I
"Madam, have you lost a slipper?" I asked politely. I held toward her the dainty shoe that might very well have appareled the foot of Venus; only one can not quite lift the imagination to the point of picturing Venus rising out of the Cyprian wave in a pair of ball-room slippers.
"I am not yet addressed as madam," said she, calmly drawing her skirts about her feet, which were already securely hidden.
"Not yet? Ah, that is very fortunate, indeed. I see I am not too late."
"Sir!"
But I saw no anger on her face. There was, however, a mixture of amusement, hauteur (that darling word of the lady novelists!) and objection. She hadn't the least idea who I was, and I was not going to tell her for some time to come. I was a prodigal, with a few new ideas.
"I meant nothing more serious than that you might happen to be Cinderella," said I. "What in the world should I do with Cinderella's slipper, once she was married to the prince?"
She swayed her fan indolently, but made no effort to rise. I looked upon this as rather encouraging.
"It would be somewhat embarrassing to ask a married woman if she were Cinderella," I proceeded.
"I should not particularize," she observed; "married or single, it would be embarrassing."
She was charming; a Watteau shepherdess in a fashionable ball-gown. She was all alone in the nook at the farther end of the conservatory; and I was glad. Her eyes were brown, with a glint of gold around the pupils, a kaleidoscopic iris, as it were. She possessed one of those adorable chins that defy the future to double them; smooth and round, such as a man delights to curve his palm under; and I might search the several languages I know to describe fitly her red mouth. Her hair was the color of a fallen maple-leaf, a rich, soft, warm October brown, streaked with red. Patience! You may laugh, but, for my part, give me a dash of red above the alabaster brow of a pretty woman. It is a mute language which speaks of a sparkling intellect; and whenever I seek the exhilaration that rises from a witty conflict, I find me a woman with a glimmer of red in her hair.
"Well, sir?" said she, breaking in upon my train of specific adjectives.
"Pardon me! I was thinking how I should describe you were I a successful novelist, which I declare I am not."
"You certainly have all the assurance of a writer of books, to speak to me in this manner."
"My assurance is based wholly upon the possession of a truant slipper. I am bold; but the end justifies the means,"—having in mind her foot.
Her shoulders drew together and fell.
"I am searching for the Cinderella who has lost a slipper; and I am going to call you Cinderella till I have proof that you are not she whom I seek."
"It is very kind of you," she replied, with a hint of sunshine struggling at the corners of her lips. "Have I ever met you before?"—puzzling her arched brows.
"Memory does not follow reincarnation," I answered owlishly; "but I dare say that I often met you at the Temple of Venus in the old, old days."
She appeared slightly interested.
"What, may I ask, was your business in the old, old days?"
"I played the cithern."
"And I?"
"I believe you distributed flowers."
"Do you know the hostess?"—with solemn eyes.
"Oh, yes; though she hasn't the slightest recollection of me. But that's perfectly natural. At affairs like this the hostess recalls familiarly to her mind only those who sat at her dinner-table earlier in the evening. All other invitations are paid obligations."
"You possess some discernment, at least."
"Thank you."
"But I wish I knew precisely what you are about,"—her eyes growing critical in their examination.
"I am seeking Cinderella," once more holding out the slipper. Then I looked at my watch. "It is not yet twelve o'clock."
"You are, of course, a guest here,"—ruminating, "else you could not have passed the footman at the door."
"Mark my attire; or, candidly, do I look like a footman?"
"No-o; I can't say you do; but in Cinderella, don't you know, the footman carried the slipper."
"Oh, I'm the prince," I explained easily; "I dismissed the footman at the door."
"Cinderella," she mused. She nestled her feet, and looked thoughtfully at her delicate hands. I could see she was at that instant recalling the picture of Cinderella and the ash-heap.
"What was the prince's name?"
"In this case it is just a prince of good fellows."
"I should like some witnesses." She gazed at me curiously, but there was no distrust in her limpid eye, as clear and moteless as Widow Wadman's.
"Isn't it fine," I cried with a burst of confidence, "to possess the courage to speak to strangers?"
"It is equally courageous to listen," was the retort.
"I knew I should like you!"—with enthusiasm.
She stirred uneasily. It might have been that her foot had suddenly grown chilled. A storm was whirling outside, and the pale, shadowy flakes of snow brushed the windows.
I approached her, held up the slipper and contemplated it with wrinkled brow. She watched me covertly. What a slipper! So small and dainty was it, so light and airy, that had I suddenly withdrawn my hand I verily believe it would have floated. It was part satin and part skin, and the light, striking the inner side of it, permeated it with a faint, rosy glow.
"What a darling thing it is!"—unable to repress my honest admiration. "Light as one of those snowflakes out yonder in the night. What a proud arch the instep has! Ah, but it is a high-bred shoe, fit to tread on the heart of any man. Lovely atom!"
