You understand why--don't you ?" He blinked at his wife knowingly.
"No," said Mrs Verloc in an unresonant voice, and without looking at him at all.

"What are you talking about ?" A great discouragement, the result of fatigue, came upon Mr Verloc.

He had had a very full day, and his nerves had been tried to the utmost.
After a month of maddening worry, ending in an unexpected catastrophe, the storm-tossed spirit of Mr Verloc longed for repose.

His career as a secret agent had come to an end in a way no one could have foreseen; only, now, perhaps he could manage to get a night's sleep at last.

But looking at his wife, he doubted it.