第51章

Mr Verloc felt the latent unfriendliness of all out of doors with a force approaching to positive bodily anguish.There is no occupation that fails a man more completely than that of a secret agent of police.It's like your horse suddenly falling dead under you in the midst of an uninhabited and thirsty plain.The comparison occurred to Mr Verloc because he had sat astride various army horses in his time, and had now the sensation of an incipient fall.The prospect was as black as the window-pane against which he was leaning his forehead.And suddenly the face of Mr Vladimir, clean-shaved and witty, appeared enhaloed in the glow of its rosy complexion like a sort of pink seal impressed on the fatal darkness.

This luminous and mutilated vision was so ghastly physically that Mr Verloc started away from the window, letting down the venetian blind with a great rattle.Discomposed and speechless with the apprehension of more such visions, he beheld his wife re-enter the room and get into bed in a calm, businesslike manner which made him feel hopelessly lonely in the world.Mrs Verloc expressed her surprise at seeing him up yet.

`I don't feel very well,' he muttered, passing his hands over his moist brow.

`Giddiness?'

`Yes.Not at all well.'

Mrs Verloc, with all the placidity of an experienced wife, expressed a confident opinion as to the cause, and suggested the usual remedies;but her husband, rooted in the middle of the room, shook his lowered head sadly.

`You'll catch cold standing there,' she observed.

Mr Verloc made an effort, finished undressing, and got into bed.Down below in the quiet, narrow street measured footsteps approached the house, then died away, unhurried and firm, as if the passer-by had started to pace out all eternity, from gas-lamp to gas-lamp in a night without end;and the drowsy ticking of the old clock on the landing became distinctly audible in the bedroom.

Mrs Verloc, on her back, and staring at the ceiling, made a remark.

`Takings very small today.'

Mr Verloc, in the same position, cleared his throat as if for an important statement, but merely inquired:

`Did you turn off the gas downstairs?'

`Yes; I did,' answered Mrs Verloc, conscientiously.`That poor boy is in a very excited state tonight,' she murmured, after a pause which lasted for three ticks of the clock.