String and rubber band

"String is my foible. my pockets are full of little hanks of it, picked up and twisted together, ready for uses that never come. I am seriously annoyed if any one cuts the string of a parcel instead of patiently and faithfully undoing it fold by fold. How people can bring themselves to use india-rubber rings, which are a sort of deification of string, as lightly as they do, I cannot imagine. To me an india-rubber ring is a precious treasure. I have one which is not new - one that I picked off the floor nearly six years ago. I have really tried to use it, but my heart failed me, and I could not commit the extravagance."

Mrs Gaskell, Cranford, London & Glasgow, Collins' Clear-Type Press, n.d., p. 85 & 86