Page:Framley Parsonage.djvu/244

238 Dean of Barchester for paying his debts. The dean had also given him his present living; and, consequently, his old friend was not now so dear to him as when in old days he would come down to that farm-house almost as penniless as the curate himself. Then they would walk together for hours along the rock-bound shore, listening to the waves, discussing deep polemical mysteries, sometimes with hot fury, then again with tender, loving charity, but always with a mutual acknowledgment of each other's truth. Now they lived comparatively near together, but no opportunities arose for such discussions. At any rate, once a quarter Mr. Crawley was pressed by his old friend to visit him at the deanery, and Dr. Arabin had promised that no one else should be in the house if Mr. Crawley objected to society. But this was not what he wanted. The finery and grandeur of the deanery, and the comfort of that warm, snug library, would silence him at once. Why did not Dr. Arabin come out there to Hogglestock, and tramp with him through the dirty lanes as they used to tramp? Then he could have enjoyed himself; then he could have talked; then old days would have come back to them. But now! "Arabin always rides on a sleek, fine horse nowadays," he once said to his wife, with a sneer. His poverty had been so terrible to himself that it was not in his heart to love a rich friend.



the end of the last chapter, we left Lucy Robarts waiting for an introduction to Mrs. Crawley, who was sitting with one baby in her lap, while she was rocking another who lay in a cradle at her feet. Mr. Crawley, in the mean while, had risen from his seat with his finger between the leaves of an old grammar out of which he had been teaching his two elder children. The whole Crawley family was thus before them when Mrs. Robarts and Lucy entered the sitting-room.

"This is my sister-in-law, Lucy," said Mrs. Robarts. "Pray don't move now, Mrs. Crawley; or if you do, let me take baby." And she put out her arms and took the infant into them, making him quite at home there; for she