When the two sisters returned from the ball Cinderella asked them
whether they had had a good time, and if the fine lady had been there.

[Illustration]

They told her: "Yes, but she hurried away immediately when it struck
twelve, and with so much haste that she dropped one of her little glass
slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the King's son picked up;
he did nothing but look at her all the time at the ball, and most
certainly he is very much in love with the beautiful person who owned
the glass slipper."

What they said was very true; for a few days after the King's son
caused it to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would marry
her whose foot this slipper would just fit. They whom he employed began
to try it upon the princesses, then the duchesses and all the Court,
but in vain; it was brought to the two sisters, who did all they
possibly could to thrust their foot into the slipper, but they could
not effect it. Cinderella, who saw all this, and knew her slipper, said
to them, laughing:

"Let me see if it will not fit me."

Her sisters burst out a-laughing, and began to banter her. The
gentleman who was sent to try the slipper looked earnestly at
Cinderella, and, finding her very handsome, said:

"It is but just that she should try, and I have orders to let everyone
make trial."

He obliged Cinderella to sit down, and, putting the slipper to her
foot, he found it went on very easily, and fitted her as if it had been
made of wax. The astonishment her two sisters were in was excessively
great, but still abundantly greater when Cinderella pulled out of her
pocket the other slipper, and put it on her foot. Thereupon, in came
her godmother, who, having touched with her wand Cinderella's clothes,
made them richer and more magnificent than any of those she had before.

And now her two sisters found her to be that fine, beautiful lady whom
they had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet to beg
pardon for all the ill-treatment they had made her undergo. Cinderella
took them up, and, as she embraced them, cried:

"I forgive you with all my heart, and I want you to love me always."

She was conducted to the young Prince, dressed as she was; he thought
her more charming than ever, and, a few days after, married her.
Cinderella, who was no less good than beautiful, gave her two sisters
lodgings in the palace, and that very same day matched them with two
great lords of the Court.