ld.

The sound of footsteps on the pavement died out in the discreet dimness
of the shop. Only the gas-jet above the table went on purring equably in
the brooding silence of the parlour.

During the contact of that unexpected and lingering kiss Mr Verloc,
gripping with both hands the edges of his chair, preserved a hieratic
immobility. When the pressure was removed he let go the chair, rose, and
went to stand before the fireplace. He turned no longer his back to the
room. With his features swollen and an air of being drugged, he followed
his wife's movements with his eyes.

Mrs Verloc went about serenely, clearing up the table. Her tranquil
voice commented the idea thrown out in a reasonable and domestic tone.
It wouldn't stand examination. She condemned it from every point of
view. But her only real concern was Stevie's welfare. He appeared to
her thought in that connection as sufficiently "peculiar" not to be taken
rashly abroad. And that was all. But talking round that vital point,
she approached absolute vehemence in her delivery. Meanwhile, with
brusque movements, she arrayed herself in an apron for the washing up of
cups. And as if excited by the sound of her uncontradicted voice, she
went so far as to say in a tone almost tart:

"If you go abroad you'll have to go without me."

"You know I wouldn't," said Mr Verloc huskily, and the unresonant voice
of his private life trembled with an enigmatical emotion.

Already Mrs Verloc was regretting her words. They had sounded more
unkind than she meant them to be. They had also the unwisdom of
unnecessary things. In fact, she had not meant them at all. It was a
sort of phrase that is suggested by the demon of perverse inspiration.
But she knew a way to make it as if it had not been.

She turned her head over her shoulder and gave that man planted heavily
in front of the fireplace a glance, half arch, half cruel, out of her
large eyes--a glance of which the Winnie of the Belgravian mansion days
would have been incapable, because of her respectability and her
ignorance. But the man was her husband now, and she was no longer
ignorant. She kept it on him for a whole second, with her grave face
motionless like a mask, while she said playfully:

"You couldn't. You would miss me too much."

Mr Verloc started forward.

"Exactly," he said in a louder tone, throwing his arms out and making a
step towards her. Something wild and doubtful in his express