- We learn that Winnie's mother has a found a place for herself in a charity almshouse, which is basically a version of an old folks' home during Conrad's time. The news shocks Winnie, who asks her mother if she wasn't comfortable living with the Verlocs. After this, Winnie falls into a disappointed silence.
- That leaves the issue of who owns the mother's furniture. The mother has only been given an apartment with nothing in it, so she'll need to take a few items with her. She makes sure to take only the crummiest pieces, though.
- The mother then has to decide what to do with the furniture she leaves behind. She could give it to Stevie, but doesn't want it to seem as though Stevie has some sort of leverage on Mr. Verloc. No, its important to rely on Verloc's charity, and so Winnie's mother decides that "Stevie must remain destitute and dependent" (8.15).
- They call for a ride to take the mother and all her stuff to the almshouse, and are confronted with a really junky old carriage. As if we didn't realize how bad this carriage is, Conrad makes sure to give the driver a metal hook where his hand's suppose to be. The horse pulling the carriage is no prize either, looking pretty sick and run-down.
- This wobbly carriage makes the mother nervous, and she asks Winnie what she thinks. After a brief moment, they're convinced to get up on the cab and start jolting on their way. Stevie comes with them and climbs onto the box to sit beside the carriage driver.
- As they travel, Stevie gets upset and tells the man not to whip his horse. The man keeps whipping anyway, and this makes Stevie jump off the carriage. He runs around to the window and shouts "Too heavy. Too heavy" to Winnie and his mother.
- The women order him to get back on the cab, but he wants to walk, thinking it'll make things easier on the horse. Winnie thinks this is ridiculous, and threatens Stevie by saying that Mr. Verloc will be very displeased if he doesn't get back onto the carriage, so Stevie does it.
- The narrator talks about how Winnie's mother is basically sacrificing herself for Stevie's protection. It's possible that the mother has detected the stress that's been piling up on Verloc, and she wants to relieve the pressure on him by taking herself out of the equation.
- So the old woman painfully leaves her children "as an act of devotion and as a move of deep policy" (8.45).
- Returning to the present, the narrator describes how the mother asks Winnie to come visit her every Sunday. Winnie says she'll try, but won't always be able to come when Stevie visits. The mother gets upset at this and worries that Stevie will lose his way. Winnie answers her, "I'll see to it that he don't get lost for long" (8.65). Did someone say foreshadowing?
- At this moment, the carriage grinds to a halt and they arrive at the almshouse. After they've taken out all the parcels and loaded the stuff into the house, Stevie stands under a streetlamp, and the carriage driver pokes him with his hook and starts chatting him up about how terrible his life is. He tells Stevie about how he has to drive his horse around all day and night, just to make enough money to keep his wife and four children from starving to death.
- This gets Stevie very upset, and he starts shouting "Bad! Bad!" Stevie tries to think of some way to make sense of the world's badness, to somehow make it all better, but he can't string his thoughts together. Convinced that Stevie now pities him, the driver climbs back up on the cab and drives away for a little while, then stops at a pub down the street, probably to drink away some (or all) of the money he supposedly needs to feed his family.
- Stevie is left alone with his agitated thoughts. Winnie comes over to soothe him. Unlike Stevie, who always tries to get to the heart of things, Winnie "waste[s] no portion of this transient life in seeking for fundamental information" (8.92).
- Winnie settles Stevie down by asking him to take care for her. This makes Stevie straighten up and puff out his chest like a man, happy to take on the role of a brotherly protector.
- They walk past the pub where the carriage is pulled up. Winnie makes a remark about the poor, sick horse. But Stevie is quick to tell her that the driver has a hard life, too. He is overcome again by thinking about the pain of the world, but Winnie says he can't help any of it.
- Suddenly, Stevie suggests that the police can banish evil from the world, but Winnie says that the police can't help either, because their job is to protect the people who have stuff from the people who don't have stuff. Stevie is overcome by how terrible the world is. Winnie tells him again not to worry about it, since he's never hungry himself.
- When they get back home, Verloc is there glancing at a newspaper. He barely even notices them because he's so distracted by his thoughts. When Verloc disappears into the shop, Winnie suddenly starts to miss her mother.
- Winnie asks Mr. Verloc if he'll be going out that night. He hates the idea of going out, but then goes out anyway, searching for some sort of comfort that London can't give him. When he comes back, he stands by his bed in his socks for a while. Winnie says she doesn't understand why her mother has left, but Verloc answers, "Perhaps it's just as well" (8.135).
- Winnie wonders what Verloc means by this, but doesn't ask any questions because she believes that "things [do] not stand being looked into" (8.136). She intentionally turns a blind eye to this vague statement by Verloc. The narrator mentions that at this moment, Verloc almost tells his wife about his entire predicament. "Mr Verloc loved his wife as a wife should be loved—that is, martially, with the regard one has for one's chief possession" (8.139).
- When he gets into bed next to her, he tells Winnie that he plans to leave England for "the Continent" (mainland Europe) the next day.