At length the long-wished-for evening arrived, and these proud misses stepped into their carriage, and drove away to the palace.
Cinderella looked after the coach as far as she could see, and then returned to the kitchen in tears, where, for the first time, she bewailed her hard and cruel lot, little dreaming that a kind fairy was at the same moment watching over her. She continued sobbing in the chimney-corner until a rap at the door aroused her, and she got up to see what had caused it. She saw a beautiful woman who asked her: “Hey! dearee me! what are all these tears about, my child?”
And then Cinderella told her of all her griefs,—how her sisters had gone to the ball, and how she should like to have gone also.
“But you shall go,„ exclaimed her visitor. “Dry up your tears, because I am your godmother and I can help you.”
