"What sort of times?"
It was Gertie who spoke, with a slightly veiled sneer which was quite lost upon Ella.
"I don't know exactly," she answered; "only we shall be ever so happy."
"He'll put a glass slipper on Cinderella's foot, and just carry her right away," said Kenneth.
"Then I hope he won't come yet," cried little Marcia; "'cause we can't spare you. You'll have to go to school with us, won't you, Ella?"
Ella sighed a little sadly. "No," she said; "Grannie can't afford to send me to school—she's going to teach me herself."
"H'm!" muttered Rupert. "I should have thought she'd forgotten everything that she had learnt. Her schooldays were over so long ago."
"Oh, my Grannie's very clever!" said Ella loyally. "She plays upon the harp—fancy that!"
"So do I," was Rupert's calm statement.
"Master Rupert!" Here Nurse thought it was time to say a word. "How can you tell such stories?"