...

And Plank would be very, very grateful--very useful, a very good friend to have.

...

And Leila would learn at last that he, Mortimer, had cut his wisdom teeth, by God! As for Siward, he amounted to nothing; probably was one of that contemptible sort of men who butted in and kissed a pretty girl when he had the chance.

He, Mortimer, had only disgust for such amateurs of the social by-ways; for he himself kept to the highways, like any self-respecting professional, even when a tour of the highways sometimes carried him below stairs.