d," had itchings in his
skin and lumps in his throat.

"This won't do," said they; "this won't do."

Bouvard thought of going to select at the inn some bottles of Spanish
wine in order to put his bodily machinery in order.

As he was going out, Marescot's clerk and three men brought from
Beljambe a large walnut table. "Monsieur" was much obliged to him for
it. It had been conveyed in perfect order.

Bouvard in this way learned about the new fashion of table-turning. He
joked about it with the clerk.

However, all over Europe, America, Australia and the Indies, millions of
mortals passed their lives in making tables turn; and they discovered
the way to make prophets of canaries, to give concerts without
instruments, and to correspond by means of snails. The press, seriously
offering these impostures to the public, increased its credulity.

The spirit-rappers had alighted at the chateau of Faverges, and thence
had spread through the village; and the notary questioned them
particularly.

Shocked at Bouvard's scepticism, he invited the two friends to an
evening party at table-turning.

Was this a trap? Madame Bordin was to be there. Pecuchet went alone.

There were present as spectators the mayor, the tax-collector, the
captain, other residents and their wives, Madame Vaucorbeil, Madame
Bordin, of course, besides Mademoiselle Laverriere, Madame Marescot's
former schoolmistress, a rather squint-eyed lady with her hair falling
over her shoulders in the corkscrew fashion of 1830. In an armchair sat
a cousin from Paris, attired in a blue coat and wearing an air of
insolence.

The two bronze lamps, the whatnot containing a number of curiosities,
ballads embellished with vignettes on the piano, and small water-colours
in huge frames, had always excited astonishment in Chavignolles. But
this evening all eyes were directed towards the mahogany table. They
would test it by and by, and it had the importance of things which
contain a mystery. A dozen guests took their places around it with
outstretched hands and their little fingers touching one another. Only
the ticking of the clock could be heard. The faces indicated profound
attention. At the end of ten minutes several complained of tinglings in
the arms.

Pecuchet was incommoded.

"You are pushing!" said the captain to Foureau.

"Not at all."

"Yes, you are!"

"Ah! sir."

The notary made them keep quiet.

By dint of straining their ears they thought they co