His Grace was not aware that the young men were no less personages than young Mr.Hannibal Q.Sniggins and young Mr.Orlando Van Sueindell, both of New York, sons of the "great roads." Either of these young gentlemen could have bought out his Grace; either of them would have joyfully licked his boots; and either of them would have protested, within the sacred precincts of their gorgeous club in New York, that he was a conceited ass of an Englishman.
But his Grace did not know this, or he would certainly have regarded them with more interest.

He was profoundly indifferent to the character of the people with whom he had to do, whether they were catalogued in the "book of snobs" or not.

It is generally people who are themselves snobs who call their intimates by that offensive epithet, attributing to them the sin they fall into themselves.

The Duke distinguished between gentlemen and cads, when it was a question of dining at the same table, but in matters of business he believed the distinction of no importance.
He came to America for business purposes, and he took Americans as he found them.

He thought they were very good men of business, and when it came to associating with them on any other footing, he thought some of them were gentlemen and some were not--pretty much as it is everywhere else.