I dared not advance
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 1.3.6) and then finds himself unable to
undo or even cope with the result.
