uated forms at best, probably never very exactly
observed, discarded nowadays even in the highest spheres, and always
foreign to the standards of her class. She did not look for courtesies
from him. But he was a good husband, and she had a loyal respect for his
rights.

Mrs Verloc would have gone through the parlour and on to her domestic
duties in the kitchen with the perfect serenity of a woman sure of the
power of her charms. But a slight, very slight, and rapid rattling sound
grew upon her hearing. Bizarre and incomprehensible, it arrested Mrs
Verloc's attention. Then as its character became plain to the ear she
stopped short, amazed and concerned. Striking a match on the box she
held in her hand, she turned on and lighted, above the parlour table, one
of the two gas-burners, which, being defective, first whistled as if
astonished, and then went on purring comfortably like a cat.

Mr Verloc, against his usual practice, had thrown off his overcoat. It
was lying on the sofa. His hat, which he must also have thrown off,
rested overturned under the edge of the sofa. He had dragged a chair in
front of the fireplace, and his feet planted inside the fender, his head
held between his hands, he was hanging low over the glowing grate. His
teeth rattled with an ungovernable violence, causing his whole enormous
back to tremble at the same rate. Mrs Verloc was startled.

"You've been getting wet," she said.

"Not very," Mr Verloc managed to falter out, in a profound shudder. By a
great effort he suppressed the rattling of his teeth.

"I'll have you laid up on my hands," she said, with genuine uneasiness.

"I don't think so," remarked Mr Verloc, snuffling huskily.

He had certainly contrived somehow to catch an abominable cold between
seven in the morning and five in the afternoon. Mrs Verloc looked at his
bowed back.

"Where have you been to-day?" she asked.

"Nowhere," answered Mr Verloc in a low, choked nasal tone. His attitude
suggested aggrieved sulks or a severe headache. The unsufficiency and
uncandidness of his answer became painfully apparent in the dead silence
of the room. He snuffled apologetically, and added: "I've been to the
bank."

Mrs Verloc became attentive.

"You have!" she said dispassionately. "What for?"

Mr Verloc mumbled, with his nose over the grate, and with marked
unwillingness.

"Draw the money out!"

"What do you mean? All of it?"

"Yes. All of it."

Mrs Verloc