The Empress shook her curly head.
"You don't like it, Henrietta?" said the Emperor anxiously.
"It's a silly-sounding name," said the Empress.
"It is, my dear. She's the one that pays the rent."
The Empress pursed her lips, and two tears trickled slowly over her rounded cheeks.
"That don't make her name any less silly-sounding," she gulped. "Oh, to think——"
"Mr. Van Adam!" cried the Emperor hastily, consulting the list again.
This time he did not ask the Empress for her opinion, but gave his own.
"I call that a low name," he said. "Bible names I never could abide since I was done by Ezekiel. You remember how I was done by Ezekiel over the pork pies?" The Empress nodded miserably. "Never trust a man with a Bible name," continued the Emperor impressively. "If you do, he'll round on you. Ezekiel, Adam, Hezekiah—they're all alike, as downy as they're made. Give a child a Bible name, and he'll grow up a hypocrite. The Duchess of Southborough!"
"She's better."