onished me, before I consulted the book, was the omission on the
stage of the striking dramatic climax,--especially striking, because a
clock is involved in it,--of _Cinderella's_ story.

Illustration: Portrait of Cinderella "Palmer quae meruit." A Minnie-ture.

Could I believe my eyes, when, after a magnificent ball-room scene,
where the colours are grouped with consummate skill and taste, I saw the
handsome prince Miss ROBINA _remplacante_ of Miss VIOLET CAMERON, lead
to her place in the centre of that glittering throng the _petite et
petillante Cinderella_ in her Court dress, wearing her little glass
slippers (very little slippers, and very little glass), and then,
nothing happened, except that the next Scene descended, and hid them
from view.

But, Heavens! had the Clock in the Palace Yard stopped? Had its works
got out of order? Had it followed the example of the Dock and Gasmen,
and "struck," by refusing to strike? Ah! "Inventor and Producer," Ah!
Mr. H. J. LESLIE, "Ah!" to everyone who had a hand in this sacrilege;
"Ah!" on behalf of Messrs. RICHARD and HENRY, who could not have yielded
this point except under a strong protest,--please restore this. We would
all of us from eight years old (permitted by home licence to go to
theatres at night during Christmas holidays), and up to over fifty
(compelled to go to look after the others, and delighted to do so)--we
would all of us rather hear the clock strike twelve, see _Cinderella_ in
rags, running for bare life, see the Prince in despair at the flight of
his partner, on whose card his name was down for sixteen more valses and
galops, than witness a black-and-white dance, with fans, pretty in
itself, and set to very pretty Solomonesque music, but meaningless as
regards plot.

Here is the stage-direction--"_At the end of song_"--which should have
been a national song, by Mr. CLEMENT SCOTT, but wasn't--in fact, there
was no song at all, as well as I can remember, though I rather think the
crowd were always more or less singing a chorus,--"_clock strikes_." If
it did, I didn't hear it. If it did, why didn't the characters behave as
sich, and on _Cinderella's_ saying what the authors have written, and
which I am positive I didn't hear,

"What shall I do? the hour has struck at last!
I hope to goodness that that clock's too fast!"

why didn't they execute a "_Hurried Gallop_," and why wasn't the
stage-direction, "_The Ball breaks up_,"--the printer prefers "