"Grannie, dear," interrupted the little girl in her eagerness, "I don't see that you need mind. Why, he asks it as a favour of you."
"That is only Sir James's nice way of putting it," said Mrs. Russell, who was a very keen and far-seeing old lady.
"Then you'll put it nicely to him back again, won't you, Grannie dear, and say 'Yes'?"
And to little Ella's delight, be it said, her grandmother wrote off that self-same day accepting with gratitude Sir James Crofton's generous offer.
Farley House was situated some four or five miles distant, and was the very school, in fact, which Gertie and Marcia Snowden attended.
The Christmas holidays were now drawing to a close, and with them Dr. Carteret's visit to the Hall. Before leaving, he bade good-bye to Mrs. Russell and Ella, the child being actually in tears at the idea of his going away.
The four young Snowdens' regret was very real also, the boys declaring it "a horrid shame" that he had to leave so soon.
A few days after his departure there came to Rose Cottage a large parcel, delivered by the London carrier, and addressed to "Miss Ella Russell."
Eagerly the child cut the string, and when the paper was removed, she discovered a cardboard box, on which these words were inscribed—
"CINDERELLA,
"From her FAIRY GODMOTHER."