foot the bill

Kazuo Ishiguroの "The Remains of the Day" を読み始めました。
PROLOGUE - JULY 1956から引用します。
‘You realize, Stevens, I don’t expect you to be locked up here in this house all the time I’m away. Why don’t you take the car and drive off somewhere for a few days? You look like you could make good use of a break.’
Coming out of the blue as it did, I did not quite know how to reply to such a suggestion. I recall thanking him for his consideration, but quite probably I said nothing very definite, for my employer went on:
‘I’m serious, Stevens. I really think you should take a break. I’ll foot the bill for the gas. You fellows, you’re always locked up in these big houses helping out, how do you ever get to see around this beautiful country of yours?’

小説の主人公である執事の 'Stevens' はアメリカ人の雇い主から留守中に休暇旅行でもしなさいと言われました。文脈からすると引用文の "foot the bill" は費用は私が持つからの意味と推測できます。辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster: to pay for something: It's a business lunch, so the company is footing the bill.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To pay for something.: I hope the production company is footing the bill for all of this air travel.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: to pay for something; to pay for a bill.: My boss took me out for lunch and the company footed the bill.

World Wide Wordsの "foot the bill" に "foot the bill" の由来が書かれていましたが、長いのでその一部だけを引用します。
To start with, it was a decidedly colloquial usage, but as time passed the associated senses fell out of use and to foot the bill is now a fixed phrase, though still somewhat informal. It often now has the implication of paying for something whose cost is considered large or unreasonable, especially if the person doing so has been forced into paying for the consequences of the actions of somebody else.