Consequently there was irony in the baby-talk of her
reply.
"Me dood!" she said. "Me very dood, and listen carefully. Tell Lucia!"
Georgie recounted the experiences. The table had rocked and tapped out
names. The table had whirled round, though it was a very heavy table.
Georgie had been told that he had two sisters, one of whom in Latin was
a bear.
"How did the table know that?" he asked. "Ursa, a bear, you know. And
then, while we were sitting there, the Princess went off into a trance.
She said there was a beautiful spirit present, who blessed us all. She
called Mrs Quantock Margarita, which, as you may know, is the Italian
for Daisy."
Lucia smiled.
"Thank you for explaining, Georgino," she said.
There was no mistaking the irony of that, and Georgie thought he would
be ironical too.
"I didn't know if you knew," he said. "I thought it might be Neapolitan
dialect."
"Pray, go on!" said Lucia, breathing through her nose.
"And she said I was Georgie," said Georgie, "but that there was another
Georgie not far off. That was odd, because Olga's house, with Mr
Shuttleworth, were so close. And then the Princess went into very deep
trance, and the spirit that was there took possession of her."
"And who was that?" asked Lucia.
"His name was Amadeo. She spoke in Amadeo's voice, indeed it was Amadeo
who was speaking. He was a Florentine and knew Dante quite well.
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