would not go fast enough, hastened them by reaching up and smoothing them
away with her finger.

"Now," she said, setting her head to the side, "what a nice sweet Great
Brother! Let him sit down here on the great chair."

So I sat down, well pleased enough, not knowing what mischief the
pranksome maid had now in her head, but judging that the matter might
turn out well for me.

Then Helene stole round to the back of the chair, and, taking me by the
ears, she gave first one and then the other of them a pull.

"That," she said, pulling the right, "is for listening to the little cat
over the way that squalls on the tiles! And _that_" (giving the other a
sound tug) "is for being a dandiprat when my gossip Katrin was here!"

She paused a moment as if to summon courage, and then she stooped quickly
and kissed me on the neck.

"And _that_ for Michael Texel!" she cried, and ran out of the room before
I could get clear of the wide arms of the chair, and so run after and
catch her.

She turned in the doorway and wafted me a kiss from her finger-tips,
airily and a little mockingly.

"That for Hugo Gottfried!" she said, and was off to her own chamber with
the _frou-frou_ of a light skirt, the slam of a door, and the shooting
of a bolt.