"
"This--from a brother! Yes, I'd like to play _Katherine_, too. But give
me the boots, if you please. Do you happen to remember Olivia
Cartwright?"
"Of course I do. And a mighty pretty and interesting girl she is. I
should think she might make a _Petruchio_ for you."
"I thought she would. But the boots seem to have a devastating effect.
The minute she gets them on--even in imagination, for we haven't had a
dress rehearsal yet--her voice grows softer and her manner more
lady-like. It's the funniest thing I ever knew, to hear her say the
lines--
"'What is this? mutton?...
'Tis burnt, and so is all the meat.
What dogs are these? Where is the rascal cook?
"How durst you, villains, bring it from the dresser,
And serve it thus to me that love it not?
There, take it to you, trenchers, cups and all,
You heedless joltheads and unmannered slaves!'"
Passersby along the street beheld a young man consumed with mirth as
Louis Gray heard these stirring words issuing from his sister's pretty
mouth in a clever imitation of the schoolgirl _Petruchio's_ "lady-like"
tones.
"Now speak those lines as you would if you wore the boots," he urged,
when he had recovered his gravity.
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