`` You may have both . Anyway , you 'll have to have William Adolphus . He is under quarantine as well as you and I. Do you suppose I am going to have my cat ranging at large through Avonlea , scattering smallpox germs among innocent people ? I 'll have to put up with that dog of yours . You will have to endure William Adolphus . '' Alexander Abraham groaned , but I could see that the way I had looked him over had chastened him considerably . The doctor drove away , and I went into the house , not choosing to linger outside and be grinned at by Thomas Wright . I hung my coat up in the hall and laid my bonnet carefully on the sitting-room table , having first dusted a clean place for it with my handkerchief . I longed to fall upon that house at once and clean it up , but I had to wait until the doctor came back with my wrapper . I could not clean house in my new suit and a silk shirtwaist . Alexander Abraham was sitting on a chair looking at me . Presently he said , `` I am NOT curious -- but will you kindly tell me why the doctor called you Peter ? '' `` Because that is my name , I suppose , '' I answered , shaking up a cushion for William Adolphus and thereby disturbing the dust of years . Alexander Abraham coughed gently . `` Is n't that -- ahem ! -- rather a peculiar name for a woman ? '' `` It is , '' I said , wondering how much soap , if any , there was in the house . `` I am NOT curious , '' said Alexander Abraham , `` but would you mind telling me how you came to be called Peter ? '' `` If I had been a boy my parents intended to call me Peter in honour of a rich uncle . When I -- fortunately -- turned out to be a girl my mother insisted that I should be called Angelina .
They gave me both names and called me Angelina , but as soon as I grew old enough I decided XXXXX be called Peter .
Because If at in on that through to under with