“O! it’s a’coming,” she screamed. “O! stop it, Sir, do, for the Lord’s sake! What do it want with me? I ain’t got nothing to say to it! O my! O my!” Meanwhile the table had advanced to her until its edge was against her body. “Do you see that, Steinberg?” observed Ricardo, “The furniture has actually moved without contact. This is very marvellous!” “Go away! go away!” cried Hannah, as she kicked at the legs of the table which was now pressing her against the wall. “O! Sir, please don’t go to tell the missus, for it never was so bad as this before--never!” “By Jove! look there!” exclaimed the Doctor, as a sound drew their attention in another direction, and they turned to see the Professor’s rocking chair, quietly rocking by itself in the corner of the room. “I never saw such a thing in my life before,” said Ricardo. “Steinberg, this is a very wonderful girl. We must try to keep her to ourselves, at all events until we have solved the reason of her powers.” Then he turned to Hannah, who presented a ludicrous spectacle, squeezed up in a corner of the room by the table, and crying loudly without any means of drying her eyes. “Stop that noise, my dear girl, do!” he said. “Don’t be afraid! No one shall hurt you, and you cannot suppose that a table could! But my friend and I are very much interested in this strange power of yours, and would like to see some more of it. I shall ask Mrs. Battleby to let you come up here in the evenings when she does not require your services, and we will see that you are rewarded for your trouble. You are not afraid of Doctor Steinberg and me, are you?” “O! no, Sir--only afeared of the tables and things as will foller me about whether I will or no! And it’s not the fust time as the beastly things ’ave got me into trouble, neither!” “O! it’s not the first time, is it, Hannah?” inquired Steinberg, “and what harm did they do you before, my girl!” “Harm enough,” replied Hannah, blubbering, “they parted my Joe and me! His family was so nasty about it! They said they wouldn’t ’ave their furniture broken for nothing, else maybe Joe and me could ’ave lived along of ’is mother, and I’d never gone to service at all!” “Well! never mind, Hannah! If Joe is a wise young man, he will come after you and marry you, whether his tables dance or not. And, meanwhile, my friend and I would like to see all that you can do!” “I can’t do nothing, Sir!” “Then who is it that does it?” “Ah! that I can’t tell you,--only that it’s always been the same with me from a child! I’ve had many a beating for it! I often wish I’d been dead afore they’ve come after me!” “What! the tables and chairs?”