The great metropolis was vomiting out an almost pitiful collection of conveyances; shining, high-speed skimmers, ancient goods carriers covered with a half century of dust.

So beautiful, so straight, those trees; so ugly, so distorted, so stunted, this pitiful collection of human beings.

All in all, a pitiful collection, but he wasn't so self-deceiving as to believe their relationship had been much more than a sum of those parts.

The detective turned to the pitiful collection of personal effects.

"What else is in this pitiful collection?"

A pitiful collections of survivors lingering on in the ruins of their past greatness.

He rummaged through the bag of supplies Dard brought, grunting at the scantiness of the pitiful collection.

"Oh, we're all right, Lieutenant," a voice called out from the pitiful collection of rags and starved flesh.

This was it, this pitiful little collection of trinkets.

He tossed it in with the pitiful collection.