ain with
an involuntary cry.

Hastily shipping his oars, Herrick bent over the boat, causing it to
heel to one side rather dangerously; and when next Toni came to the
surface he gripped her strongly by the shoulder, bidding her keep quite
still, and then lifted her, by sheer force of muscle, into the boat,
where she collapsed in a dripping little heap at his feet.

"That's all right!" He seized the oars and with a dozen vigorous strokes
propelled the boat back to the landing-place, where he proceeded to tie
her up, and then turned his attention to his passenger.

"Hard luck, Mrs. Rose," he said cheerily. "But there's no harm done, is
there? Now you must come into the house and let me find you some dry
things to put on. Don't delay--the punt will be rescued somewhere, I've
no doubt, and you really must get out of those wet garments."

Shivering, dripping, and feeling more than half inclined to cry, Toni
let him help her out of the boat; and seeing that she was really
suffering from shock Herrick put his arm round her shoulders in
fraternal fashion, and led her up the little sloping lawn on to the
verandah of the bungalow.

Here Toni stopped in some embarrassment.

"I ... I don't think I can come in like this." In spite of the sun her
teeth were chattering. "I--I shall spoil your carpets!"

"Oh, they're beyond spoiling," he assured her, with a laugh. "Don't
worry about them! I think, though, you had better come into the kitchen,
if you don't mind. There happens to be a fire there, and you can get
warm."

She followed him obediently through the long window into the shabby
sitting-room, which for all its shabbiness had an oddly harmonious
effect; and from there he took her into the small, cosy kitchen, which
was scrupulously tidy and spotlessly clean.

"Now"--he looked at her a little dubiously--"obviously, the thing to do
is to get off those wet clothes, have a hot bath, and put on something
dry. Well, if I bring my tub in here and fill it from the boiler, would
you mind having it in the kitchen? You see, I don't want you to get
cold."

"Oh, I don't think I need do that," said Toni, between laughing and
crying. "If you lent me a mackintosh or a big coat I could get home
quite well."

"What--as you are?" He smiled at her, but so kindly that she could not
take offence. "Well, to begin with, your punt is miles away by now, and
anyway you are much too wet to leave this house. Now"--he went briskly
to the door--"