Yes.  Work indeed!  How on earth did she get through it?  In the mornings there she was in the library, absorbed in the catalogue, writing to the Squire’s dictation, transcribing or translating Greek—­his docile and obedient slave.  Then in the afternoon—­bicycling all over the estate, and from dark onwards, till late at night, busy with correspondence and office work, except just for dinner and an hour afterwards.

* * * * *

The door of the outer hall opened and shut.  Elizabeth and a young man—­the new agent—­entered the inner hall, where Mrs. Gaddesden was sitting, Elizabeth acknowledging her presence with a pleasant nod and smile.  But they passed quickly through to the room at the further end of the hall, which was now an estate office where Elizabeth spent the latter part of her day.  It was connected both with the main living-rooms of the house, and with a side entrance from the park, by which visitors on estate matters were admitted.

A man was sitting waiting for Miss Bremerton.  He was the new tenant of the derelict farm, on the Holme Wood side of the estate, and he had come to report on the progress which had been made in clearing and ploughing the land, and repairing the farm-buildings.  He was a youngish man, a sergeant in a Warwickshire regiment, who had been twice wounded in the war, and was now discharged.  As the son of an intelligent farmer, he had had a good agricultural training, and it was evident that his enthusiasms and those of the Squire’s new ‘business-secretary’ were running in harness.

The new agent, Captain Dell, also a discharged Territorial, who had lost an arm in the war, watched the scene between the incoming tenant and Elizabeth, with a shrewd pair of eyes, through which there passed occasional gleams of amusement or surprise.  He was every day making further acquaintance with the lady who was apparently to be his chief, but he was well aware that he was only at the beginning of his lesson.  Astonishing, to see a woman taking this kind of lead!—­asking these technical questions—­as to land, crops, repairs, food production, and the rest—­looking every now and then at the note-book beside her, full of her own notes made on the spot, or again, setting down with a quick hand something that was said to her.  And all through he was struck with her tone of quiet authority—­without a touch of boasting or ‘side,’ but also without a touch of any mere feminine deference to the male.  She was there in the Squire’s place, and she never let it be forgotten.  Heavens, women had come on during this war!  Through the young man’s mind there ran a vague and whirling sense of change.

‘Well, Mr. Denman, that all sounds splendid!’ said Elizabeth, at last, as she rose from her table.  ’The country won’t starve, if you can help it!  I shall tell the County Committee all about you on Tuesday.  You don’t want another tractor?’

’Oh, no, thank you!  The two at work are enough.  I hope you’ll be over soon.  I should like to show you what we’ve been after.’  The man’s tone was one of eager good will.