GORGEOUS APPAREL IS CHANGED INTO THE DRESS OF A CINDER-WENCH, AND HER
SPLENDID EQUIPAGE INTO A PUMPKIN, RATS, MICE AND LIZARDS.]

The sentinels at the palace gate were closely questioned as to whether
they had not seen a princess coming out; but they answered they had seen
no one except a shabbily dressed girl, who appeared to be a peasant
rather than a young lady.

On this second night, as you have taken notice, dazzled by worldly show
and the pleasing flattery of her royal lover, Cinderella over-stays her
time, and is compelled to make her way back to her father's house on
foot and in rags--an everlasting lesson to all the pretty little
Cinderellas in the world to keep their word, and to act in good faith by
such as befriend them. Never mind--her heart is in the right place--she
is a charming good creature; and although virtue goes home in rags, it
will leave some token behind--some foot-print by which it can be known
and traced wherever it has once walked. We shall hear from that little
lost glass slipper again!

[Illustration: CINDERELLA RETURNED SHABBILY DRESSED.]

When the two sisters returned from the ball, Cinderella asked them
whether they had been well entertained; and whether the beautiful lady
was there? They replied, that she was; but that she had run away as soon
as midnight had struck, and so quickly as to drop one of her dainty
glass slippers, which the king's son had picked up, and was looking at
most fondly during the remainder of the ball; indeed, it seemed beyond a
doubt that he was deeply enamored of the beautiful creature to whom it
belonged.