"It proves familiarity, and familiarity implies the possession
of mementoes, or relics. I can't tell you how that 'Mr.' touches me--
how it bridges over the gulf of time and brings our hero near
to me--nor what an edge it gives to my desire to see Juliana.
You don't say, 'Mr.' Shakespeare."

"Would I, any more, if I had a box full of his letters?"

"Yes, if he had been your lover and someone wanted them!"
And I added that John Cumnor was so convinced, and so all the more
convinced by Miss Bordereau's tone, that he would have come
himself to Venice on the business were it not that for him there
was the obstacle that it would be difficult to disprove his
identity with the person who had written to them, which the old
ladies would be sure to suspect in spite of dissimulation
and a change of name. If they were to ask him point-blank
if he were not their correspondent it would be too awkward
for him to lie; whereas I was fortunately not tied in that way.
I was a fresh hand and could say no without lying.

"But you will have to change your name," said Mrs. Prest.
"Juliana lives out of the world as much as it is possible to live,
but none the less she has probably heard of Mr. Aspern's editors;
she perhaps possesses what you have published."

"I have thought of that," I returned; and I drew out of my pocketbook
a visiting card, neatly engraved with a name that was not my own.

"You are very extravagant; you might have written it,"