He won't mind spending the day with his old mother--" Winnie screamed out stolidly: "Mind! I should think not.

That poor boy will miss you something cruel.
I wish you had thought a little of that, mother." Not think of it! The heroic woman swallowed a playful and inconvenient object like a billiard ball, which had tried to jump out of her throat.
Winnie sat mute for a while, pouting at the front of the cab, then snapped out, which was an unusual tone with her: "I expect I'll have a job with him at first, he'll be that restless--" "Whatever you do, don't let him worry your husband, my dear." Thus they discussed on familiar lines the bearings of a new situation.
And the cab jolted.

Mrs Verloc's mother expressed some misgivings.
Could Stevie be trusted to come all that way alone?
Winnie maintained that he was much less "absent-minded" now.

They agreed as to that.

It could not be denied.