She did not answer promptly: and her answer, to my surprise, was a protest against her name: for a rather sulky, yet gentle, voice came from the darkness, saying:
'I am not a Poisoner!'
'Well,' said I, 'all right: tell me whatever you like that I should call you, and henceforth I will call you that.'
'Call me Eve,' says she.
'Well, no,' said I, 'not Eve, anything but that: for my name is Adam, and if I called you Eve, that would be simply absurd, and we do not want to be ridiculous in each other's eyes. But I will call you anything else that you like.'
'Call me Leda,' says she.
'And why Leda?' said I.
'Because Leda sounds something like Clodagh,' says she, 'and you are al-leady in the habit of calling me Clodagh; and I saw the name Leda in a book, and liked it: but Clodagh is most hollible, most bitterly hollible!'
'Well, then,' said I, 'Leda it shall be, and I shan't forget, for I like it, too, and it suits you, and you ought to have a name beginning with an "L." Good-night, my dear, sleep well, and dream, dream.'
'And to you, too, my God give dleams of peace and pleasantness,' says she; and I went.