ABSTRACT
In Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1907), The Assistant Commissioner concludes his investigation of the Greenwich Park bomb explosion and takes a hansom to Westminster, getting out “at the very centre of the Empire on which the sun never sets,” and entering “into the precincts of the House which is the House, par excellence, in the minds of many millions of men” (198–9, emphasis in original). Here, in this “august spot” (199) “watched by stalwart constables, who did not seem particularly impressed by the duty” (198–9), he meets the Home Secretary, Sir Ethelred, to apprise him of his findings. As Sir Ethelred begins to grasp the essential facts of the case, the Assistant Commissioner observes his reaction: “the great man,” with “a slight jerky movement” and “an intermittent stifled but powerful sound … laugh[s]” (203, emphasis added). Then, regaining his composure, Sir Ethelred overcomes his “dread of details” to confirm: ‘“And you say this man has got a wife?’” (204). The Assistant Commissioner, obliging “the great man,” reiterates: “‘Yes, a genuine wife. And the victim was a genuine brother-in-law. From a certain point of view we are in the presence of a domestic drama”’ (204).
