- The next night, Ella has to have dinner with her dad. Wearing a fancy dress. Obviously, this is not going to go well.
- Sir Peter is drinking wine out of a pimpin' glass goblet. He holds it up so Ella can admire it, but she refuses to say anything beyond "it's pretty" since she knows he'll probably just sell it.
- He thinks maybe she'll appreciate the goblet more if she sips wine from it. She starts to reach for it, then gets tripped up in her dress, and the goblet breaks and spills wine everywhere. D'oh.
- Ella apologizes. Her dad snaps at her, then calms down and says they'll reconvene for dinner when they change their wine-stained clothes.
- Sir Peter says it's his fault that she's grown up to be an oaf, since he neglected her (duh).
- But this is going to have to change, since someday he'll want to take her into civilized company.
- Ella protests that she doesn't like civilized company. Too bad—it might be important (for her dad) that civilized company like her.
Therefore, off to finishing school with Ella. - She puts up a fight, but her dad lays down the law. See, he always gets his way, and things will go better for Ella if she doesn't fuss about it.
- To Ella, Sir Peter seems like a carnival toy, a fist attached to a spring used to pummel puppets. (Something like this, maybe?) Ella doesn't know what'll happen if his spring uncoils, which is a scary thought. She relents.
- Back in her room, Ella cuddles her dolls for comfort. Mandy comes in to give her tonic, a present, and some info about her presents.
- First, the info: before Sir Peter married her mother, he was very sweet to her. He was also very poor. But now that he's rich, he's become kind of a jerk. Mandy cautions Ella to not let her father learn about the spell, since he'd use her.
- Part one of the present is a book of fairy tales with beautiful illustrations.
- Part two is her mom's necklace, a long woven thread of silver and pearls (made by gnomes). Mandy warns Ella to keep it hidden since it's valuable.
- Hmm, a bit of foreshadowing there?