A king fortifies himself with a castle,’ observed the Count, ‘a gentleman with a desk.
-- The Count (Book 1: 1922: An Ambassador)

Importance: Even though the bellhops complain about how heavy the Count’s desk is, he insists that they take it up to his new room on the sixth floor. He tells them because he is a gentleman he has to have a desk. In reality the desk was a gift from the Count’s godfather. It has secret compartments in the legs that are filled with gold coins.

For eventually, we come to hold our dearest possessions more closely than we hold our friends.
-- Narrator (Book 1: 1922: An Ambassador)

Importance: As the Count thinks about the way he pared down his belongings when he moved to the Metropol from his family’s estate, and then again about the way that he pared them down again when he moved to the sixth floor, he considered the way he had to thin them down...