took off her ring and put it under her pillow. As she did so, she
fancied she felt a finger and thumb take it gently from under her palm.
"It must be my grandmother!" she said to herself, and the thought gave
her such courage that she stopped to put on her dainty little slippers
before running from the room. While doing this, she caught sight of a
long cloak of sky-blue, thrown over the back of a chair by her bedside.
She had never seen it before, but it was evidently waiting for her. She
put it on, and then, feeling with the forefinger of her right hand, soon
found her grandmother's thread, which she proceeded at once to
follow,
expecting it would lead her straight up the old stair. When she reached
the door, she found it went down and ran along the floor, so that she
had almost to crawl in order to keep a hold of it. Then, to her
surprise, and somewhat to her dismay, she found that instead of
leading
her toward the stair it turned in quite the opposite direction. It led
her through certain narrow passages toward the kitchen, turning aside
ere she reached it, and guiding her to a door which communicated
with a
small back yard. Some of the maids were already up, and this door was
standing open. Across the yard the thread still ran along the ground,
until it brought her to a door in the wall which opened upon the
mountain side. When she had passed through, the thread rose to about
Madhuri Noah
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