Their gamblings and their bets increased his number of dependents; and imbeciles were preferable to dolts or the dry gilt figures of the circle he had to move in.

Matter for some astonishment had been furnished to the latter this day; and would cause an icy Signor stare and rather an angry Signora flutter.

A characteristic of that upper circle, as he knew it, is, that the good are dull, the vicious very bad.
They had nothing to please him but manners.

Elsewhere this land is a land of no manners.

Take it and make the most of it, then, for its quality of brute honesty: which is found to flourish best in the British prize-ring.
His irony landed him there.