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.
CHAPTER XXII
Hogglestock Parsonage
At 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 meanwhile, 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.
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