Although there exist many thousand subjects for elegant conversation, there are persons who cannot meet a… — Ernest Bramah

In his countenance this person read an expression of no-encouragement towards his venture.

When Ling was communicating to any person the signs by which messengers might find him, he was compelled to add, "the neighbourhood in which this contemptible person resides is that officially known as 'the mean quarter favoured by the lower class of those who murder by treachery'," and for this reason he was not always treated with the regard to which his attainments entitled him, or which he would have unquestionably received had he been able to describe himself as of "the partly-drained and uninfected area reserved to Mandarins and their friends."

It is a mark of insincerity of purpose to spend one's time in looking for the sacred Emperor in the low-class tea-shops.