Page:Lefty o' the Bush.djvu/211

 CHAPTER XXXII

THE INITIALS

He thanked her for the words, and secured his hat and book as they walked slowly toward the log. Tommy was again blowing away at his harmonica, Jimmy was sulking, and the others fell to amusing themselves with a game of hide and seek. Janet sat on the log, and Locke seated himself near her.

"What were you reading?" she asked curiously.

He gave her the book, and she glanced at it. It was a well-thumbed volume of "The Merchant of Venice."

"My favorite when I read Shakespeare," he said. "I don't know why, but I have read it over and over. At the moment when I heard you calling, I was reading Bassanio's raptures on finding Portia's portrait in the leaden casket."

Leaning forward a bit and looking steadily at her, he quoted:

"'Here are sever'd lips, Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs