Question

Easton, with a little laugh, as if amused, was about to speak again when the other forestalled him. The glum-faced man had been watching the girl’s countenance with veiled glances from his keen, shrewd eyes.

“You’ll excuse me for speaking, miss, but, I see you’re acquainted with the marshall here. If you’ll ask him to speak a word for me when we get to the pen he’ll do it, and it’ll make things easier for me there. He’s taking me to Leavenworth prison. It’s seven years for counterfeiting.”

“Oh!” said the girl, with a deep breath and returning color. “So that is what you are doing out here? A marshal!”

“My dear Miss Fairchild,” said Easton, calmly, “I had to do something. Money has a way of taking wings unto itself, and you know it takes money to keep step with our crowd in Washington. I saw this opening in the West, and—well, a marshalship isn’t quite as high a position as that of ambassador, but—”

Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.

Easton states that, “Money has a way of taking wings unto itself, and you know it takes money to keep step with our crowd in Washington”. What does Mr. Easton mean by the idiom, “taking wings unto itself,” and what does this tell us about both Mr. Easton and Miss Fairchild’s former lives in Washington?

Answer 1

Mr. Easton is referring to the idea that money goes too quickly and their lives in Washington were expensive. This can also be connected to the other man’s comment that. “It’s seven years for counterfeiting” because the life in Washington could have led someone to counterfeit to have enough money to fit in.