She stirred again. I went on:
"It might really belong to a princess, but only in a fairy-book; for all the princesses I have ever seen couldn't put a hand in a shoe like this, much less a foot. And when I declare to you, upon my honor, that I have met various princesses in my time, you will appreciate the compliment I pay to Cinderella."
The smile on her lips wavered and trembled, like a puff of wind on placid water, and was gone.
"Leave it," she said, melting, "and be gone."
"I couldn't. It wouldn't be gallant at all, don't you know. The prince himself put the slipper on Cinderella."
"But this is a modern instance, and a prosaic world. Men are no longer gallants, but business men or club gossips; and you do not look like a business man."
"I never belonged to a club in my life."
"You do not look quite so unpopular as all that."
A witty woman! To be pretty and witty at the same time—the gifts of Minerva and Venus in lavishment!
"Besides, it is all very improper," she added.
"The shoe?" I cried.
"No; the shoe is proper enough."
"You admit it, then!"—joyfully.
"I refer to the dialogue between two persons who have not been introduced."
"Convention! Formality! Detestable things, always setting Romance at arm's length, and making Truth desire to wear fashionable clothes."
"Nevertheless, this is improper," she repeated.
"Why, it doesn't matter at all," I said negligently. "We both have been invited to this house to dance; that is to say, our hostess would not invite any objectionable persons. What you mean to say is, unconventional. And I hate convention and formality."
"Are you a poet, then?"—with good-natured derision.
"Oh, no; I have an earning capacity and a pleasant income."
She really laughed this time; and I vaguely recalled pearls and coral and murmuring brooks.
"Won't you please do that again?" I asked eagerly.
But there must have been something in my gaze that frightened Mirth away, for she frowned.
Faintly came the music from the ball-room. They were playing the waltzes from The Queen's Lace Handkerchief. The agony of an extemporization seized me.
"Strauss!" I cried, flourishing the slipper. "The blue Danube, the moonshine on the water, the tittle-tattle of the leaves, a man and woman all, all alone! Romance, love, off to the wars!..."
"It is a far cry to Cinderella," she interrupted.
"Ah, yes. Music moves me so easily."
"Indeed! It is scarcely noticeable,"—slyly.
"Are you Cinderella, then?"
"I do not say so."
"Will you dance with me to prove it one way or the other?"
"Certainly not,"—rather indignantly.
"Why not?"
"There are any number of reasons," she replied.
"Name just one."
"I do not know you."
"You ought to,"—with a double meaning which went for nothing.
"My angle of vision obscures that idea."
"If you will stand up...." I hesitatingly suggested.
"I am perfectly comfortable where I am,"—with an oblique glance at the doorway.
"I am convinced that you are the Cinderella; I can not figure it out otherwise."
"Do not figure at all; simply leave the shoe."
"It is too near twelve o'clock for that. Besides, I wish to demolish the pumpkin theory. It's all tommy-rot about changing pumpkins into chariots, unless you happen to be a successful pie-merchant."
She bit her lips and tapped her cheek with the fan. (Did I mention the bloomy cheeks?)
"Perhaps I am only one of Cinderella's elder sisters."
"That would be very unfortunate. You will recollect that the elder sisters cut off their—"
"Good gracious!"
"Cut off their toes in the mad effort to capture the prince," I continued.
"But I am not trying to capture any prince, not even a fairy prince; and I wouldn't—"
"Cut off your toes?" I suggested.
"Prolong this questionable conversation, only—"
"You can not stop it till you have the shoe," I said.
"Only," she went on determinedly, "I am so comfortable here that I do not care to return to the ball-room just at present."
"I never expected such a full compliment;" and I made her my most engaging bow.
"I am afraid you will have to cut off your toes to get into that shoe,"—maliciously.
"I could expect no less than that from you. You keep coming closer to my ideal every moment."
She shrugged disdainfully and assumed a bored expression that did not deceive me in the least.
"Since you are so determined to continue this dialogue, go and fetch some one you know. An introduction is absolutely necessary." She seemed immovable on this point.
"And the moment I turned my back—presto! away would go Cinderella, and I should be in the dark as much as ever regarding the pumpkins. No, I thank you. Be good, and confess that you are Cinderella."
"Sir, this really ceases to be amusing." Her fan closed with a snap.
"It was serious the moment I entered and saw you," I replied frankly.
"I ought to be annoyed excessively. You are a total stranger; I declare that I never saw you before in all my life. It is true that we are guests in the same house, but that does not give privilege to this particular annoyance. Here I am, talking to you as if it were distinctly proper."
"I can not say that you have put your foot in it yet,"—having recourse to the slipper again. I was having a fine time.
She smiled in spite of the anger which sparkled in her eyes. Of course, if she became downright angry I should tell who I was, only it would spoil everything.
"And you do not know me?" I said dejectedly. "Do you mean to tell me that you have never dreamed of any Prince Charming?"
