"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"
"Now don't you start all over again!" said Mrs. Minns, thumping on the table with the rolling-pin as if she was hitting poor Lily on the head with it "You go and get me the dripping, if you can find out where you put it yesterday. And no more back-chat from you, if you please!"
The children didn't want to hear about Lily's faults, or where she put the dripping. They wanted to hear about the people that Mr. Hick had quarrelled with, and who might therefore have a spite against him. It looked as if both Mr. Peeks and Mr. Smellie would have spites against him. And what about the old tramp too?
"Was Mr. Hick very angry with the tramp when he found him stealing the eggs?" asked Pip.
"Angry! You could hear him all over the house and the garden too!" said Mrs. Minns, thoroughly enjoying talking about everything. "I said to myself, 'Ah, there's the master off again! It's a pity he doesn't use up some of his temper on that lazy girl Lily!"
Lily appeared out of the larder, looking sulky. The children couldn't help feeling sorry for her. The girl put the dripping down on the table with a bang.
"Any need to try and break the basin?" inquired Mrs. Minns. "It's a bad girl you are today, a right down bad girl. You go and wash the back steps, madam! That will keep you busy for a bit."
Lily went out, clanking a pail. "Tell us about the tramp," said Pip. "What time did Mr. Hick see Mm stealing eggs?"
"Oh, sometime in the morning," said Mrs. Minns, rolling out pastry with a heavy hand. "The old fellow came to my back door first, whining for bread and meat, and I sent him off. I suppose he slipped round the garden to the henhouse, and the master saw him there from the cottage window. My word, he went for him all right, and said
he'd call the police in, and the old tramp, he went flying by my kitchen door as if a hundred dogs were after him!"
"Perhaps he fired the cottage," said Pip. But Mrs. Minns would not have it that any one had fired the cottage but Mr. Peeks.
"He was a sly one," she said. "He'd come down into my kitchen at nights, when every one was in bed, and he'd go to my larder and take out a meat-pie or a few buns or anything he'd a mind to. Well, what I say is, if some one can do that, they'll set fire to a cottage too."
Pip remembered with a very guilty feeling that once, being terribly hungry, he had slipped down to the school larder and eaten some biscuits. He wondered if he was also capable of setting fire to a cottage, but he felt sure he could never do that. He didn't think that Mrs. Minns was right there.
Suddenly, from somewhere in the house, there came the sound of a furious flow of words. Mrs. Minns cocked her head up, listened and nodded.
"That's the master," she said. "Fallen over something, I shouldn't wonder."
Sweetie, the big black and white cat, suddenly flew into the kitchen, her fur up, and her tail swollen to twice its size. Mrs. Minns gave a cry of woe.
"Oh, Sweetie I Did you get under his feet again! Poor lamb, poor darling lamb!"
The poor darling lamb retired under the table, hissing. The three kittens in the basket stiffened in alarm, and hissed too. Mr. Hick appeared in the kitchen, looking extremely angry.
"Mrs. Minns! I have once more fallen over that horrible cat of yours. How many more times am I to tell you to keep her under control? I shall have her drowned."
"Sir, the day you drown my cat I walk out!" said Mrs. Minns, laying down the rolling-pin with a thump.
Mr. Hick glared at the cook as if he would like to drown her as well as the cat. "Why you want to keep such an ugly and vicious animal, I cannot think," he said. "And good heavens above are those kittens in that basket?"
"They are, sir," said Mrs. Minns, her voice rising high. "And good homes I've found for every single one of them, when they're old enough."
Mr. Hick then saw the two children, and appeared to be just as displeased to see them as he had been to see the kittens.