Teresa of Watling Street: A Fantasia on Modern Themes

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, New Age, History, Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book Teresa of Watling Street: A Fantasia on Modern Themes by Arnold Bennett, Library of Alexandria
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Arnold Bennett ISBN: 9781465616814
Publisher: Library of Alexandria Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Arnold Bennett
ISBN: 9781465616814
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint:
Language: English
Since money is the fount of all modern romantic adventure, the City of London, which holds more money to the square yard than any other place in the world, is the most romantic of cities. This is a profound truth, but people will not recognise it. There is no more prosaic person than your bank clerk, who ladles out romance from nine to four with a copper trowel without knowing it. There is no more prosaic building than your stone-faced banking office, which hums with romance all day, and never guesses what a palace of wonders it is. The truth, however, remains; and some time in the future it will be universally admitted. And if the City, as a whole, is romantic, its banks are doubly and trebly romantic. Nothing is more marvellous than the rapid growth of our banking system, which is twice as great now as it was twenty years ago—and it was great enough then. Such were the reflections of a young man who, on a June morning, stood motionless on the busy pavement opposite the headquarters of the British and Scottish Banking Company, Limited, in King William Street, City. He was a man of medium size, fair, thick-set, well-dressed, and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles. The casual observer might have taken him for a superior sort of clerk, but the perfect style of his boots, his gloves, and his hat precluded such a possibility; it is in the second-rate finish of his extremities that the superior clerk, often gorgeous in a new frock-coat, betrays himself. This particular young man, the tenor of whose thoughts showed that he possessed imagination—the rarest of all qualities except honesty—had once been a clerk, but he was a clerk no longer. He looked at his watch; it showed three minutes to twelve o’clock. He waited another minute, and then crossed through the traffic and entered the sober and forbidding portals of the bank. He had never before been inside a City bank, and the animated scene, to which many glass partitions gave an air of mystery, would have bewildered him had he not long since formed the immutable habit of never allowing himself to be bewildered. Ignoring all the bustle which centred round the various cash desks lettered A to F, G to M, and so on, he turned unhesitatingly to an official who stood behind a little solitary counter.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Since money is the fount of all modern romantic adventure, the City of London, which holds more money to the square yard than any other place in the world, is the most romantic of cities. This is a profound truth, but people will not recognise it. There is no more prosaic person than your bank clerk, who ladles out romance from nine to four with a copper trowel without knowing it. There is no more prosaic building than your stone-faced banking office, which hums with romance all day, and never guesses what a palace of wonders it is. The truth, however, remains; and some time in the future it will be universally admitted. And if the City, as a whole, is romantic, its banks are doubly and trebly romantic. Nothing is more marvellous than the rapid growth of our banking system, which is twice as great now as it was twenty years ago—and it was great enough then. Such were the reflections of a young man who, on a June morning, stood motionless on the busy pavement opposite the headquarters of the British and Scottish Banking Company, Limited, in King William Street, City. He was a man of medium size, fair, thick-set, well-dressed, and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles. The casual observer might have taken him for a superior sort of clerk, but the perfect style of his boots, his gloves, and his hat precluded such a possibility; it is in the second-rate finish of his extremities that the superior clerk, often gorgeous in a new frock-coat, betrays himself. This particular young man, the tenor of whose thoughts showed that he possessed imagination—the rarest of all qualities except honesty—had once been a clerk, but he was a clerk no longer. He looked at his watch; it showed three minutes to twelve o’clock. He waited another minute, and then crossed through the traffic and entered the sober and forbidding portals of the bank. He had never before been inside a City bank, and the animated scene, to which many glass partitions gave an air of mystery, would have bewildered him had he not long since formed the immutable habit of never allowing himself to be bewildered. Ignoring all the bustle which centred round the various cash desks lettered A to F, G to M, and so on, he turned unhesitatingly to an official who stood behind a little solitary counter.

More books from Library of Alexandria

Cover of the book A Legend of the Rhine by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Southern Spain by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Life in London Or, the Pitfalls of a Great City by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book The Complete Angler by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book The Selected Works of Charles Dickens by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Aftermath: Part Second of "A Kentucky Cardinal" by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book New Method of Horsemanship Including the Breakiwith Instructions for Obtaining a Good Seat by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves South Carolina Narratives (Complete) by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Herzegovina Or, Omer Pacha and The Christian Rebels by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Story-Lives of Great Musicians by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Gods of the North by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Essay on the Creative Imagination by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Astronomy of To-Day: A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book Cliges: A Romance by Arnold Bennett
Cover of the book La isla del tesoro by Arnold Bennett
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy