Her settings and characterizations, established with a few deft strokes, and her endless fund of seemingly simple situations, put one in mind of another laureate of everyday life, Guy de Maupassant.
A friend, Edouard Morot-Sir, wrote of "the gentle expression of his eyes, his smile, the finesse and warmth of his voice," and he remembered Maurois's endless fund of stories.
Traditional private schools, despite their high tuition and endless fund-raising, he said, are inefficiently run.
While political candidates need campaign money to run for election or perhaps to help their colleagues in vulnerable districts, some observers worry that the endless fund-raising may distract legislators from doing the jobs they were elected to do.
Senators now, unlike those of several decades ago, often keep their families in their home states, where they return most weekends, even if it's to Alaska or Idaho — a concession to endless fund-raising, and to the populist anti-Washington mood of recent years.
In fact, it can be hard to remember that behind the Brioni suits, the trendy restaurants, the endless fund-raisers and celebrity events is the young boy who grew up in segregated Mineola, Tex., in the 1940s, his grandmother once a slave, his mother a domestic servant, who had to scrabble for everything he achieved.
Mr. Romney's team blames the president for opening the door to endless fund-raising, noting that four years ago, Mr. Obama became the first major party nominee to decline public money — and the spending limits that goes with it — since the creation of the public campaign financing system in the 1970s.
Now she whines about traffic, development and the endless fund-raisers that she doesn't attend, not to mention the crowds that make it impossible to go to a restaurant on the weekend or even find a parking space close to the movie theater.
"We'd love to purchase it, but we don't have endless funds.
Lawrence fires on all cylinders to deliver a hugely appealing performance, with Rossellini offering hilarious support as a widow with endless funds.
While Mario Monti, the Italian prime minister, spoke hopefully of the eurozone's bailout fund being granted a banking licence and access to endless funding from the European Central Bank, Jens Weidmann, head of Germany's powerful Bundesbank, strongly opposed radical action.
