t this command, for her papa had
never in all his life asked her to go into the tower, but rather had
kept the door of it carefully shut. So that she was conscious of a
certain sense of anxiety as she climbed the narrow winding stair, and
opened the heavy door which led into its one room. Herr Dapsul von
Zabelthau was seated upon a large armchair of singular form, surrounded
by curious instruments and dusty books. Before him was a kind of stand,
upon which there was a paper stretched in a frame, with a number of
lines drawn upon it. He had on a tall pointed cap, a wide mantle of
grey calimanco, and on his chin a long white beard, so that he had
quite the appearance of a magician. On account of his false beard,
Aennchen didn't know him a bit just at first, and looked curiously
about to see if her father were hidden away in some corner; but when
she saw that the man with the beard on was really papa, she laughed
most heartily, and asked if it was Yule-time, and he was going to act
Father Christmas.

Paying no heed to this enquiry, Herr Dapsul von Zabelthau took a small
tool of iron in his hand, touched Aennchen's forehead with it, and then
stroked it along her right arm several times, from the armpit to the
tip of the little finger. While this was going on she had to sit in the
armchair, which he had quitted, and to lay the finger which had the
ring upon it on the paper which was in the frame, in such a position
that the topaz touched the central point where all the lines came
together. Yellow rays immediately shot out from the topaz all round,
colouring the paper all over with deep yellow light. Then the lines
went flickering and crackling up and down, and the little figures which
were on the ring seemed to be jumping merrily about all over the paper.
Herr Dapsul, without taking his eyes from the paper, had taken hold of
a thin plate of some metal, which he held up high over his head with
both arms, and was proceeding to press it down upon the paper; but ere
he could do so he slipped his foot on the smooth stone floor, and fell,
anything but softly, upon the sitting portion of his body; whilst the
metal plate, which he had dropped in an instinctive attempt to break
his fall, and save damage to his _Os Coccygis_, went clattering down
upon the stones. Fraeulein Aennchen awoke, with a gentle "Ah!" from a
strange dreamy condition in which she had been. Herr Dapsul with some
difficulty raised himself, put the grey sugar-loaf