The name of Thomasina Tucker is one of those bizarre
Americanisms that pain us so frequently in England. I fancy you
must have assumed it for public use, and if so, I beg you will
change it now, before you become too famous. The grotesque name
of Thomasina Tucker belittles your exquisite art.
Very truly yours,
A WELL WISHER.
"What do you think of that?"
Appleton laughed heartily and scanned the note. "It is from some
doddering old woman," he said. "The name given you by your sponsors in
baptism to be condemned as a 'bizarre Americanism'!"
"I cannot think why the loyalty of my dear mother and father to
Tucker, and to Thomas, should have made them saddle me with such a
handicap! They might have known I was going to sing, for I bawled
incessantly from birth to the age of twelve months. I shall have to
change my name, and you must help me to choose. Au revoir!"--and she
darted away with a handshake and a friendly backward glance from the
door.
"Can I think of another name for her?" apostrophized Appleton to
himself. "Can feminine unconsciousness and cruelty go farther than
that? Another name for her shrieks from the very housetops, and I
agree with 'Well Wisher' that she ought to take it before she becomes
too famous; before it would be necessary, for instance, to describe
her as Madame Tucker-Appleton!"