The String of Pearls (1850), p. 676

to take this guinea, I shall want a cup of tea at times, and I think I could take a cup now, my dear madam. You can get it out of that, and keep the change, you know, till I want something else."
"Oh, really, sir," said Mrs. Hardmam, as she put her hand through a small opening of one of the folding doors and took the guinea. "It is quite delightful to have so pleasant a lodger as yourself—oh, quite.—I will get the tea directly, my dear sir, and pray make yourself quite at home, if you please."
"Yes, ma'am, I will—I will."
"Do, sir. I should be really unhappy now, if I did not think you were comfortable."
"Oh it's all right, ma'am. Eugh! Oh, dear! I do think my cough has been better since I have been here."
"How delightful to hear you say that!" exclaimed Mrs. Hardman, speaking in quite a tremulous voice of sympathetic emotion. "I will get the tea, directly, sir."
She left the room, and as she went down the stairs, she said to herself—
"What a pearl of a lodger, to be sure! He pays for everything over and over again. I should not, now, in the least wonder but the dear old gentleman will quite forget the change out of this guinea; if he does, it is not for me to vex him by putting him in mind of it. I know well, that old people never like it
to be supposed that their memory fails them; so if he says nothing about it, I am sure I shall not. Oh, dear, no!"
"Wretch!" muttered Todd, as he crept out of the back room into the front. "Wretch, I find that money will purchase anything in this house; but am I surprised at that? Oh, no—no. Will not money purchase anything in this great world? Of course it will. Why, then, should this house be an exception to the rule so general? No—no. It is no exception; and I may be very safe for a few guineas well spent; and they are well spent, indeed. Oh, so well!"
Todd then, as he flung himself into the depths of an easy chair, that was really easy for a wonder, considering that it was in a lodging-house, began to arrange in his own mind his course of proceeding for the night.
"Let me think—let me think," he muttered. "I am now very much refreshed indeed, and feel quite strong and well, and equal to any emergency. That sleep has done me a world of good, and it is strange, too, that it has been the calmest and the quietest sleep I have enjoyed for many a month. I hope it is not prophetic of some coming evil."
He shuddered at the thought. Todd was each day—ay, each hour, becoming more and more superstitious.
"No—no. I will not think that. I will not be so mad as to disarm myself of my courage, by thinking that for a moment. I will take my tea here, and then I will sally forth, telling this woman that I will soon return, and then, after a dose of brandy, I will hire a boat and take to the river. What is that ?"
The wind with a sudden gust came dashing against the windows, giving them such a shake, that it seemed as if it were intent upon getting into the room to buffet Todd.
He immediately rose, and going to the window, he placed his hideous face close to one of the panes, and looked out.
The sky was getting very black, and huge clouds were careering about it. The wind was evidently rising, and there was every appearance of its being most squally and tempestuous. Todd bit his lips with vexation.
"Always something!" he said. "Always something to annoy me, and to crops me. Always—always!"
"The tea, sir, if you plea."
Todd turned round so suddenly, that he almost upset the servant with the tea equipage.
"Oh, very well. That will do—that will do. You are the servant of the house?"