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
