"You can't think, my dear, how they become you!" exclaimed the old woman.
"Come, let me lace them up for you."
Snow-White suspected nothing, and let her do as she wished, but the old woman laced her up so quickly and so tightly that all her breath went, and she fell down like one dead.
"Now," thought the old woman to herself, hastening away, "now am I once more the most beautiful of all!"
At eventide, not long after she had left, the seven Dwarfs came home, and were much frightened at seeing their dear little maid lying on the ground, and neither moving nor breathing, as if she were dead.
They raised her up, and when they saw that she was laced too tight they cut the stays to pieces, and presently she began to breathe again, and little by little she revived.
When the Dwarfs now heard what had taken place, they said, "The old pedler woman was no other than your wicked stepmother. Take more care of yourself, and let no one enter when we are not with you."
Meanwhile, the Queen had reached home, and, going before her mirror, she repeated her usual words:
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"
and it replied as before: "The Queen was fairest yesterday; Snow-White is fairest now, they say. The Dwarfs protect her from thy sway Amid the forest, far away."