Er…I don't know if baking soda existed in Victorian London.
Mrs. Lovett's back and arms were aching by the time she was satisfied with her cleaning job.
It was late afternoon and she had seen neither hide no hair of Sweeney Todd since she had mentioned her habit of talking to herself.
She left all of the contents of his shop out on the balcony—she figured that he would return them inside when he felt it necessary.
She brought all of her cleaning supplies downstairs in one trip—quite the feat, seeing as she had brought so many things up with her. After putting them all away in their proper places, she set to work cleaning the necklace.
She supposed it was silver; it certainly felt heavy enough to be silver.
Mrs. Lovett's mother had taught her how to clean tarnish with baking soda, and so that was what she used.
She filled a pail with water and grabbed a container of baking soda that she had stored in the pie shop. Seating herself in a booth, she went to work.
Mrs. Lovett rubbed and polished and cleaned the bauble at the end of the necklace with immense care. The tarnish began rubbing away quickly.
The actual chain of the necklace cleaned up very nicely, but the bauble required extra work. Mrs. Lovett scrubbed and polished it until she could see her reflection in it.
After working on it for quite a while, Mrs. Lovett could tell what the design was: the bauble was an intricately crafted silver sun. Or a ball of light. A star, maybe. Whatever it was, it was lovely. Mrs. Lovett couldn't stop staring at it.
She slid the chain over her head and shivered as the cold silver touched her skin. The necklace was quite long; the sun rested delicately just over the bodice of her dress.
She went into her bedroom to examine herself in the mirror.
The necklace looked was quite flattering. She turned every which way to see how it looked from every angle.
As she modeled, she heard a door slam somewhere—whether it was her own door or the barbershop door, she wasn't certain.
But she knew that the slammer was probably Sweeney Todd, and so she set off to find him.