“Is that true?” Harriot insisted.
“Yes, honey,” Miss Imogene replied. “I dropped it as I was getting into our coach when we went home after the Militia Ball. Dear me, how long ago that seems!”
“And didn’t you ever get it back?” Harriot questioned.
“No, not that one, but the next day a little glass slipper came, filled with sweet hearts,” Miss Imogene answered with the most charming of smiles.
“We’ve seen it on your dressing-table!” the two girls cried delightedly.
“Yes, that is the very one,” Miss Imogene confessed. “And there was a bit of verse with it. Let’s see if I remember it.” She looked up at the ceiling a moment, her eyes half closed as if she could see there the picture she brought back in her mind.
“Ah, now I know. It went like this:
‘Accept, fair lady, in exchange
For one I hold,
This crystal slipper filled with hearts