Mr. Smellie was pleased to have any one taking such a sudden interest. "I have much older ones," he said. "I spend my time deciphering them - reading them, you know. We learn a great deal of old history that way."
"How marvellous!" said Larry. "I suppose you couldn't show me any, sir, could you?"
"Certainly, my boy, certainly," said Mr. Smellie, positively beaming at Larry. "Come along in. I think you will find that the garden door is open."
"Could my sister come too?" asked Larry. "She would be very, very interested, I know."
"Dear me, what unusual children," thought Mr. Smellie, as he watched them going in at the garden door. They were just wiping their feet when a little bird-like woman darted out of a room nearby and gazed at them fa surprise.
"Whatever are you doing here?" she said. "This is Mr. Smellie's house. He doesn't allow any one inside."
"He's just asked us in," said Larry politely. "We have wiped our feet very carefully."
"Just asked you in," said Miss Miggle, the housekeeper, filled with astonishment. "But he never asks any one in - except Mr. Hick. And since they quarreled even he hasn't been here."
"But perhaps Mr. Smellie has visited Mr. Hick!" said Larry, still wiping his feet, anxious to go on with the conversation.
"No, indeed he hasn't," said Miss Miggle. "He told me that he wasn't going to visit any one who shouted at him in the disgusting way that Mr. Hick did. Poor old gentleman, he doesn't deserve to be shouted at. He's very absent-minded and a bit queer sometimes, but there's no harm in him."