The next evening the two sisters went to the ball, and Cinderella also, who was still more splendidly dressed than before. Her enjoyment was even greater than at the first ball, and she was so occupied with the Prince's tender sayings that she was not so quick in marking the progress of time.
To her alarm she heard the clock strike twelve. She fled from the ball-room; but in a moment the coach changed again to a pumpkin, the horses to mice, the coachman and postilion to rats, the footmen to lizards, and Cinderella's beautiful dress to her old shabby clothes.
In her haste she dropped one of her glass slippers, and reached home, out of breath, with none of her godmother's fairy gifts but one glass slipper.
When her sisters arrived after the ball, they spoke in terms of rapture of the unknown Princess, and told Cinderella about the little glass slipper she had dropped, and how the Prince picked it up. It was evident to all the Court that the Prince was determined if possible, to find out the owner of the slipper; and a few days afterwards a royal herald proclaimed that the King's son would marry her whose foot the glass slipper should be found exactly to fit.