"I can not say I have,"—icily.
A flock of young persons came in noisily, but happily they contented themselves with the bowl of lemon-punch at the other end of the conservatory.
I sat down in the Roman chair which stood at the side of the window-seat. I balanced the slipper on the palm of my hand. Funny, isn't it, how much a woman will put up with rather than walk about in her stockings. And I wasn't even sure that she had lost a slipper! I wondered, too, where all her dancing partners were.
"You say you do not know me," I began. "Let me see,"—narrowing my eyes as one does who attempts to recall a dim and shadowy past. "Didn't you wear your hair in two plaits down your back?"
"That is regular; it is still the custom; it proves nothing."
"Let me recall a rambling old garret where we used to hold shows."
Her fan opened again, and the tendrils at her temples moved gently.
"Once we played the Sleeping Beauty, and you said that I should always be Prince Charming. How easily we forget!"
She inclined forward a bit. There were signs of reviving interest. She began to scrutinize me; hitherto she had surveyed and examined me.
"Once—"
"Say 'Once upon a time'; all fairy stories begin that way."
"Thank you; I stand corrected. Well, once upon a time you fell down these same garret stairs; and if you will lift that beautiful lock of hair from your right temple I shall see a scar. I am sure of your identity."
Unconsciously her hand strayed to her temple, and dropped.
"Whoever you are, you seem acquainted with certain youthful adventures. But some one might have told you these things, thinking to annoy me." Then the light in her eyes grew dim with the struggle of retrospection, the effort to pierce the veil of absent years, and to place me among the useless, forgotten things of youth, or rather childhood. "No, I can not place you. Please tell me who you are, if I have ever known you."
"Not just now. Mystery arouses a woman's curiosity, and I frankly confess that I wish to arouse yours. You are nearly, if not quite, twenty-four."
"One does not win a woman's interest by telling her her age."
"But I add that you do not look it."
"That is better. Now, let me see the slipper," holding out her hand.
"To no one but Cinderella. I'd be a nice prince, wouldn't I, to surrender the slipper without finding Cinderella!"
"In these days no woman would permit you to put on her slipper, unless you were her husband or her brother."
"No? Then I have a much perverted idea of society."
"And,"—passing over my remark, "she would rather sit in a corner all the evening."
"But think of the fun you are missing!"
"To be frank with you, I am not missing very much fun. I was at a dance last night, and the novelty begins to pall."
"At least, then, you will admit that I have proved a diversion."
"It will cost me nothing to admit that; but I think you are rude not to tell me right away who you are."
She looked out of the blurred windows. Her profile was beautiful to contemplate, and perhaps she knew it.
"Why don't you seek a footman," she asked, after a pause, "and have him announce that you have found a slipper?"
"Have you no more regard for romance than that?"
"You said that I was twenty-four years old. I have less regard for romance than for propriety."
"There you go again, battening down the hatches of convention! I am becoming discouraged."
"Is it possible? I have long since been."
She had always been a match for me.
Enter upon the scene (as they say in the play-books) a flurried partner, rather young and tender to be thrown in company with twenty-four years of sparkling femininity. Well, that was his affair; I didn't propose to warn him.
"Oh, here you are!" he cried, brightening. "I've been looking for you everywhere,"—making believe that something was the matter with his gloves.
"Do you know this gentleman?" she asked, pointing to me with her fan.
I felt a nervous tremor. I wondered if she had been waiting for a moment like this.
The young fellow held out his hand; his smile was pleasant and inquiring.
"Wait a moment," she interrupted wickedly. "I am not introducing you. I am simply asking you if you know him."
Wasn't this a capital revenge?
"I ... I can't say that I ever saw the gentleman before," he stammered, mightily bewildered. Then all at once his face grew red with anger. He even balled his fists. "Has he dared—"
"No, no! I only wished to know if you knew him. Since you do not there is nothing more to be done about it."
"But if he has insulted—"
"Sh! That's not a nice word to hear in a conservatory," she warned.
"But I do not understand."
"It is not necessary. If you do not take me instantly to the ball-room you will lose the best part of the dance."
She rose, and then I saw two little blue slippers peeping out from under the silken skirts.
"You might have told me," I said reproachfully. "And now I do not believe any other Cinderella will do. Young man," said I, holding out the slipper for his inspection, "I was just paying this lady the very great compliment of thinking that this might be her shoe."
"And it isn't," she returned. "Now, in honor to yourself, what is my name?"
"You are Nancy Marsden."
"And you?"
"Your humble servant,"—bending.
"I shall soon find out."
"It is quite possible."
And then, with a hand on her escort's arm, she laughed, and walked (or should I say glided? It seems a sacrilege to say that so enchanting a creature walked) out of the conservatory, leaving me gazing ruefully and mournfully at the little white slipper in my hand.
Now, where in the world was Cinderella?