Others
might be more substantial, but there was an allure about
a young man in a bank as difficult to define as to resist.
To say of a certain party-giver that she had "about every
bank clerk in town" was to announce the success of her
entertainment in ultimate terms. These things are not
always penetrable, but no doubt his gentlemanly form of
labour and its abridgement in the afternoons, when other
young men toiled on till the stroke of six, had something
to do with this apotheosis of the bank clerk, as well as
his invariable taste in tailoring, and the fact that some
local family influence was probably represented in his
appointment. Privilege has always its last little
stronghold, and it still operates to admiration on the
office stools of minor finance in towns like Elgin. At
all events, the sprouting tellers and cashiers held
unquestioned sway--young doctors and lawyers simply didn't
think of competing; and since this sort of thing carries
its own penalty, the designation which they shared with
so many distinguished persons in history became a byword
on the lips of envious persons and small boys, by which
they wished to express effeminacy and the substantive of
the "stuck-up." "D'ye take me fur a bank clurk?" was a
form of repudiation among corner loafers as forcible as
it was unjustifiable.
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