"He was
quite beside himself with grief," said the elder sister, "for there is
no doubt he hoped to make her his bride."
Cinderella listened in silence to all they had to say, and, slipping
her hand into her pocket, felt that the one remaining glass slipper
was safe, for it was the only thing of all her grand apparel that
remained to her.
On the following morning there was a great noise of trumpets and
drums, and a procession passed through the town, at the head of
which rode the King's son. Behind him came a herald, bearing a velvet
cushion, upon which rested a little glass slipper. The herald blew a
blast upon the trumpet, and then read a proclamation saying that the
King's son would wed any lady in the land who could fit the slipper
upon her foot, if she could produce another to match it.
Of course, the sisters tried to squeeze their feet into the slipper,
but it was of no use--they were much too large. Then Cinderella shyly
begged that she might try. How the sisters laughed with scorn when the
Prince knelt to fit the slipper on the cinder-maid's foot; but what
was their surprise when it slipped on with the greatest ease, and the
next moment Cinderella produced the other from her pocket.
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