Who can see his children hungry, and not take bread if it be offered?
Who can see his wife lying in sharpest want, and not seek a remedy if there be a remedy within reach?
So debt had come upon them, and rude men pressed for small sums of money--for sums small to the world, but impossibly large to them.

And he would hide himself within there, in that cranny of an inner chamber--hide himself with deep shame from the world, with shame, and a sinking heart, and a broken spirit.
But had such a man no friend?
it will be said.

Such men, I take it, do not make many friends.

But this man was not utterly friendless.
Almost every year one visit was paid to him in his Cornish curacy by a brother clergyman, an old college friend, who, as far as might in him lie, did give aid to the curate and his wife.

This gentleman would take up his abode for a week at a farmer's, in the neighbourhood, and though he found Mr.Crawley in despair, he would leave him with some drops of comfort in his soul.