HEIDI
mal manner she had been ordered to use by Fräulein Rottenmeier.
Sebastian looked surprised and said somewhat curtly, “What is it you want, miss?”
“I only wished to ask you something, but it is nothing bad like this morning,” said Heidi, anxious to conciliate him, for she saw that Sebastian was rather in a cross temper, and quite thought that it was on account of the ink she had spilt on the floor.
“Indeed, and why, I should first like to know, do you address me like that?” replied Sebastian, evidently still put out.
“Fräulein Rottenmeier told me always to speak to you like that,” said Heidi.
Then Sebastian laughed, which very much astonished Heidi, who had seen nothing amusing in the conversation, but Sebastian, now he understood that the child was only obeying orders, added in a friendly voice, “What is it then that miss wants?”
It was now Heidi’s turn to be a little put out, and she said, “My name is not miss, it is Heidi.”
“Quite so, but the same lady has ordered me to call you miss,” explained Sebastian.
“Has she? Oh, then I must be called so," said Heidi submissively, for she had already noticed that whatever Fräulein Rottenmeier said was law. “Then now I have three names,” she added with a sigh.
“What was it little miss wished to ask?" said Sebastian as he went on into the dining-room to put away his silver.
“How can a window be opened?”
[120]
