* * * * *
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.
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