He felt strangely excited.
"Remember?
You were at the market that day.
And you were watching our show.
My little girl was singing a song about a pie that would rather burn in the oven than land in the stomach of a fat nobleman."
"Yes, yes, I remember!
And then what?"
"A grand lady heard the song and got angry.
She told her long-nosed servants to box my little girl's ears."
"And I chased them away," the doctor said.
"The old woman recognised me and was ashamed of herself.
Right?"
"Yes.
Then you left, and my little girl said that if the grand lady's servants had boxed her ears, she would have died of disgrace.
You saved her.
She'll never forget you!"
"Where is your little girl now?" the doctor asked.
He was very excited.
The old clown went over to the canvas curtain and called someone.
The name he called was very strange. The way he said it was like the sound of a tightly-closed wooden box opening with a squeak.
"Suok!" he called.
Several moments passed.
Then a corner of the curtain was lifted and a little girl popped her tousled curly head out.
She gazed at the doctor with big grey eyes that were very serious, and yet a bit mischievous.
The doctor took one look at her and gasped: it was the doll that belonged to Tutti the Heir!
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE YOUNG ACTRESS HAS A DIFFICULT PART
Yes, it was she!
But where in the world had she come from?
Was it a miracle?
Of course not!
Doctor Caspar knew only too well that miracles don't happen.
It was simply a mistake.
The doll was really alive and when he had so foolishly fallen asleep in the carriage, she had run away like a naughty little girl.
"It's no use smiling at me!
Your innocent smile won't make me forgive you for what you've done," he said sternly. "See, you've been punished already.
I might never have found you and yet I did, quite by chance."
The doll stared at him in amazement.
Then she began to blink her eyes like a little rabbit. She looked at the clown in a very puzzled way.
August sighed.
"Who are you? Answer me!"
The doctor tried to sound as stern as he could, but the doll was so lovely he found it very hard to be angry.
"See, you don't even remember me," she said.
"I'm Suok."
"Su-ok," the doctor repeated. "But you're the doll of Tutti the Heir!"
"I'm no doll!
I'm a girl!"
"What?
Why, you're pretending!"
The doll came out from behind the curtain.