He had remained motionless, as if feeling himself surrounded by pitfalls.
He walked along a passage lighted by a lonely gas-jet, then up a flight of winding stairs, and through a glazed and cheerful corridor on the first floor.

The footman threw open a door, and stood aside.

The feet of Mr Verloc felt a thick carpet.

The room was large, with three windows; and a young man with a shaven, big face, sitting in a roomy arm-chair before a vast mahogany writing-table, said in French to the Chancelier d'Ambassade, who was going out with the papers in his hand: "You are quite right, mon cher.

He's fat--the animal." Mr Vladimir, First Secretary, had a drawing-room reputation as an agreeable and entertaining man.