the table--the first
that had ever been allowed within the walls of Mannering. And that
the Squire might not be teased with it, Elizabeth had long since
fitted an extra inner door, covered with green baize, to the door of
the office.

The new tenant departed, and Elizabeth turned to the agent.

'I really think we've caught a good man there,' she said, with a
smile. 'Now will you tell me, please, about those timber proposals?
I hope to get a few words with the Squire to-night.'

And leaning back in her chair, she listened intently while Captain
Dell, bringing a roll of papers out of his pocket, read her the
draft proposals of a well-known firm of timber merchants, for the
purchase of some of the Squire's outlying woods of oak and beech.
Lights had been brought in, and Elizabeth sat shading her eyes from
the lamp before her,--a strong and yet agreeable figure. Was it the
consciousness of successful work--of opening horizons, and satisfied
ambitions, that had made a physical presence, always attractive, so
much more attractive than before--that had given it a magnetism and
fire it had never yet possessed? Pamela, who was developing fast,
and was acutely conscious of Elizabeth, asked herself the question,
or something like it, about once a week. And during a short
Christmas visit that Elizabeth had paid her own people, her gentle
mother, much puzzled and a little dazzled by her daughter, had
necessarily pondered the why and wherefore of a change she felt, but
could not analyse. One thing the mother's insight had been clear
about. Elizabeth was not in love. On the contrary, the one
love-affair of her life seemed to be at last forgotten and put
aside. Elizabeth was now in love with _efficiency_; with a great
task given into her hand. As to the Squire, the owner of Mannering,
who had provided her with the task, Mrs. Bremerton could not
imagine him or envisage him at all. Elizabeth's accounts of him
were so reticent and so contradictory.... 'Well, that's very
interesting'--said Elizabeth thoughtfully, when Captain Dell laid
down his papers--'I wonder what Mr. Mannering will say to it? As you
know, I got his express permission for you to make these enquiries.
But he hates cutting down a single tree, and this will mean a wide
clearance!'

'So it will--but the country wants every stick of it. And as to not
cutting, one sees that from the woods--the tragedy of the
woods!'--said the young man with emphasis. 'There has been no