A Modern Cinderella; Or, The Little Old Shoe, and Other StoriesAlcott, Louisa May
General
A Modern Cinderella; Or, The Little Old Shoe, and Other Stories
Alcott, Louisa May
Fiction; Short stories
At five, a. m., a nightcapped head appeared at one of the myriad
windows of the ----- Hotel, and remained there as if fascinated by the
miracle of sunrise over the sea. Under her simplicity of character and
girlish merriment Debby possessed a devout spirit and a nature full of
the real poetry of life, two gifts that gave her dawning womanhood its
sweetest charm, and made her what she was. As she looked out that
summer dawn upon the royal marriage of the ocean and the sun, all petty
hopes and longings faded out of sight, and her young face grew luminous
with thoughts too deep for words. Her day was happier for that silent
hour, her life richer for the aspirations that uplifted her like
beautiful strong angels, and left a blessing when they went. The smile
of the June sky touched her lips, the morning red seemed to linger on
her cheek, and in her eye arose a light kindled by the shimmer of that
broad sea of gold; for Nature rewarded her young votary well, and gave
her beauty, when she offered love. How long she leaned there Debby did
not know; steps from below roused her from her reverie, and led her
back into the world again. Smiling at herself, She stole to bed, and
lay wrapped in waking dreams as changeful as the shadows, dancing on
her chamber-wall.
The advent of her aunt's maid, Victorine, some two hours later, was the
signal to be "up and doing"; and she meekly resigned herself into the
hands of that functionary, who appeared to regard her in the light of
an animated pin-cushion, as she performed the toilet-ceremonies with an
absorbed aspect, which impressed her subject with a sense of the
solemnity of the occasion.
"Now, Mademoiselle, regard yourself, and pronounce that you are
ravishing," Victorine said at length, folding her hands with a sigh of
satisfaction, as she fell back in an attitude of serene triumph.
Debby obeyed, and inspected herself with great interest and some
astonishment; for there was a sweeping amplitude of array about the
young lady whom she beheld in the much-befrilled gown and embroidered
skirts, which somewhat alarmed her as to the navigation of a vessel
"with such a spread of sail," while a curious sensation of being
somebody else pervaded her from the crown of her head, with its shining
coils of hair, to the soles of the French slippers, whose energies
seemed to have been devoted to the production of marvellous rosettes.
"Yes, I look very nice, thank you; and yet I feel like a doll, helpless
and fine, and fancy I was more of a woman in my fresh gingham, with a
knot of clovers in my hair, than I am now. Aunt Pen was very kind to
get me all these pretty things; but I'm afraid my mother would look
horrified to see me in such a high state of flounce externally and so
little room to breath internally."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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