Cinderella (12)

Cinderella (12)

At court, when Cinderella appeared at the festival in this dress, everyone was astonished at her beauty.

The king's son was always by her, and never ceased his compliments and kind speeches to her.
The Prince said to her, " Tonight, I will go along and escort you to your house," for he wanted to see to whom the beautiful girl belonged. 

 All this was so far from being tiresome to her, and, indeed, she quite forgot what her godmother had told her.

She thought that it was no later than eleven when she counted the clock striking twelve.

" Oh, no !" she gasped.
" It's midnight. I must go ! "
She jumped up and fled, as nimble as a deer.

"Wait ! Come back ! " called the Prince.
He followed, but could not overtake her.

Cinderella hurried down the palace steps.
With so much haste she left behind one of her glass slippers, the prettiest in the world.
But she had no time to pick it up.
She hurried through the palace gates. 

The prince picked one of the glass slippers up most carefully.

The guards at the palace gate were asked if they had not seen a princess go out.
They replied that they had seen nobody leave but a young girl, very shabbily dressed.

Cinderella reached home, but quite out of breath, and in her nasty old clothes, having nothing left of all her finery but one of the little glass slippers, the mate to the one that she had dropped at the palace.   

(12/15)