she had lost a slipper.

"I don't see how I could manage it," she said. "I seem to have lost a
slipper. One of the pretty glass ones. But there, you don't know
about that." She aroused herself and began looking about for her old
slippers. She looked here and there. She found them at last under the
bed. She took them into her hands and turned them over and over,
regarding them sadly. Then without seeming cause she started guiltily
and fixed her gaze on the door through which her sisters had made their
entrance and exit.

"Some one is coming!" she whispered excitedly,

Everychild sprang to his feet.

"It's my mother, I think," added Cinderella. "I'm afraid there'll be
trouble. Please run away. No, I don't think I could go with you,
after all."

Everychild stood undecided an instant; and then he could see the inner
door opening. He would have run away, then, but it was too late; and
Cinderella seized him by the arm. It was plain that she was trying to
think of a place where he might hide.

He knew what to do in a second. He dropped to the floor and rolled
under Cinderella's bed! From his hiding-place under the bed he saw the
door open wide and a very pompous-appearing matron enter the room.

This was Cinderella's mother, who began immediately, in a rage: