A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
I think the presents are the worst part of Christmas. Emma will give me a water-colour that she has painted herself. She always does. There would be no harm in that if she did not expect me to hang it in the drawing room.
~ The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
And I'm just as bad, when I give presents. I never give them what they want.
I never hit upon anything that is of any use to anybody. If I give Jane a
chinchilla tippet, you may be certain chinchilla is the most out-of-date fur
that any woman could wear. 'Oh! that is nice of you,' she says; 'now that is
just the very thing I wanted. I will keep it by me till chinchilla comes in
again.' I give the girls watch-chains when nobody is wearing watch-chains. When
watch-chains are all the rage I give them ear-rings, and they thank me, and
suggest my taking them to a
fancy-dress ball, that being their only chance to wear the confounded things. I
waste money on white gloves with black backs, to find that white gloves with
black backs stamp a woman as suburban. I believe all the shop-keepers in London
save their old stock to palm it off on me at Christmas time.
~ The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
There ought to be an association," he continued, "a kind of clearing-house for the collection and distribution of Christmas presents. One would give them a list of the people from whom to collect presents, and of the people to whom to send. Suppose they collected on my account twenty Christmas presents, value, say, ten pounds, while on the other hand they sent out for me thirty presents at a cost of fifteen pounds. They would debit me with the balance of five pounds, together with a small commission. I should pay it cheerfully, and there would be no further trouble. Perhaps one might even make a profit.
~ The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow