 absurd
with its sentimental regard for individual liberty. It's intolerable to think
that all your friends have got only to come over to -«
    »In that way I have them all under my eye,« Mr. Verloc interrupted, huskily.
    »It would be much more to the point to have them all under lock and key.
England must be brought into line. The imbecile bourgeoisie of this country make
themselves the accomplices of the very people whose aim is to drive them out of
their houses to starve in ditches. And they have the political power still, if
they only had the sense to use it for their preservation. I suppose you agree
that the middle classes are stupid?«
    Mr. Verloc agreed hoarsely.
    »They are.«
    »They have no imagination. They are blinded by an idiotic vanity. What they
want just now is a jolly good scare. This is the psychological moment to set
your friends to work. I have had you called here to develop to you my idea.«
    And Mr. Vladimir developed his idea from on high, with scorn and
condescension, displaying at the same time an amount of ignorance as to the real
aims, thoughts, and methods of the revolutionary world which filled the silent
Mr. Verloc with inward consternation. He confounded causes with effects more
than was excusable; the most distinguished propagandists with impulsive bomb
throwers; assumed organization where in the nature of things it could not exist;
spoke of the social revolutionary party one moment as of a perfectly disciplined
army, where the word of chiefs was supreme, and at another as if it had been the
loosest association of desperate brigands that ever camped in a mountain gorge.
Once Mr. Verloc had opened his mouth for a protest, but the raising of a
shapely, large white hand arrested him. Very soon he became too appalled to even
try to protest. He listened in a stillness of dread which resembled the
immobility of profound attention.
    »A series of outrages,« Mr. Vladimir continued, calmly, »executed here in
this country; not only planned here - that would not do - they would not mind.
Your friends could set half the Continent on fire without influencing the public
opinion here in favour of a universal repressive legislation. They will not look
outside their backyard here.«
    Mr. Verloc cleared his throat, but his heart failed him, and he said
nothing.
    »These outrages need not be especially sanguinary,« Mr. Vladimir went on, as
if delivering a scientific lecture, »but they must be sufficiently startling -
effective. Let them be directed
