J. M. Barrie

“ It is MARIE-THERESE’S great hour; she passes her ring to Cinderella, who is married in it. Triumphant music swells out as a crown is put upon our Princess’s head, and an extraordinary long train attached to her person. Her husband and she move dreamily round the ball-room, the children holding up the train. LORD TIMES with exquisite taste falls in behind them. Then follow the courtiers, all dreamily; and completing the noble procession is the LORD MAYOR, holding aloft on a pole an enormous penny. ”

“ The tears have been disposed of with a lick of the palm. She is again a valiant soul who has had too many brushes with the police not to be able to face another with a tight lip. She is going, but she is not going without her wooden board; law or no law she cannot do without wooden boards. She gets it from a corner where it has been artfully concealed. An imprudent glance at the Venus again dispirits her. ”

“ It is especially charming to see the last of LORD TIME’S sieve unbend. The music becomes irresistible. If you did not dance you would be abandoned by your legs. It is as if a golden coin had been dropped into a golden slot. ”

“ It seems to come from a policeman’s lantern. The gold is all washed out by the odd streaks of white that come down like rain. Soon [101] the PRINCE’S cry of ‘CINDERELLA, CINDERELLA’ dies away. It is no longer a ball-room on which the lantern sheds this feeble ray. It is the street outside CINDERELLA’S door, a white street now, silent in snow. The child in her rags, the policeman’s scarf still round her precious feet, is asleep on the door step, very little life left in her, very little oil left in the lantern. ”

“ Mr. Bodie, you haven’t by any chance got an invite for to-night, have you?
BODIE. What for?
CINDERELLA (as still as the Venus) . For—for a ball.
BODIE. There are no balls in war-time.
CINDERELLA (dogged) . Just the one. Mr. Bodie, did you ever see the King?
BODIE. The King? Several times.
CINDERELLA (as white as the Venus) . ”

“ Why should you, you queer little waif. Do you know why I call you Cinderella?
CINDERELLA. Fine, I know.
BODIE. Why is it?
CINDERELLA (with shy happiness) . It’s because I have such pretty feet.
BODIE. You dear little innocent. (He thinks shame of his suspicions. He is planning how to get rid of the man in the pantry when she brings him back to hard facts with a bump.) ”

“ The children gather round her with little cries, and, spreading out their nightgowns to conceal her, rush her from the scene. It is then that the PRINCE discovers his loss. In a frenzy he calls her sweet name. The bewildered girl has even forgotten to drop the slipper, without which he shall never find her. MARIE-THERESE, the ever-vigilant, steals back with it, and leaves it on the floor.
The ball-room is growing dark. The lamps have gone out. There is no light save the tiniest glow, which has been showing on the floor all the time, unregarded by us. ”

“ CINDERELLA (as she prepares the lather) . Is the streets quiet?
POLICEMAN (cunningly) . Hereabouts they are; but there’s great doings in the fashionable quarters. A ball, I’m told.
CINDERELLA (gasping) . You didn’t see no peculiar person about in this street?
POLICEMAN. How peculiar?
CINDERELLA. Like a—a flunkey?
POLICEMAN. Did I now—or did I not?
CINDERELLA (eagerly) . He would be carrying an invite maybe; it’s a big card.
POLICEMAN. I can’t say I saw him.
(Here an astonishing thing happens. The head of a child rises from one of the boxes. She is unseen by either of the mortals.) ”

“ MARION. Can I come in now and again at a time?
CINDERELLA. I’ll be glad to see you—if I’m here.
[50]
MARION. I’ll be slipping away now; he’s waking up. (She puts down her penny.)
CINDERELLA. I’m not doing it for no penny.
MARION. You’ve got to take it. That’s my pride. But—I wish you well, Cinders.
CINDERELLA. I like you. I wish you would wish me luck. Say ‘Good luck to you to-night, Cinderella.’
MARION. Why to-night?
(The little waif, so practical until now, is afire inside again. She needs a confidant almost as much as Marion.)
CINDERELLA (hastily) . You see—
(The man sits up.) ”

