ingly
that he was fit enough if it would make Randall any happier.

It did. It made him so happy that his recovery dated from that moment.
He had only one fear, that Dossie would have forgotten Winky.

But Dossie hadn't, though after two months of Wandsworth she had
forgotten many things, and had cultivated reserve. When Ranny said,
"Who's this, Dossie?" she tucked her head into her shoulder and smiled
shyly and said, "Winty." But they had to pretend that Baby remembered,
too. He hadn't really got what you would call a memory.

And, after all, it was Ranny (Winny said to herself) who remembered
most. For he gave her for a Christmas present, not only a beautiful
white satin "sashy," scented with lavender (lavender, not violets, this
time), but a wonderful hot-water bag with a shaggy red coat that made
you warm to look at it.

"Ranny! Fancy you remembering that I had cold feet!"

That night he went home with her to Johnson's side door, carrying the
sachet and the hot-water bag and the things his mother had given her.

Upstairs, in the attic she shared with three other young ladies, the
first thing Winny did was to turn to the Cookery Book she had bought a
year ago and read the directions: "How to Preserve Hot-Water Bags"--to
preserve them forever.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Thus nineteen-seven, that dreadful year, rolled over into
nineteen-eight. By nineteen-ten, at the very latest, Ransome looked to
get his divorce. He had no doubt that he could do it, for he found it
far less expensive to live with his mother at Wandsworth than with
Violet at Granville. He knew exactly where he was, he had not to allow
so considerably for the unforeseen. His income had a margin out of which
he saved. To make this margin wider he pinched, he scraped, he went as
shabby as he dared, he left off smoking, he renounced his afternoon cup
of tea and reduced the necessary dinner at his A B C shop to its very
simplest terms.

The two years passed.

By January, nineteen-ten, he had only paid off what he already owed. He
had not raised the thirty pounds required for his divorce. Indomitable,
but somewhat desperate, he applied to his Uncle Randall for a second
loan at the same interest. He did not conceal from him that divorce was
his object. He put it to him that his mind was made up unalterably, and
that since the thing had got to be, sooner or later, it was better for
everybody's sake that it should be sooner.

But Mr. Randall was ine