"He was the master's man-servant and secretary," said Mr. Minns. "Stuck-up piece of goods he was. I never had much rime for him myself. Good thing he went, I say. And I shouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with that fire either!"
But here Lily had something to say. "Mr. Peeks was
far too much of a gentleman to do a thing like that," she said, clattering her broom into a comer. "If you ask me, it's old Mr. Smellie."
The children could hardly believe that any one could be called by such a name. "Is that his real name?" asked Pip.
"It surely is," said Mrs. Minns, "and a dirty neglected old fellow he is too! What his housekeeper can be about, I don't know. She doesn't mend him up at all - sends him out with holes in his socks, and rents in his clothes, and his hat wanting brushing. He's a learned old gentleman, too, so they say, and knows more about old books and things than almost any one in the kingdom."
"Why did he and Mr. Hick quarrel?" asked Pip.
"Goodness knows!" said Mrs. Minns. "Always quarrelling, they are. They both know a lot, but they don't agree about what they know. Anyway, old Mr. Smellie, he walks out of the house muttering and grumbling, and bangs the door behind him so hard that my saucepans almost jump off the stove! But as for him firing the cottage, as Lily says, don't you believe a word of it! It's my belief he wouldn't know how to set light to a bonfire! It's that stuck-up Mr. Peeks who'd be spiteful enough to pay Mr. Hick back, you mark my words!"
"He would not," said Lily, who seemed determined to stick up for the valet. "He's a nice young man, he is. You've no right to say things like that, Mrs. Minns."
"Now, look here, my girl! " said the cook, getting angry, "if you think you can talk like that to your elders and betters, you're mistaken! Telling me I've no right to say this, that and the other! You just wait till you can scrub a floor properly, and dust the tops of the pictures, and see a cobweb when it's staring you in the face, before you begin to talk big to me!"
"I wasn't talking big," said poor Lily. "All I said was..."