so great was
the sensation produced by the stranger's beauty. A confused murmur of
admiration fluttered through the crowd, and each was fain to exclaim
"How surpassingly lovely she is!" Even the king, old as he was, could
not forbear admiring her like the rest, and whispered to the queen, that
she was certainly the fairest and comeliest woman he had seen for many a
long day. The ladies were all busy examining her head-dress and her
clothes, in order to get similar ones the very next day, if, indeed,
they could meet with stuffs of such rich patterns, and find workwomen
clever enough to make them up.

[Illustration]

After leading her to the place to which her rank seemed to entitle her,
the king's son requested her hand for the next dance, when she displayed
so much grace as to increase the admiration her beauty had raised in the
first instance. An elegant supper was next brought in, but the young
prince was so taken up with gazing at the fair stranger, that he did not
partake of a morsel. Cinderella went and sat by her sisters, sharing
with them the oranges and citrons the prince had offered her, much to
their surprise, as they did not recognise her in the least.

When Cinderella heard the clock strike three-quarters past eleven, she
made a low curtsey to the whole assembly, and retired in haste. On
reaching home, she found her godmother, and after thanking her for the
treat she had enjoyed, she ventured to express a wish to return to the
ball on the following evening, as the prince had requested her to do.
She was still relating to her godmother all that had happened at court,
when her two sisters knocked at the door. Cinderella went and let them
in, pretending to yawn and stretch herself, and rub her eyes, and
saying: "How late you are!" just as if she was woke up out of a nap,
though, truth to say, she had never felt less disposed to sleep in her
life. "If you had been to the ball," said one of the sisters, "you would
not have thought it late. There came the most beautiful princess ever
seen, who loaded us with polite attentions, and gave us oranges and
citrons."

Cinderella could scarcely contain her delight, and inquired the name of
the princess. But they replied that nobody knew her name, and that the
king's son was in great trouble about her, and would give the world to
know who she could be. "Is she, then, so very beautiful?" said
Cinderella, smiling. "Lord! how I should like to see her! Oh, do, my
Lady Ja