cried--"take me to him! If all that is wanted to
recover him be the voice of affection, he will soon be as he was once to
us."
"Well, my dear, take your tea, and I'll go and speak to the _kernel_."
It was now time for Colonel Jeffery and his friend, the captain, to
retire from the pantry, where we need not say that they had been pleased
and affected listeners to what had passed between Mrs. Ragg and the fair
and intelligent Minna Gray, who, in beauty and intelligence, far
exceeded their utmost expectations.
CHAPTER XLVII.
TOBIAS RECOVERS HIS INTELLECT.
In the course of a quarter of an hour the surgeon was sent for, and then
Mrs. Ragg tapped at the drawing-room door, to give the colonel an
account of the success of her mission; but he at once said to her--
"We know all, Mrs. Ragg. We merely wish to see Tobias first, so that the
medical gentleman may see exactly his condition, and then if you will
bring Minna Gray here I will speak to her, and, I hope, put her quite at
her ease as regards what she has to do."
"Certainly, sir, certainly. Hold fast, and good comes at last."
The surgeon and the two gentlemen went to Tobias's chamber, and there
they found him in the same lethargic condition that, with only
occasional interruptions, he had continued in since he had been in the
colonel's house. These interruptions consisted in moaning appeals for
mercy, and at times the name of Todd would pass his lips, in accents
which showed what a name of terror it was to him. The surgeon placed his
hand upon Tobias's head.
"Tobias!" he said, "Tobias!"
A deep sigh was his answer.
"Tobias! Tobias!"
"Oh, God! God!" cried Tobias, feebly. "Spare me--I will tell nothing.
Oh, spare me, Mr. Todd.--Repent now. There, there--the blood! What a
crowd of dead men. Dead--dead--dead--all dead!"
"No better?" said the colonel.
"Not a bit. On the contrary, the longer he remains in this condition,
the less chance there will be of his recovery. I shall lose hope, if
this last experiment produces no good results. Let us go and speak to
the young girl."
They all descended to the drawing-room, and Minna Gray was summoned.
Colonel Jeffery took her kindly by the hand and led her to a seat, and
then he said to her--
"Now, Miss Gray, remember that all here are friends to you and to
Tobias, and that we all feel deeply for him and for you. You are very
young, both of you, but that is no reason on earth why you should not
love each other."
Minna looked up at him through her tears, as she said--
"Is he very--very ill?"
"He is indeed. We suspect--indeed, I may say we know, that his mind has
received so severe a shock that, for a time, it is deranged; but we hope
that, as that derangement, you understand, has not arisen from any
disease, pleasant and agreeable impressions may restore him. What we
want you to do is to speak to him as you, no doubt, have been in the
habit of doing in happier times."
"Yes, yes, sir."
"I think you know exactly what we mean?"
"I do, sir--indeed I do."
"Oh, bless you, sir, she understands," said Mrs. Ragg. "A nod is as good
as a wink to a blind horse, you know, gentlemen. Handsome is as handsome
does--as I used to say to the late Mr. Ragg, who is naturally dead and
gone, and accordingly buried in St. Martin's--"
"You can tell us that another time, madam," said the surgeon. "At
present, you see we are rather busy. Now, Miss Gray, if you will have
the goodness to come with me, we will see what can be done for our young
friend above stairs."
Poor Minna Gray! How her colour went and came like the sunlight of an
April day, as she accompanied the three gentlemen and Mrs. Ragg up
stairs to Tobias's chamber. How she trembled when they reached the
landing; and what a faintness came over her when the door was opened,
and she saw that dimly-lighted room.
"Courage," whispered Colonel Jeffery to her. "This is a holy errand you
are upon."
"Yes, yes."
"Cut your coat according to your cloth," said Mrs. Ragg, who, provided
she thought of a proverb, was not very particular with regard to its
applicability to the circumstances under which she uttered it. "Keep
your feet to the length of your sheet."
"Pray, madam," said the surgeon, who seemed to have quite a horror of
Mrs. Ragg. "Pray, madam, oblige me by being silent."
"A still tongue makes a wise head."
"Good God, colonel! will you speak to her?"
"Hush, Mrs. Ragg!" said Colonel Jeffery. "Hush! You will perhaps be the
means of spoiling this important effort for the recovery of your son if
you are not perfectly quiet."
Thus admonished, Mrs. Ragg shrank into the background a little, and the
colonel went to the window and let in a little more light. The surgeon
conducted Minna Gray to the bed-side, and she looked upon the boy who
had won her childish heart through a world of tears.
"It is--it is--Tobias!"
"Is he much altered?"
"Oh, yes; much--much. He--he used to look so happy. His--his face was
like a piece of sunshine!"
She sank upon a chair that was by the bed-side, and sobbed.
"This will never do," said the surgeon.
"Wait--oh, wait a little," she whispered. "Only wait a little.--I shall
be better soon."
The surgeon nodded; and then stepping back to the colonel and the
captain, he said--
"This burst of grief must have its way, or it will mar all. We must have
patience."
