‘So they’ve come, Perley!  Was it they forced the gate?’

Perley scratched his head with his free hand.

’Well, it’s an uncommon queer thing, Miss—­but I can’t tell yer who opened them gates!  I come along here about seven o’clock this mornin’, and the fog was so thick yo couldn’t see nothin’ beyond a yard or two.  But when I got up to the gates, there they were open, just as you see ’em now.  At first I thought there was summat wrong—­that my eyes wasn’t what they used to was.  But they was all right.’

‘And you saw the gates shut last night?’

’Barred up, so as you couldn’t move ’em, Miss!—­not without a crowbar or two, an’ a couple of men.  I thowt it was perhaps some village chaps larkin’ as had done it.  But it ain’t none o’ them.  It beats me!’

Pamela looked at the two men smoking by the gate—­representatives, very likely, of the Inspection Sub-Committee.  Should she go up and question them?  But some inherited instinct deterred her.  She was glad the country should have the land and the corn.  She had no sympathy with her father.  And yet all the same when she actually saw Demos the outsider forcibly in possession of Mannering land, the Mannering spirit kicked a little.  She would find out what had happened from some of their own people.

So after watching the County Council plough for a while as it clove its way up and down the park under the struggling sun which was gradually scattering the fog—­her young intelligence quite aware all the time of the significance of the sight—­she turned back towards the house.  And presently, advancing to meet her, she perceived the figure of Elizabeth Bremerton—­coming, no doubt, to get picturesque details on the spot for the letter she had promised to write to a certain artillery officer.  A quick flame of jealousy ran through the girl’s mind.

Miss Bremerton quickened her step.

‘So they’re open!’ she said eagerly, as she and Pamela met.  ’And there’s nothing broken, or—­or lying about!’

She looked in bewilderment at the unlittered road and swinging gate.

’They were open, Perley says, first thing this morning.  He came by about seven.’

‘Before the plough arrived?’

‘Yes.’

They stood still, trying to puzzle it out.  Then a sudden laugh crossed Elizabeth’s face.

’Perhaps there were no barricades!  Perhaps your father was taking us all in!’

‘Not at all,’ said Pamela drily.  ’Perley saw the gates firmly barred with hurdles and barbed wire, and all tied up with rope, when he and his wife left the Lodge late last night.’

Elizabeth suddenly coloured brightly.  Why, Pamela could not imagine.  Her fair skin made it impossible for a flush to pass unnoticed.  But why should she flush?

Elizabeth walked on rapidly, her eyes on the ground.  When she raised them it was to look rather steadily at her companion.

’I think perhaps I had better tell you at once—­I am very sorry!—­but I shall be leaving you in a month.  I told your father so last night.’