“ And, my dear, don’t be always Doctor Bodieing me. That, of course, at the Home, and on duty, but here in my house you are my guest. I am Miss Bodie to you here. Don’t let me forget that I am a woman. I assure you I value that privilege. (She lingers over Cinderella’s [120] pillow.) Dear, you must invite Nurse and Danny to tea with you, and all be happy together. Little Cinderella, if I will do as a substitute, you haven’t altogether lost your Godmother. ”

“ As the exquisite nature of the sight thus vouchsafed to him penetrates his being a tremor passes through his frame; his vices take flight from him and the virtues enter. It is a heady wakening, and he falls at her feet. The courtiers are awkward, not knowing whether they should fall also. CINDERELLA beams to the children, who utter ribald cries of triumph.)
KING (rotating on his strap) . Give him air! Fill your lungs, my son!
QUEEN (on hers) . My boy! My boy!
LORD MAYOR (quickly taking the royal cue) . Oh, lady fair!
[91]
(The PRINCE’S palpitations increase in violence.) ”

“ It becomes too merry to last; couples are whirled through the walls as if the floor itself were rotating: soon CINDERELLA and her PRINCE dance alone. It is then that the clock begins to strike twelve. ”

“ Though no one speaks of MR. BODIE’S pictures as Bodies, which is the true test of fame, he is [4] sufficiently eminent not to have works of art painted or scratched on his walls, mercy has been shown even to the panels of his door, and he is handsomely stingy of draperies. The Venus stands so prominent that the studio is evidently hers rather than his. The stove has been brought forward so that he can rest his feet on it, which ever of his easy chairs he is sitting in, and he also falls over it at times when stepping back to consider his latest failure. ”

“ KING (when the uproar has ceased) . All make merry! The fire is going low. (Recklessly.) In with another shilling!
(A shilling is dumped into the shilling-in-the-slot stove, which blazes up. The PRINCE puts his arm round his love.)
LORD TIMES (again remembering his day of days) . My Prince, not so fast. There is still the riddle.
PRINCE. I had forgotten.
[94]
CINDERELLA (quaking) . I was feared there would be a riddle.
KING (prompted by LORD TIMES) . Know ye all, my subjects, that before blue blood can wed there is a riddle; and she who cannot guess it— (darkly) is taken away and censored. ”

“ KING and LORD TIMES (together, but LORD TIMES [96] a little in front) . The fair Cinderella has solved the riddle!
LORD MAYOR (promptly) . Oh, fair lady!
CINDERELLA (remembering the Venus) . There’s just one thing that makes it not quite a perfect ball. I wanted Mrs. Bodie to be one of the competitors—so as I could beat her.
KING. Send for her at once. Take a taxi.
(A courtier rushes out whistling, and returns with VENUS, now imbued with life. Her arms go out wantonly to the PRINCE. He signs to the CENSOR, who takes her away and breaks her up.) ”

“ The LORD MAYOR takes it as a favour, and the courtiers gently smack each other’s faces and are very proud to be there. The PRINCE moves languidly down the line of beauties considering their points, occasionally nodding approval but more often screwing up his nose. The courtiers stand ready with nods or noses. Several ladies think they have been chosen, but he has only brought them into prominence to humiliate them ”

“ The lantern finds another object, more worthy of his attention, the artist. Mr. Bodie is more restive under the light than was his goddess, perhaps because he is less accustomed to being stared at. He blinks and sits up. ”

“ The least distinguished person in ‘Who’s Who’ has escaped, as it were, from that fashionable crush, and is spending a quiet evening at home. He is curled up in his studio, which is so dark that he would be invisible, had we not obligingly placed his wicker chair just where the one dim ray from the stove may strike his face. ”

“ CINDERELLA. The swells think of nothing else. (Exploding.) Wait till you are at the Ball. Many a haughty beauty with superb uppers will come sailing in—as sure of the prize as if ‘Delicious’ was pinned on her—and then forward steps the Lord Mayor, and, utterly disregarding her uppers, he points to the bottom of her skirt, and he says ‘Lift!’ and she has to lift, and there’s a dead silence, and nothing to be heard except the Prince crying ‘Throw her out!’
POLICEMAN (somewhat staggered by her knowledge of the high life) . What’s all this about a ball? ”

