ion made it
appear uncertain whether he meant to strangle or to embrace his wife.
But Mrs Verloc's attention was called away from that manifestation by the
clatter of the shop bell.

"Shop, Adolf. You go."

He stopped, his arms came down slowly.

"You go," repeated Mrs Verloc. "I've got my apron on."

Mr Verloc obeyed woodenly, stony-eyed, and like an automaton whose face
had been painted red. And this resemblance to a mechanical figure went
so far that he had an automaton's absurd air of being aware of the
machinery inside of him.

He closed the parlour door, and Mrs Verloc moving briskly, carried the
tray into the kitchen. She washed the cups and some other things before
she stopped in her work to listen. No sound reached her. The customer
was a long time in the shop. It was a customer, because if he had not
been Mr Verloc would have taken him inside. Undoing the strings of her
apron with a jerk, she threw it on a chair, and walked back to the
parlour slowly.

At that precise moment Mr Verloc entered from the shop.

He had gone in red. He came out a strange papery white. His face,
losing its drugged, feverish stupor, had in that short time acquired a
bewildered and harassed expression. He walked straight to the sofa, and
stood looking down at his overcoat lying there, as though he were afraid
to touch it.

"What's the matter?" asked Mrs Verloc in a subdued voice. Through the
door left ajar she could see that the customer was not gone yet.

"I find I'll have to go out this evening," said Mr Verloc. He did not
attempt to pick up his outer garment.

Without a word Winnie made for the shop, and shutting the door after her,
walked in behind the counter. She did not look overtly at the customer
till she had established herself comfortably on the chair. But by that
time she had noted that he was tall and thin, and wore his moustaches
twisted up. In fact, he gave the sharp points a twist just then. His
long, bony face rose out of a turned-up collar. He was a little
splashed, a little wet. A dark man, with the ridge of the cheek-bone
well defined under the slightly hollow temple. A complete stranger. Not
a customer either.

Mrs Verloc looked at him placidly.

"You came over from the Continent?" she said after a time.

The long, thin stranger, without exactly looking at Mrs Verloc, answered
only by a faint and peculiar smile.

Mrs Verloc's steady, incurious gaze rested on him.

"You unde