Sentence:  Inside its skirts he carried his shopping for Miss Dubber: the bacon from Mr. Aitken, only mind and tell him he's to cut it on number five, give him half a chance he'll make it thicker. And tell that Mr. Crosse three of his tomatoes were rotten last week, not just bad, rotten. If I don't have replacements I'll never go to him again. Pym had followed her instructions to the letter, though not with the ferocity she would have wished, for both Crosse and Aitken were recipients of his secret <WSD>subventions</WSD>, and for years had been sending Miss Dubber bills for only half what she had spent. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A subsidy; provision of financial or other support.