The lamp shone brightly on her.
She was smiling and her tousled head was tilted.
Her hair was the colour of a baby bird's grey fluff.
The fuzzy animal in the cage never took its eyes off her.
Doctor Caspar didn't know what to think.
In a little while, dear reader, you will discover the secret.
But now we'd like to warn you of something very important that Doctor Caspar Arnery failed to notice.
When a person is excited, he may not notice things that are quite obvious.
This is what it was: the doll looked so very different here, in the carnival wagon.
Her grey eyes sparkled with joy, she seemed serious and attentive, but there was not a trace left of her sadness.
In fact, you would have said she was a mischievous child pretending to be very prim and proper. .
And where was her beautiful pink silk dress?
Where were the golden rosebuds on her slippers, the lace, the spangles, the fairytale clothes which would make any little girl look like a princess, or at least like a Christmas-tree ornament?
The doll was dressed very simply.
She had on a sailor blouse and skirt and had no stockings on her feet, only a worn pair of slippers that were once white and now looked grey.
But don't think these simple clothes made her one bit less pretty.
They really looked very nice on her.
Sometimes you see a little ragged girl and pass by without really noticing her and then suddenly realise that she is much prettier than a princess.
But there was something much more important. Remember, the doll that belonged to Tutti the Heir had terrible holes in her chest.
Now they had disappeared!
This was a very happy, healthy doll.
But Doctor Caspar didn't notice a thing.
Perhaps in another moment or two he would have seen the difference, but just then someone knocked.
Everything became still more confused.
A Negro entered the carnival wagon.
The doll jumped.
The animal in the cage spat, even though it wasn't a cat.
We know who the Negro was.
Doctor Caspar knew, too, since he was the one who had changed Tibul into a Negro.
But no one else knew the secret.
The confusion lasted a full five minutes.
The Negro behaved most strangely.
He lifted up the doll and began kissing its cheeks and nose, but the cheeks and nose kept turning this way and that to get out of his way. It was as if he were trying to bite an apple on a string.
Old August closed his eyes and, sick with fear, swayed back and forth like a Chinese emperor deciding whether to chop off a criminal's head or make him eat a mouse without any sugar on it.
The doll's slipper came off and hit the oil lamp.
The overturned lamp went out.
It became very dark and still more terrifying.
Then everyone noticed it was nearly dawn.
The cracks in the door let in pale strips of light.
"It's dawn already," the doctor said. "I have to set out for the Palace of the Three Fat Men and bring them Tutti the Heir's doll."
The Negro pushed open the door.
The grey light of morning filled the room.
August sat as before with his eyes closed.
The doll was hiding behind the curtain.
Doctor Caspar quickly told Tibul about all that had happened.
He told him about the doll that belonged to Tutti the Heir, of how it had vanished and how he had luckily come upon it here, in the carnival wagon.
The doll was listening to their conversation from behind the curtain, but it didn't make any sense to her.
"He called him Tibul!" she thought in wonder. "That's not Tibul.
That's a very strange and awful man.
Tibul doesn't look a bit like him."