The Complete Short Stories of Saki

What is Suzanne worried 8302706618?

What is Suzanne worried

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When Betram asks Suzanne what she would like for a birthday gift, she talls him about a Dresden figure she's seen in a shop. In hindsight, she is worried that she should have asked for a much pricier gift because Betram is so wealthy. In the discussion she has with her aunt on the subject, Suzanne offers up a number of scenarios, worries and considerations, about what Bertrand can afford as opposed to what he would actually purchase. Suzanne notes that she isn't being "greedy" but that she doesn't want to be "wasteful".

"As a rule when one is confronted with a problem like that," said Suzanne, "all one's ideas vanish; one doesn't seem to have a desire in the world. Now it so happens that I have been very keen on a little Dresden figure that I saw somewhere in Kensington; about thirty-six shillings, quite beyond my means. I was very nearly describing the figure, and giving Bertram the address of the shop. And then it suddenly struck me that thirty-six shillings was such a ridiculously inadequate sum for a man of his immense wealth to spend on a birthday present. He could give thirty-six pounds as easily as you or I could buy a bunch of violets. I don't want to be greedy, of course, but I don't like being wasteful."

Source(s)

The Complete Short-Stories of Saki, pg. 245