"Is it possible for me to come through?"
"There is one way."
"Put the caskets before me, Portia; I shall not be less wise than Bassanio."
She touched her lips with the knuckle of a finger, in a mood reflective. "A camel and the needle's eye."
"That referred to the rich man. All the world loves a lover, even the solemn old prophets."
"Are you sure?" a return of the old malice.
As a rejoinder he smoothed out the telegram she had sent to him. "Why did you send this to me?"
Her lips had no answer ready; and who can read a woman's heart?
"There can be but one reason," he pursued.
"Friendship."