I must have had some piece of luck come to me either in love or at cards, she bantered.

But Dominic answered half in scorn that I was not of the sort that runs after that kind of luck.

He stated generally that there were some young gentlemen very clever in inventing new ways of getting rid of their time and their money.

However, if they needed a sensible man to help them he had no objection himself to lend a hand.
Dominic's general scorn for the beliefs, and activities, and abilities of upper-class people covered the Principle of Legitimacy amply; but he could not resist the opportunity to exercise his special faculties in a field he knew of old.

He had been a desperate smuggler in his younger days.