has arranged for herself to live away from the family in an almshouse (charity accommodation). She has
done so to lessen Verloc's burden as breadwinner for the whole household, in the hope that he will have
more patience with Stevie if he is the only dependant. She meekly breaks the news to Winnie, who
mistakes her good intentions for ingratitude: "Weren't you comfortable enough in the house?". Winnie
also says that she is worried that Stevie might get lost when he goes to visit his mother. The conclusion
the attentive reader reaches is that she is going to fix his address on a label onto his coat in case he
should forget it.
On their way to the almshouse, there is an incident which defines Stevie's character far
more clearly. The horse-driven cab which they are riding in has a pitifully thin horse whom the driver
insists on whipping. Stevie protests, and tries to get out of the cab to help the horse, an act typical of
his unsuccessful altruism. He is deeply disturbed by the "steed of apocalyptic misery" and the unhealthy
old cab- driver, and twitches and stammers, his "immoderate compassion succeeded by innocent but
pitiless rage" until he manages to sum up his feelings with "Bad world for poor people". He evidently
has a rare sympathy for the oppressed, which is ready to be exploited.
Chapter 9:
Verloc returns from
France, where he has been for about a week, but has still found no solution to his problem. Having
always reverenced Verloc, Stevie is, as ever, at his beck and call. "You could do anything with that boy,
Adolf... He would go through fire for you" says Winnie with grim significance. It is ironic that Stevie's
main protector in life inadvertently causes his destruction by putting ideas into her husband's head. Verloc
begins to take a new interest in Stevie, taking him on walks and to stay with Michaelis in the country,
and the reader realises that Verloc is grooming him to help him undertake the bomb attack.
Verloc returns
home one evening extremely morose and agitated. He is mysterious regarding what he has been doing
that day, and asks Winnie to get out their savings, indicating that he wants to emigrate. Winnie reacts
calmly, knowing nothing of what is bothering her husband. The reader however, due to the mounting
pieces of evidence, guesses rightly that the bomb attack has just taken place, and that Stevie has died.
A
stranger arrives at the shop, whom we deduce to be the Assistant Commissioner. While he walks with
Verloc outside, another visitor arrives: Chief Inspector Heat. There is an element of comedy in this because
petty rivalries have meant that the colleagues are acting like competitors. Heat questions Winnie about
Stevie's overcoat, and she is amazed that it should have come into the hands of the police. Verloc returns
and Winnie listens at the door as Heat discusses the death of Stevie with him. Heat departs having
warned Verloc; Winnie sits catatonic in a corner.
Chapter 10:
The Assistant Commissioner visits Sir Ethelred
at the House of Commons, informing him, and we the readers, of what went on in his interview with
Verloc. We learn that Verloc was in an unusual "psychological state" which caused him to confess all to
the Assistant Commissioner, as criminals sometimes do directly after a crime. The Assistant Commissioner
identifies shock, if not remorse, in Verloc: "It is obvious that he did not plan the death of that wretched
lad... his brother in law". No decision as to whether to arrest Verloc is taken.
The Assistant Commissioner
moves on to dinner at the house of the Lady Patroness. A fellow dinner guest is Mr Vladimir! When
they are alone after dinner, the Assistant Commissioner informs him, somewhat triumphantly, that Verloc
has been traced as responsible, and that Mr Vladimir himself is suspected as having been connected in
some way. The Chapter therefore ends on a relatively positive note for the British police.
Chapter 11:
Back
to Brett Street where Verloc is about to face his wife's grief. Verloc's experiences new and unpleasant
thoughts: "He had dared cherish the hope of Stevie walking away from the walls of the Observatory as
he had been instructed to do... rejoining Mr Verloc outside the precincts of the park... Stevie dead was
a much greater nuisance than he ever had been alive."
He radically under-estimates Winnie's reaction,
trying to cheer her with "Can't be helped" as he cuts himself some ham. Meanwhile, Winnie is thinking
of Stevie - "She remembered brushing the boy's hair and tying his pinafores" - and of how she married
Verloc only to give her brother's life security. With the benefit of hindsight, she remembers her misguided
pleasure when she saw Verloc developing an interest in the boy, and taking him for walks. The difference
between the thought patterns of the two characters means that trouble only can ensue.
Winnie is stone
silent, and the nervous Verloc talks at her, inadvertently making things much worse: "It's your doing as
much as mine... it was you who kept shoving him in my way". He then attempts reconciliation, saying
"Come here" in the hope of an embrace. Winnie, with her head full of Stevie, stabs her husband with
the carving knife. She is left alone with the body in the darkened front parlour of Brett Street, with only
the sound of the clock ticking and the blood dripping.
Chapter 12:
Conrad remains with Winnie as she
decides what to do next. She is afraid of being caught by the police and being hung on the gallows,