integral part of his outdoor activities,
which his wife had never looked deeply into. Mrs Verloc felt that the
position was delicate, but she faced it with the same impenetrable
calmness which impressed and even astonished the customers of the shop
and made the other visitors keep their distance a little wonderingly.
No! She feared that there were things not good for Stevie to hear of,
she told her husband. It only excited the poor boy, because he could not
help them being so. Nobody could.

It was in the shop. Mr Verloc made no comment. He made no retort, and
yet the retort was obvious. But he refrained from pointing out to his
wife that the idea of making Stevie the companion of his walks was her
own, and nobody else's. At that moment, to an impartial observer, Mr
Verloc would have appeared more than human in his magnanimity. He took
down a small cardboard box from a shelf, peeped in to see that the
contents were all right, and put it down gently on the counter. Not till
that was done did he break the silence, to the effect that most likely
Stevie would profit greatly by being sent out of town for a while; only
he supposed his wife could not get on without him.

"Could not get on without him!" repeated Mrs Verloc slowly. "I couldn't
get on without him if it were for his good! The idea! Of course, I can
get on without him. But there's nowhere for him to go."

Mr Verloc got out some brown paper and a ball of string; and meanwhile he
muttered that Michaelis was living in a little cottage in the country.
Michaelis wouldn't mind giving Stevie a room to sleep in. There were no
visitors and no talk there. Michaelis was writing a book.

Mrs Verloc declared her affection for Michaelis; mentioned her abhorrence
of Karl Yundt, "nasty old man"; and of Ossipon she said nothing. As to
Stevie, he could be no other than very pleased. Mr Michaelis was always
so nice and kind to him. He seemed to like the boy. Well, the boy was a
good boy.

"You too seem to have grown quite fond of him of late," she added, after
a pause, with her inflexible assurance.

Mr Verloc tying up the cardboard box into a parcel for the post, broke
the string by an injudicious jerk, and muttered several swear words
confidentially to himself. Then raising his tone to the usual husky
mutter, he announced his willingness to take Stevie into the country
himself, and leave him all safe with Michaelis.

He carried out this scheme on the ve