“ Dew of the morning, garden of delight, sweet petals of enchanted nights, the heavens have opened and through the chink thou hast fallen at my feet, even as I fall at thine. Thou art not one but twain, and these the twain—Oh, pretty feet on which my lady walks, are they but feet? ”

“ She takes the muffler off her neck and winds it round her more valuable feet. She falls asleep.
Darkness comes, and snow. From somewhere behind, the shadowy figure of CINDERELLA’S Godmother, beautiful in a Red Cross Nurse’s uniform, is seen looking benignantly on the waif. CINDERELLA is just a little vague, huddled form—there is no movement. ”

“ There is a penny in the slot fireplace which has evidently been lately fed, there is a piece of carpet that has been beaten into nothingness, but is still a carpet, there is a hearth rug of brilliant rags that is probably gratified when your toes catch in it and you are hurled against the wall. ”

“ There is no spirited bidding to acquire Mr. Bodie’s canvases: he loves them at first sight himself, and has often got up in the night to see how they are faring; but ultimately he has turned cold to them, and has even been known to offer them, in lieu of alms, to beggars, who departed cursing. ”

“ The first time I woke in hospital, an angel with streamers was standing there holding a tray in her hand, and on the tray was a boiled egg. Then I thought it was the egg you get the day before you die.
[112]
BODIE. What egg is that?
CINDERELLA (who in the course of a troubled life has acquired much miscellaneous information) . In the Workhouse you always get an egg to your tea the day before you die. (She whispers.) I know now I’m not the real Cinderella. ”

“ CINDERELLA. If you tire me I’ll hold up my hand just like you do to stop the traffic. Go on, David. Just wait a moment. (She takes off his helmet and holds it to her thin breast.) Here’s a friend of mine. Now?
POLICEMAN (despairing of himself) . I wish I was a man in a book. It’s pretty the way they say it; and if ever there was a woman that [134] deserved to have it said pretty to her it’s you. I’ve been reading the books. There was one chap that could speak six languages. Jane, I wish I could say it to you in six languages, one down and another come up, till you had to take me in the end. ”

“ The room is lit by a lamp, and at first sight presents no sinister aspect unless it comes from four boxes nailed against the walls some five or six feet from the floor. In appearance they are not dissimilar to large grocery boxes, but it is disquieting to note that one of them has been [42] mended with the board we saw lately in MR. BODIE’S studio. When our POLICEMAN comes, as come we may be sure he will, the test of his acumen will be his box action.
The persons in the room at present have either no acumen or are familiar with the boxes. ”

“ DR. BODIE. She is always bright—perhaps too bright.
BODIE. Can’t be too bright.
DR. BODIE (controlling her feelings) . A girl who is found frozen in the street by a policeman and taken to a London Hospital, where she has pneumonia—poor little waif! You know, she is very frail, Dick.
BODIE. I know; but she will get better, won’t she?
(He has said it confidently, but his sister looks at him and turns away. He is startled.)
Come, Nellie, she is going to get better, isn’t she?
DR. BODIE (shaking her head) . There isn’t much chance, Dick. ”

“ He will presently wake up; but first I want to say— (here he becomes conscious of LORD TIMES) . What is it?
LORD TIMES. Less talk.
KING. Certainly. (He sits down.)
PRINCE (encouraged to his feet by various royal nudges) . My liege King and Queen-Mother, you can have the competitors brought in, and I will take a look at them; but I have no hope. My curse is this, that I am a scoffer about females. I can play with them for a idle hour and then cast them from me even as I cast this banana skin. I can find none so lovely that I may love her for aye from the depths of my passionate [82] heart. ”

“ Let us put it in this way, that he occupies more space in his wicker chair than in the book, where nevertheless he looks as if it was rather lonely not to be a genius. He is a painter for the nicest of reasons, that it is delightful to live and die in a messy studio ”

“ It is not likely that her next partner will be equal to her plumber. The two girls are left alone, both nice girls of about the same age; but the poor one has already lived so long that the other, though there may be decades before her, will never make up on CINDERELLA. It would be grand to see this waif, the moment after death, setting off stoutly on the next adventure. ”