I drew back from her, rushed to the table, grasped the paper-weight, and threw it on the floor by her side.
I took care to aim a little to one side, and, before she disappeared (I did it so that she could see it), I grasped a candlestick, which I also hurled, and then took down the barometer, continuing to shout: "'Go away! I do not answer for myself!' "She disappeared, and I immediately ceased my demonstrations.

An hour later the old servant came to me and said that my wife was in a fit of hysterics.

I went to see her.

She sobbed and laughed, incapable of expressing anything, her whole body in a tremble.

She was not shamming, she was really sick.