The table once more tilted its leg, described an angry, grating semicircle over the marble floor and put its leg down with a violent stamp.
They looked at one another in surprise. Ida sat as though bereft of life, staring, with fingers outspread, ecstatically.
And the table tilted its leg for the third time.
It was certainly very curious. Eva doubted for a moment whether Mrs. Rantzow was lifting the table, but, when she questioned her with a glance, the German doctor’s wife shook her head and Eva saw that she was playing fair. They once more promised absolute honesty. And, when they were now certain of one another, in full confidence, it was most curious how the table continued to describe angry, grating semicircles, tilting one leg and tapping on the marble floor.
“Is there a spirit present, revealing itself?” asked Mrs. Rantzow, with a glance at the leg of the table.
The table tapped once:
“Yes.”
But, when the spirit was asked to spell its name, to tap out the letters of its name by the letters of the alphabet, all that came was:
“Z X R S A.”
The manifestation was incomprehensible.