"Ah! and how does this name belong to you?"

"Because I invented it; but that does not prevent my being Casanova as
well."

"Sir, you must choose between Casanova and Seingalt; a man cannot have
two names."

"The Spaniards and Portuguese often have half a dozen names."

"But you are not a Spaniard or a Portuguese; you are an Italian: and,
after all, how can one invent a name?"

"It's the simplest thing in the world."

"Kindly explain."

"The alphabet belongs equally to the whole human race; no one can deny
that. I have taken eight letters and combined them in such a way as to
produce the word Seingalt. It pleased me, and I have adopted it as my
surname, being firmly persuaded that as no one had borne it before no one
could deprive me of it, or carry it without my consent."

"This is a very odd idea. Your arguments are rather specious than well
grounded, for your name ought to be none other than your father's name."

"I suggest that there you are mistaken; the name you yourself bear
because your father bore it before you, has not existed from all
eternity; it must have been invented by an ancestor of yours who did not
get it from his father, or else your name would have been Adam. Does your