Cinderella arrived at home out of breath, without carriage or servants, in her shabby clothes. Nothing remaining of all her fleeting magnificence except one of her little glass slippers—the fellow of that she had left behind.

When the two sisters returned from the ball Cinderella asked if they had enjoyed themselves. “Certainly not!”, they replied, “The prince paid us no attention at all. He spent all his time with a princess whom no one seems to know, and who repaid his kindness by running off without so much as a goodbye.” They then reported that despite the strange princess’s abrupt departure, the prince seemed to have fallen very much in love with her.

This was indeed the case; for, a few days after, the prince, with the sound of trumpets, announced a search for the maiden whose foot would exactly fit the slipper. He declared that when the maiden was found he would ask her to be his bride.