When they spoke there were convulsive titters among the guests for the voices of the cruel step-sisters were those of Nora and Hippy.

Anne read the lines of Cinderella so plaintively that Mrs.Gray shed a secret tear or two when Cinderella was left alone in the gloomy old kitchen.

When the fairy godmother appeared, in a peaked red hat and a long red cape, it was Jessica who spoke the lines in a sweet, musical voice.

How Cinderella rolled out the pumpkin and displayed six white mice in a trap, and how, after a brief interval of total darkness, could be seen through the open door a coach of gold in which sat Cinderella in a silken gown, need not be related here.

It all took place without a single slip and the dolls went through their parts with such funny life-like motions that the boys and girls forgot they were not watching real actors.
It was the scene of the ballroom, however, which was the real triumph of the evening.
"How did those clever children ever do it ?" exclaimed Mrs.Gray, aloud, when the curtain rolled back and disclosed the ballroom of the palace, with a drop curtain at the back showing a vista of marble columns and pillars.