This may be a premonition of Victor's own complicity in William's death, or it can
be read as one of several instances where we observe on his part a chronic hesitancy
to act. This will return in the third volume as a near-paralysis of the will. It is
perhaps a natural reaction of one who has pursued one course of action with compulsive
energy (see I:3:9) and then finds himself unable to undo or even cope with the result.