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 their carriage
had driven away, the Godmother appeared. Once more she touched her
godchild with her wand, and in a moment she was arrayed in a beautiful
dress that seemed as though it had been woven of moon-beams and
sunshine, so radiantly did it gleam and shimmer.
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