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| Tellson’s Bank by Temple Bar was an old-fashioned place, even in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty. It was very small, very dark, very ugly, very incommodious. It was an old-fashioned place, moreover, in the moral attribute that the partners in the House were proud of its smallness, proud of its darkness, proud of its ugliness, proud of its incommodiousness. They were even boastful of its eminence in those particulars, and were fired by an express conviction that, if it were less objectionable, it would be less respectable. This was no passive belief, but an active weapon which they flashed at more convenient places of business. Tellson’s (they said) wanted no elbow-room, Tellson’s wanted no light, Tellson’s wanted no embellishment. Noakes and Co.’s might, or Snooks Brothers’ might; but Tellson’s, thank Heaven!— | Tellson’s Bank near Temple Bar was an old-fashioned place, even back in 1780. It was very small, very dark, very ugly, and very uncomfortable. The partners who ran the bank were old-fashioned too. They were proud of its smallness, darkness, ugliness, and discomfort. They even boasted that their bank was all these things, and they believed that it if hadn’t been so unpleasant, it wouldn’t have been so well respected. The bankers liked to brag about this to their competitors. Tellson’s Bank, they would say, didn’t need elbow room or bright light or fancy decorations. Maybe Noakes and Co. or Snooks Brothers needed these things, but not Tellson’s Bank! |
| Any one of these partners would have disinherited his son on the question of rebuilding Tellson’s. In this respect the House was much on a par with the Country; which did very often disinherit its sons for suggesting improvements in laws and customs that had long been highly objectionable, but were only the more respectable. | Any one these partners would have disinherited his own son for suggesting they refurbish Tellson’s. In this way, Tellson’s was like England, which did often punish its citizens for trying to improve laws and customs. But the fact that people had objected to these laws and customs for so long made them more respected. |
| Thus it had come to pass, that Tellson’s was the triumphant perfection of inconvenience. After bursting open a door of idiotic obstinacy with... |
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