Let it be stated to my credit that I rose to the situation with some promptness. Unhitching the painter by a dexterous twitch, I snatched up my pole, and, with a couple of sharp shoves, sped gracefully to the rescue. "I am so sorry," I said. "I am afraid I frightened your dog. May I make amends by getting out the basket?" "It's very kind of you," she said simply. "Of course, it wasn't your fault at all. Come here sir!" This last to the dog. I turned my sleeves up to the shoulders, and, leaning over the side of the punt, groped down through the shallow water until I got hold of the handle. Then, dripping but triumphant, I extracted my burden. "I hope there is nothing to spoil in it," I said. She smiled and shook her head. "It's only a matter of a few sandwiches. I am very much obliged to you, and extremely sorry to have been the cause of so much trouble." "On the contrary," I replied, "it is I and the dog who ought to apologize to you." "I can't imagine why he was so silly," she said, administering a reproving pat to the animal, who still eyed me with some disfavour. "As a rule, he is as good as gold in a boat." "What do you call him?" I inquired, in a shameless attempt to prolong the conversation. "Winston Churchill," she said, with another smile. "He was christened before I got him." "His jaw is certainly well developed," I observed. She laughed, and a short pause followed. "Well," she said, "I must be getting back." "But really," I protested, "you have only just arrived." Then a sudden fit of recklessness seized me. "Don't go because your lunch is spoiled," I pleaded. "I have a whole tongue, to say nothing of some excellent bread, and some good, if rather dilapidated, butter. As the destroyer of your sandwiches I can surely without impertinence offer you a fair compensation." She shook her head, still smiling. "Oh, I don't think you are impertinent," she said, "but I believe that no really nice girl ever accepts an invitation from a perfect stranger. It would distress me to think that I was outside the pale." Her brown eyes twinkled so deliriously that I cast subterfuge to the winds. "Do stay," I begged. "I have been alone all the morning wrestling with an obstinate picture, and I am desperately in need of a little cheering society. Besides, there is nothing so very unconventional in the idea. Winston Churchill will make a most efficient chaperon." She wavered. "And you can cut me afterwards," I added. The corners of her mouth twitched. "Your arguments," she said, "are most persuasive." We pulled the two punts alongside each other and fastened them to the bank. By this time Winston Churchill seemed to have accepted me as a harmless and necessary evil. He sat up in the stern and watched me with intelligent interest, while I completed my preparations for lunch.