There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs,[…], and all these articles[…] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

If we were to hit the toboggan of a depression, wages would drop.

to feed and clothe a family; to clothe oneself extravagantly

Social interaction would be the place to study how people learn these cultural codes or reasoning structures, which is related to the human ability to overcode meaning in ways that become conventional (Eco 1976).