'There it is,' she said, 'the white soul; it kneels at the foot of
the bed.'
The husband said nothing, but following the direction of his wife's
hand, he solemnly bid the apparition depart, in the name of the Most
Holy Trinity and the Madonna.
Though he had seen nothing, he, too, now heard a voice, and the voice
said that it was her father whom the wife had seen; that it was not
well that they should have in the house the woman whom they had taken
in to board, for that it was on her account he was now suffering
penance. 'Think of this,' he said, finally, 'for I cannot stay to
tell you more; for it is the hour of prayer.' [247]
The lighting up of a masked ball could not be compared to the
brightness [248] which filled the room as the spirit disappeared. And
this the husband saw well, though he had not seen the soul.
The husband and wife thought a good deal of what they had heard;
they had never known before of the father's intimacy with this woman,
but they inquired, and found it was even so.
Then the man took into his head to go to one of these new people,
what do they call it? spiritismo, magnetismo, [249] or whatever it
is. He made them call up the spirit of his wife's father, and he
asked if it was he who had appeared at night in the bedroom all the
month through, and he said, 'yes, that it was.' And he asked him about
all the particulars, and he confirmed them all. 'Then,' he said, 'if
indeed it was you, give me some sign to-night;' and he said he would.
There was a ruler in the chest of drawers in the bedroom, and all
through the night there were knocks; now on the ceiling, now on the
floor, now on the walls, as if given with that ruler, and we know
those 'spiritismo' people say the spirits make themselves understood
by knocking.
After that, they sent away their boarder, though at considerable
pecuniary loss.
['I know a story like that,' said the first man, 'and a true one too;
it happened in 1848 or 1849.']