He didn't know that Winky was punishing him in order to punish herself for having given Violet away.
"All right, Winky," he said. "If you think I'm such a brute."
"I don't think anything of the sort, Ranny. You know I don't."
She rose with the sleeping child in her arms and carried it to its cot. He followed her and turned back the blanket for her as she laid Baby down. But it was Winny and not Baby that he looked at.
And he thought, "Little Winky's grown up."
To be sure, her hair was done differently. He missed the door-knocker plat.
But that was not what he meant. He had only thought of it after she had left him.
It was past ten before Violet came back. He found her in the sitting-room, standing in the light of the gas flame she had just lit. Her eyes shone; her face was flushed. She panted a little as if (so he thought) she had hurried, being late.
"Well," he said to her, "have you had your little run?"