" The address was typewritten.
He opened it. The letter had been sent from the City Hall and was
stamped in one corner with the seal of the State of California, very
official; the form and file numbers superscribed.
McTeague had been making fillings when this letter arrived. He was in
his "Parlors," pottering over his movable rack underneath the bird cage
in the bay window. He was making "blocks" to be used in large proximal
cavities and "cylinders" for commencing fillings. He heard the postman's
step in the hall and saw the envelopes begin to shuttle themselves
through the slit of his letter-drop. Then came the fat oblong envelope,
with its official seal, that dropped flatwise to the floor with a
sodden, dull impact.
The dentist put down the broach and scissors and gathered up his mail.
There were four letters altogether. One was for Trina, in Selina's
"elegant" handwriting; another was an advertisement of a new kind of
operating chair for dentists; the third was a card from a milliner on
the next block, announcing an opening; and the fourth, contained in the
fat oblong envelope, was a printed form with blanks left for names
and dates, and addressed to McTeague, from an office in the City Hall.
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