“Why not indeed?” said Sam, who hadn’t the faintest idea of the source of the quotation.
“Very well,” said Peter. “Suppose you put that down for one.”
Same made vague scratches on paper. He had a bookish reputation to sustain and he was not going to betray ignorance prematurely. “Then,” said Feter, “there is Law’s ‘Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.’”
“I’m letting myself in for something,” thought Sam, but he wrote it down.
“‘The Imitation of Christ,’ and ‘The Little Flowers of St. Francis,’” Peter went on.
“I think those should be enough to begin with,” said Sam hurriedly.
“Four, isn’t it?” said Peter, recapitulating.
“The ‘Pilgrim’s Progress ‘“——(“Thank God,” thought Sam, “I needn’t give myself away.”)
“Yes, four,” he interrupted, reading the now completed list. “And I am very much obliged to you.”
He wasn’t, though, quite sure about it. He had “nobbled” Peter, but he feared those books would be a millstone round his neck. There might be a steady sale for the “Pilgrim’s Progress” as a prize, but the others——! Still, he need not print many copies of them, and—consoling thought—they would be good window-dressing tor his list. He hoped it would include other, very different, books.