“It is execrable, Mrs. Adams; and I am ashamed that you should make it, even as a pleasantry.”

“Indeed, my friend, there is no foretelling what may be.  The French fever is rising every day.  I even may be compelled to drop the offensive ‘Mistress’ and call myself Citoyenne Adams.  And, after all, I do believe that the President regards his citizenship far above his office.  What say you, Lieutenant?”

“I think, madame, that fifty, one hundred, one thousand years after this day, it will be of little importance what prefix is put before the name of the President.  He will be simply George Washington in every heart and on every page.”

“That is true,” said Mrs. Adams.  “Fame uses no prefixes.  It is Pompey, Julius Caesar, Pericles, Alfred, Hampden, Oliver Cromwell.  Or it is a suffix like Alexander the Great; or Richard Coeur-de-Lion.  I have no objection to Washington the Great, or Washington Coeur-de-Lion.”

“Washington will do for love and for fame,” continued Hyde.  “The next generation may say Mr. Madison, or Mr. Monroe, or Mr. Jay; but they will want neither prefix nor suffix to Washington, Jefferson, Franklin,—­and, if you permit me, sir—­Adams.”

The Vice-president was much pleased.  He said “Pooh!  Pooh!” and stood up and stepped loftily across the hearth-rug, but the subtle compliment went warm to his heart, and the real worth of the man’s nature came straight to the front, as he looked, under its influence, the honest, positive, honourable gentleman that every great occasion found him to be.

“Well, well,” he answered; “heartily, and from our souls, we must do our best, and then trust to Truth and Time, our name and our memory.  But I must now go to town—­our affairs give us no holidays.”  And then instantly the room was in a fuss and a flurry.  No Englishman could have made a more bustling exit; and, indeed, even in his physical aspect, John Adams was a perfect picture of the traditional John Bull.  His natural temperament carried out this likeness:  high-mettled as a game-cock during the Revolutionary war, he was, in politics, passionate, dogmatic and unconciliating, and in social life ceremonious and showy as any Englishman could be.

After he had gone, Mrs. Adams proposed a walk in the lovely garden; and Hyde hoped then to obtain a few words with her.  But Mrs. Smith accompanied them, and introduced immediately a grievance she had evidently been previously discussing.  With a provoking petulance she told and re-told some slight which Sir John Temple had offered Mr. Smith:  adding always “Lady Temple is very civil to me; but I cannot, and I will not, exchange visits with any lady who does not pay my William an equal civility.”  Enlarging and enlarging on this text, Hyde found no opportunity to get a word in on his own affairs; and then, suddenly, as they turned into the main avenue, Doctor Moran and Cornelia appeared.