, turning on the tap above the sink, poured three glasses of
water, one after another, down his throat to quench the fires of his
indignation. Mr Vladimir's conduct was like a hot brand which set his
internal economy in a blaze. He could not get over the disloyalty of it.
This man, who would not work at the usual hard tasks which society sets
to its humbler members, had exercised his secret industry with an
indefatigable devotion. There was in Mr Verloc a fund of loyalty. He
had been loyal to his employers, to the cause of social stability,--and
to his affections too--as became apparent when, after standing the
tumbler in the sink, he turned about, saying:

"If I hadn't thought of you I would have taken the bullying brute by the
throat and rammed his head into the fireplace. I'd have been more than a
match for that pink-faced, smooth-shaved--"

Mr Verloc, neglected to finish the sentence, as if there could be no
doubt of the terminal word. For the first time in his life he was taking
that incurious woman into his confidence. The singularity of the event,
the force and importance of the personal feelings aroused in the course
of this confession, drove Stevie's fate clean out of Mr Verloc's mind.
The boy's stuttering existence of fears and indignations, together with
the violence of his end, had passed out of Mr Verloc's mental sight for a
time. For that reason, when he looked up he was startled by the
inappropriate character of his wife's stare. It was not a wild stare,
and it was not inattentive, but its attention was peculiar and not
satisfactory, inasmuch that it seemed concentrated upon some point beyond
Mr Verloc's person. The impression was so strong that Mr Verloc glanced
over his shoulder. There was nothing behind him: there was just the
whitewashed wall. The excellent husband of Winnie Verloc saw no writing
on the wall. He turned to his wife again, repeating, with some emphasis:

"I would have taken him by the throat. As true as I stand here, if I
hadn't thought of you then I would have half choked the life out of the
brute before I let him get up. And don't you think he would have been
anxious to call the police either. He wouldn't have dared. You
understand why--don't you?"

He blinked at his wife knowingly.

"No," said Mrs Verloc in an unresonant voice, and without looking at him
at all. "What are you talking about?"

A great discouragement, the result of fatigue, came upon Mr Verloc.