I can't honestly say that we made much progress at our first meeting.

It was Brown's fault.

He would begin by telling us a story about a dog.

It was the old, old story of the dog who had been in the habit of going every morning to a certain baker's shop with a penny in his mouth, in exchange for which he always received a penny bun.

One day, the baker, thinking he would not know the difference, tried to palm off upon the poor animal a ha'penny bun, whereupon the dog walked straight outside and fetched in a policeman.