"Has not Silverbridge ever called you by your Christian name?"
"I think not. I am sure he never has." But he had, though it had passed by her at the moment without attention. "It all came from him so suddenly. And yet I expected it. But it was too sudden for Christian names and pretty talk. I do not even know what his name is."
"Plantagenet;—but we always call him Silverbridge."
"Plantagenet is very much prettier. I shall always call him Plantagenet. But I recall that. You will not remember that against me?"
"I will remember nothing that you do not wish."
"I mean that if,—if all the grandeurs of all the Pallisers could consent to put up with poor me, if heaven were opened to me with a straight gate, so that I could walk out of our republic into your aristocracy with my head erect, with the stars and stripes waving proudly round me till I had been accepted into the shelter of the Omnium griffins,—then I would call him—"
"There's one Palliser would welcome you."
"Would you, dear? Then I will love you so dearly. May I call you Mary?"
"Of course you may."
"Mary is the prettiest name under the sun. But Plantagenet is so grand! Which of the kings did you branch off from?"