Read these lines: "The Dillingham had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of Dillingham looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D." The joke about the letters on the card works by

1. The long name is described as flung to the breeze in a richer period, which already treats it as a flag rather than a word. 2. When the wages fall from thirty dollars to twenty, the letters are said to look blurred. 3. They are then given a thought of their own, that of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. 4. Letters that consider shrinking are letters given feelings, which is option A. 5. Option B takes the blur as a printing fault and loses the joke entirely. _Source: O. Henry, The Four Million (1906), public domain_