Frank Greystock the barrister was the only son of the Dean of Bobsborough.
Now the dean had a family of daughters--not quite so numerous indeed as
that of Lady Fawn, for there were only three of them--and was by no means
a rich man. Unless a dean have a private fortune, or has chanced to draw
the happy lot of Durham in the lottery of deans, he can hardly be wealthy.
At Bobsborough, the dean was endowed with a large, rambling, picturesque,
uncomfortable house, and with £5,500 a year. In regard to personal
property, it may be asserted of all the Greystocks that they never had
any. They were a family of which the males would surely come to be deans
and admirals, and the females would certainly find husbands. And they
lived on the good things of the world, and mixed with wealthy people. But
they never had any money. The Eustaces always had money and the Bishop of
Bobsborough was wealthy. The dean was a man very different from his
brother, the admiral, who had never paid anybody anything. The dean did
pay; but he was a little slow in his payments, and money with him was
never plentiful. In these circumstances it became very expedient that
Frank Greystock should earn his bread early in life.

Nevertheless he had chosen a profession which is not often lucrative at
first. He had been called to the bar, and had gone, and was still going,
the circuit in which lies the cathedral city of Bobsborough. Bobsborough
is not much of a town, and was honoured with the judges' visits only every
other circuit. Frank began pretty well; getting some little work in
London, and perhaps nearly enough to pay the cost of the circuit out of
the county in which the cathedral was situated. But he began life after
that impecunious fashion for which the Greystocks have been noted.
Tailors, robemakers, and booksellers gave him trust, and did believe that
they would get their money. And any persistent tradesman did get it. He
did not actually hoist the black flag of impecuniosity, and proclaim his