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.
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