" shouted Crocker, jumping from his seat. "He is! He is!
It's quite true. He is Duca di Crinola. Of course we'll call him so,
Mr. Jerningham;--eh?"

"I am sure I don't know," said Mr. Jerningham with great caution.

"You'll allow me to know my own name," said Roden.

"No! no!" continued Crocker. "It's all very well for your modesty,
but it's a kind of thing which your friends can't stand. We are
quite sure that you're the Duca." There was something in the Italian
title which was peculiarly soothing to Crocker's ears. "A man
has to be called by what he is, not by what he chooses. If the
Duke of Middlesex called himself Mr. Smith, he'd be Duke all the
same;--wouldn't he, Mr. Jerningham? All the world would call him
Duke. So it must be with you. I wouldn't call your Grace Mr. ----;
you know what I mean, but I won't pronounce it ever again;--not for
ever so much." Roden's brow became very black as he found himself
subjected to the effects of the man's folly. "I call upon the whole
office," continued Crocker, "for the sake of its own honour, to give
our dear and highly-esteemed friend his proper name on all occasions.
Here's to the health of the Duca di Crinola!" Just at that moment
Crocker's lunch had been brought in, consisting of bread and cheese
and a pint of stout. The pewter pot was put to his mouth and the
toast was drank to the honour and glory of the drinker's noble friend
with no feeling of intended ridicule. It was a grand thing to Crocker
to have been brought into contact with a man possessed of so noble
a title. In his heart of hearts he reverenced "The Duca." He would
willingly have stayed there till six or seven o'clock and have done
all the Duca's work for him,--because the Duca was a Duca. He would
not have done it satisfactorily, because it was not in his nature to
do any work well, but he would have done it as well as he did his
own. He hated work; but he would have sooner worked all night than
see a Duca do it,--so great was his reverence for the aristocracy
generally.

"Mr. Crocker," said Mr. Jerningham severely, "you are making yourself
a nuisance. You generally do."

"A nuisance!"

"Yes; a nuisance. When you see that a gentleman doesn't wish a thing,
you oughtn't to do it."

"But when a man's name is his name!"

"Never mind. When he doesn't wish it, you oughtn't to do it!"

"If it's a man's own real name!"

"Never mind," said Mr. Jerningham.

"If it shoots a gintleman to be incognito, wh