"Mrs. Arabin told me that she was so anxious you should go to them,"
said Mrs. Robarts.
"Ah, yes; but that, I fear, is impossible. The children, you know,
Mrs. Robarts."
"I would take care of two of them for you."
"Oh, no; I could not punish you for your goodness in that way. But he
would not go. He could go and leave me at home. Sometimes I have
thought that it might be so, and I have done all in my power to
persuade him. I have told him that if he could mix once more with the
world, with the clerical world, you know, that he would be better
fitted for the performance of his own duties. But he answers me
angrily, that it is impossible--that his coat is not fit for the
dean's table," and Mrs. Crawley almost blushed as she spoke of such a
reason.
"What! with an old friend like Dr. Arabin? Surely that must be
nonsense."
"I know that it is. The dean would be glad to see him with any coat.
But the fact is that he cannot bear to enter the house of a rich man
unless his duty calls him there."
"But surely that is a mistake?"
"It is a mistake. But what can I do? I fear that he regards the rich
as his enemies. He is pining for the solace of some friend to whom he
could talk--for some equal, with a mind educated like his own, to
whose thoughts he could listen, and to whom he could speak his own
thoughts.
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