We spent the rest of the evening in making experiments with animal magnetism. I made a few passes over her forehead, and she acknowledged that it calmed her nerves. But all of a sudden, just as she was going into a trance, she shook herself, started to her feet, and looked at me with troubled eyes.
"Let me go!" she exclaimed; "I won't! You are bewitching me!"
"It's your turn now to try your magnetic powers," I said, and I submitted to the same treatment to which I had subjected her.
I sat with half-closed eyes; there was deep silence on the other side of the piano; my glances strayed to the legs and the lyre-shaped pedal of the instrument and ... I thought I must be dreaming, and sprang up from my chair. At the same moment the Baron appeared from behind the piano and offered me a glass of punch. The four of us raised our glasses. The Baron looked at his wife—
"Drink to your reconciliation with Matilda," he pleaded.
"Your health, little witch!" exclaimed the Baroness with a smile, and turning to me she added—
"I must tell you we quarrelled about you!"
For a moment I did not know how to reply. Then I asked her to explain her words.
"No, no! no explanation!" answered a chorus of voices.
"That's a pity," I replied; "in my opinion we've been playing 'hide-and-seek' far too long."