See here, Bingham.
I don't have to go to the papers to learn what my daughters wear to
parties; I've got my own papers here right within easy reach." He
contracted his brows as his eyes turned towards the pigeon-holes. "A
better account, too, than the newspaper one--fuller, exacter, more
detailed, backed up by figures--down three long sheets and half-way down
a fourth. And I don't need to go to art-galleries to understand what
opportunities my son has had to learn to paint; the foreign exchange man
at our bank could tell me all about that. And I don't have to go to
concerts, either, when I want to make my contribution to a benevolent
object: I can sit right in this room and draw checks, and be told just
how much to draw them for, too. Yes, Bingham, there are a great many ways
for an old fellow like me to make himself useful, and I am not allowed
to overlook any of them."
Marshall's tone and expression during this exposition had wavered back
and forth between jest and protest. But his eyes wandered towards those
pigeon-holes again, and his mien and accents drew on a shade of distinct
melancholy.
These receptacles contained other bills than those of the dress-makers.
There was one, for example, from a carriage-maker, and another from a
horse-dealer. For Rosamund, at the very outset of her career, had set her
face against old Mabel and the carry-all. She declined to appear in any
such fashion among the landaus and broughams of her newly-chosen
associates.
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