For, in addition to everything else, she turned out to be a trained accountant!--and money matters connected with the estate were being probed to the bottom that had never been probed before.

Mrs.Gaddesden's own allowance--for the Squire had always obstinately declined to settle any capital on his married daughters--had been, for the first time, paid at the proper date--by Elizabeth Bremerton! At least, if the Squire had signed it, she had written the cheque.

And she might perfectly well have signed it.

For, as Pamela had long since reported to her sisters, Elizabeth paid all the house and estate accounts over her own signature, and seemed to have much more accurate knowledge than the Squire himself of the state of his bank balance, and his money affairs generally.
Not that she ever paraded these things in the least.

But neither did she make any unnecessary mystery about it with the Squire's family.
And indeed they were quite evident to any one living in the house.
At times she would make little, laughing, apologetic remarks to one of the daughters--'I hope you don't mind!--the Squire wants me to get things straight.' But in general, her authority by now had become a matter of course.
Her position in the Mannering household, however, was as nothing to her position in the estate and the neighbourhood.