On the day on which Lucy had her interview with Lady Lufton the dean dined at Framley Parsonage. He and Robarts had known each other since the latter had been in the diocese, and now, owing to Mark's preferment in the chapter, had become almost intimate. The dean was greatly pleased with the manner in which poor Mr. Crawley's children had been conveyed away from Hogglestock, and was inclined to open his heart to the whole Framley household. As he still had to ride home he could only allow himself to remain half an hour after dinner, but in that half hour he said a great deal about Crawley, complimented Robarts on the manner in which he was playing the part of the Good Samaritan, and then, by degrees, informed him that it had come to his, the dean's ears, before he left Barchester, that a writ was in the hands of certain persons in the city, enabling them to seize—he did not know whether it was the person or the property of the vicar of Framley.
The fact was that these tidings had been conveyed to the dean with the express intent that he might put Robarts on his guard; but the task of speaking on such a subject to a brother clergyman had been so unpleasant to him that he had been unable to introduce it till the last five minutes before his departure.
"I hope you will not put it down as an impertinent interference," said the dean, apologizing.
"No," said Mark, "no, I do not think that." He was so sad at heart that he hardly knew how to speak of it.
"I do not understand much about such matters," said the dean; "but I think, if I were you, I should go to a lawyer. I should imagine that any thing so terribly disagreeable as an arrest might be avoided."
"It is a hard case," said Mark, pleading his own cause. "Though these men have this claim against me, I have never received a shilling either in money or money's worth."
"And yet your name is to the bills!" said the dean.
