'Miss Bremerton? The new secretary?' The tone expressed both amusement and curiosity. 'Ah! I hear all sorts of interesting things about her.'
Pamela straightened her shoulders defiantly.
'Of course she's interesting. She's terribly clever and up to date, and all the rest of it. She's beginning to boss father, and very soon she'll boss all the rest of us.'
'Perhaps you wanted it!' said Captain Chicksands, smiling.
'Perhaps we did,' Pamela admitted. 'But one needn't like it all the same. Well, she's rationed us—that's one good thing—and father really doesn't guess! And now she's begun to take an interest in the farms! I believe she's walked over to the Holme Wood farm to-day, to see for herself what state it's in. Father's in town. And she's trying hard to keep father out of a horrible row with the County Committee.'
'About ploughing up the park?'
Pamela nodded.
'Plucky woman!' said Arthur Chicksands heartily. 'I'm sure you help her, Pamela, all you can?'
'I don't like being managed,' said the girl stubbornly, rather resenting his tone.
A slight shade of sternness crossed the soldier's face.