our coach and servants will
vanish, and you will be the little gray Cinderella once more!"

A few moments later, the coach dashed into the royal courtyard, the
door was flung open, and Cinderella alighted. As she walked slowly up
the richly-carpeted staircase, there was a murmur of admiration, and
the King's son hastened to meet her. "Never," said he to himself,
"have I seen anyone so lovely!" He led her into the ball-room, where
the King, who was much taken with her sweet face and pretty, modest
manners, whispered to the Queen that she must surely be a foreign
Princess.

The evening passed away in a dream of delight, Cinderella dancing with
no one but the handsome young Prince, and being waited on by his own
hands at supper-time. The two sisters could not recognize their ragged
little sister in the beautiful and graceful lady to whom the Prince
paid so much attention, and felt quite pleased and flattered when she
addressed a few words to them.

Presently a clock chimed the three quarters past eleven, and,
remembering her Godmother's warning, Cinderella at once took leave of
the Prince, and, jumping into her coach, was driven rapidly home. Here
she found her Godmother waiting to hear all about the ball. "It was
_lovely_," said Cinderella; "and oh! Godmother, there is to be another
to-morrow night, and I _should_ so much like to go to it!"

"Then you shall," replied the kind fairy, and, kissing her godchild
tenderly, she vanished. When the sisters returned from the ball, they
found a sleepy little maiden sitting in the chimney-corner, waiting
for them.

"How late you are!" cried Cinderella, yawning. "Are you not very
tired?"

"Not in the least," they answered, and then they told her what a
delightful ball it had been, and how the loveliest Princess in the
world had been there, and had spoken to them, and admired their pretty
dresses.

"Who was she?" asked Cinderella slyly.

"That we cannot say," answered the sisters. "She would not tell her
name, though the Prince begged her to do so on bended knee."

"Dear sister," said Cinderella, "I, too, should like to see the
beautiful Princess. Will you not lend me your old yellow gown, that I
may go to the ball to-morrow with you?"

"What!" cried her sister angrily; "lend one of my dresses to a little
cinder-maid? Don't talk nonsense, child!"

The next night, the sisters were more particular than ever about their
attire, but at last they were dressed, and as soon as