The table, slowly oscillating, struck nine raps. According to a slip of paper, in which the number of raps were translated by letters, this meant "Charming."
A number of voices exclaimed "Bravo!"
Then Marescot, to tease Madame Bordin, called on the spirit to declare her exact age.
The foot of the table came down with five taps.
"What? five years!" cried Girbal.
"The tens don't count," replied Foureau.
The widow smiled, though she was inwardly annoyed.
The replies to the other questions were missing, so complicated was the alphabet.
Much better was the plane table—an expeditious medium of which Mademoiselle Laverrière had made use for the purpose of noting down in an album the direct communications of Louis XII., Clémence Isaure, Franklin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and others. These mechanical contrivances are sold in the Rue d'Aumale. M. Alfred promised one of them; then addressing the schoolmistress: "But for a quarter of an hour we should have a little music; don't you think so? A mazurka!"
Two metal chords vibrated. He took his cousin by the waist, disappeared with her, and came back again.