No one knew whence he came or what he had been.

He was supposed to have been born a German Jew; and certain ladies said that they could distinguish in his tongue the slightest possible foreign accent.

Nevertheless it was conceded to him that he knew England as only an Englishman can know it.

During the last year or two he had 'come up' as the phrase goes, and had come up very thoroughly.

He had been blackballed at three or four clubs, but had effected an entrance at two or three others, and had learned a manner of speaking of those which had rejected him calculated to leave on the minds of hearers a conviction that the societies in question were antiquated, imbecile, and moribund.