[GROSSMAN stoops and finds the spoon in the bag. ALL. Bravo! [General enthusiasm. VASILY LEONIDITCH. Ah! So that's where our spoon was. (To PEASANTS.) Then that's the sort you are! THIRD PEASANT. What sort? I didn't take your spoon! What are you making out? I didn't take it, and my soul knows nothing about it. I didn't take it--there! Let him do what he likes. I knew he came here for no good. "Where's your bag?" says he. I didn't take it, the Lord is my witness! (Crosses himself.) I didn't take it! [The young people group round the PEASANT, laughing. LEONID FYODORITCH (angrily to his son). Always playing the fool! (To the THIRD PEASANT.) Never mind, friend! We know you did not take it; it was only an experiment. GROSSMAN (removes bandage from his eyes, and pretends to be coming to). Can I have a little water? [All fuss round him. VASILY LEONIDITCH. Let's go straight from here into the coachman's room. I've got a bitch there--epatante![7] BETSY. What a horrid word! Couldn't you say dog? VASILY LEONIDITCH. No. I can't say--Betsy is a man, epatante. I should have to say young woman; it's a parallel case. Eh, what? Marya Konstantinovna, isn't it true? Good, eh? [Laughs loudly. MARYA KONSTANTINOVNA. Well, let us go. [Exeunt MARYA KONSTANTINOVNA, BETSY, PETRISTCHEF, and VASILY LEONIDITCH. FAT LADY (to GROSSMAN). Well? how are you? Have you rested? (GROSSMAN does not answer. To SAHATOF.) And you, Mr. Sahatof, did you feel the effluence? SAHATOF. I felt nothing. Yes, it was very fine--very fine. Quite a success! BARONESS.--Admirable! Ca ne le fait pas souffrir? [8] LEONID FYODORITCH. Pas le moins du monde. PROFESSOR (to GROSSMAN). May I trouble you? (Hands him a thermometer.) At the beginning of the experiment it was 37 decimal 2 degrees. [9] (To DOCTOR.) That's right, I think? Would you mind feeling his pulse? Some loss is inevitable. DOCTOR (to GROSSMAN). Now then, sir, let's have your hand; we'll see, we'll see. [Takes out his watch and feels GROSSMAN'S pulse. FAT LADY (to GROSSMAN). One moment! The condition you were in could not be called sleep? GROSSMAN (wearily). It was hypnosis. SAHATOF. In that case, are we to understand that you hypnotised yourself? GROSSMAN. And why not? An hypnotic state may ensue not only in consequence of association--the sound of the tom-tom, for instance, in Charcot's method--but by merely entering an hypnogenetic zone. SAHATOF. Granting that, it would still be desirable to define what hypnotism is, more exactly? PROFESSOR. Hypnotism is a phenomenon resulting from the transmutation of one energy into another. GROSSMAN. Charcot does not so define it. SAHATOF. A moment, just a moment! That is your definition, but Liebault told me himself.... DOCTOR (lets go of GROSSMAN'S pulse). Ah, that's all right; well, now, the temperature?