He was even the only man so qualified in Stevie's knowledge, because the gentlemen lodgers had been too transient and too remote to have anything very distinct about them but perhaps their boots; and as regards the disciplinary measures of his father, the desolation of his mother and sister shrank from setting up a theory of goodness before the victim.

It would have been too cruel.

And it was even possible that Stevie would not have believed them.

As far as Mr Verloc was concerned, nothing could stand in the way of Stevie's belief.

Mr Verloc was obviously yet mysteriously _good_.