They all hid themselves behind the folds of the bed furniture, and Mrs.
Ragg sat down in an obscure corner of the room, working her knee up and
down, as though she were nursing an imaginary baby. Gradually the sobs
of Minna Gray subsided, until all was still. She then gently took one of
the thin wasted hands of poor Tobias in her own, and looked at it. Oh,
how changed it was. She then bent over him, and looked in his face. What
permeative lines of care were there, battling with rounded muscles of
early youth! Then she summoned all her courage to speak. She placed her
lips close to his ear, and in the soft sweet accents that had long
before sank deep into his heart, she said--
"Tobias!--my Tobias!"
The boy started.
"Dear Tobias, it is I. Minna!"
He opened his eyes, which had been closed and seemingly cemented by
tears.
"Tobias! Tobias, dear!"
A smile--a heavenly smile. It was the first that had played upon his
lips since he set foot in the shop of Sweeney Todd, now broke like a
sunbeam over his face.
"I am mad--mad!" he said, gently, "or that is the voice of my Minna."
"It is your Minna. It is--it is, Tobias; look at me."
He rose up in the bed--he cast one glance at the well-known and dearly
remembered face, and then, with a gasping sob of joy, he clasped her in
his arms.
"It's done," said the surgeon.
"Thank God!" said Colonel Jeffery.
Mrs. Ragg drew her breath so hard through her nose that she made a noise
like some wild animal in the agonies of suffocation.
"You really know me, Tobias?"
"Know you, dear? Oh, why should I not know you, Minna? God bless you!"
"May He bless you, Tobias."
They wept together; Minna forgot that there was anybody in the world but
herself and Tobias, and parting the long straggling masses of his hair
from before his face, she kissed him.
"For my sake, Tobias, now you will take care of yourself, and recover
quickly."
"Dear--dear Minna."
He seemed never tired of holding her hands and kissing them. Suddenly
the surgeon stepped forward with a small vial in his hand.
"Now, Tobias," he said, "you are much better, but you must take this."
The look of surprise and consternation with which Tobias regarded him
was beyond description. Then he glanced at the bedstead and the rich
hangings, and he said--
"Oh, Minna, what is all this? Where am I? Is it a dream?"
"Give it to him," said the surgeon, handing the vial to Minna. She
placed the neck of it to his lips.
"Drink, Tobias."
Had it been deadly poison she had offered him, Tobias would have taken
it. The vial was drained. He looked in her face again with a smile.
"If this is indeed a dream, my Minna, may I never
awaken--dear--dear--one--I--I--"
He fell back upon the pillow. The smile still lingered upon his face,
but the narcotic which the surgeon had had administered to him had
produced its effect, and the enfeebled Tobias fell into deep sleep.
Minna Gray looked rather alarmed at this sudden falling off of Tobias
from waking to sleeping, but the surgeon quieted her fears.
"All is right," he said. "He will awaken in some hours wonderfully
refreshed, and I have the pleasure of now predicting his perfect cure."
"You do not know," said Colonel Jeffery, "what pleasure that assurance
gives me."
"And me," said the captain.
Minna looked all that she thought, but she could not speak, and Mrs.
Ragg, still kept up the mysterious noise she produced by hard breathing
with her mouth close shut.
"Now, madam," said the surgeon to her, "our young friend must be left
alone for some hours. It is now six o'clock, and I do not expect he will
awaken until twelve. When he does so, I am very much mistaken if you do
not all of you find him perfectly restored and composed, although very
weak."
"I will take care to be at hand," said the colonel. "Miss Gray, perhaps
you will call and see how he is to-morrow, and all I can say is, that
you will be quite welcome to my house whenever you think proper, but let
me impress upon you one thing."
"What is it, sir?"
"The absolute necessity of your keeping Tobias's place of abode and
anything concerning him a most profound secret."
"I will do so."
"If you do not, you will not only endanger the cause of justice, but in
all probability his life, for he has an enemy with great resources, and
of the most unscrupulous disposition in the use of them: I say this much
to you, because the least indiscretion might be fatal."
"I will guard the secret, sir, as I would guard his life."
"That will do--now come down stairs, and let us have a glass of wine to
drink to the speedy restoration to perfect health of Tobias. Come,
Rathbone, what do you think? Shall we be one too many yet for Todd?"
"I begin to think we shall."
"I feel certain of it. So soon as we see that Tobias is sufficiently
well to make any statement, it will be necessary to send for Sir Richard
Blunt."
"Certainly."
"And then I hope and trust that we shall get at something that will
elucidate the mystery that is still attached to the fate of poor
Thornhill."
"Ah, I fear he is gone!"
"Dead?"
"Yes. That fatal string of pearls has heralded him to death, I fear;
but, perhaps we shall hear a something concerning that yet from Tobias."
They all sat down in the drawing-room, and with tearful pleasure Minna
Gray drank a glass of wine to the health of Tobias, after which Mrs.