"Very much! oh, very much!"
Little Ellen looked at her companion's rising colour, with a glance of mixed curiosity and pleasure, in which lay a strong promise of growing love.
"So do I," she answered, gaily; "I am very glad she is come, and I am very glad you are come, too."
The little speaker pushed open a door, and led Ellen into the presence of a group of young people, rather older than themselves.
"Marianne," said she to one of them, a handsome girl of fourteen, "this is Miss Ellen Montgomery she came with Alice, and she is come to keep Christmas with us aren't you glad? There'll be quite a parcel of us when what's-her-name comes won't there?"
Marianne shook hands with Ellen.
"She is one of grandpapa's guests, I can tell you," said little Ellen Chauncey; "and he says we must brush up our country manners she's come from the great city."
"Do you think we are a set of ignoramuses, Miss Ellen?" inquired a well-grown boy of fifteen, who looked enough like Marianne Gillespie to prove him her brother.
"I don't know what that is," said Ellen.
"Well, do they do things better in the great city than we do here?"