Tom was now, in his own way, an altogether accomplished man of the world, who knew (at least in all companies and places where he was likely to find himself) exactly what to say, to do, to make, to seek, and to avoid.

Shifty and thrifty as old Greek, or modern Scot, there were few things he could not invent, and perhaps nothing he could not endure.

He had watched human nature under every disguise, from the pomp of the ambassador to the war-paint of the savage, and formed his own clear, hard, shallow, practical estimate thereof.

He looked on it as his raw material, which he had to work up into subsistence and comfort for himself.

He did not wish to live on men, but live by them he must; and for that purpose he must study them, and especially their weaknesses.