He spoke English with astonishing facility and with a purity which often embarrassed his tourists.

He made his headquarters at the Victoria on the Sha-mien, and generally met the Hong-Kong packet in the morning.

You left Hong-Kong at night, by way of the Pearl River, and arrived in Canton the next morning.

Ah Cum presented his black-bordered card to such individuals as seemed likely to require his services.
This morning his entourage (as he jestingly called it) consisted of the girl, two spinsters (Prudence and Angelina Jedson), prim and doubtful of the world, and the young man who appeared to be considerably the worse for the alcohol he had consumed.
In the beginning Ah Cum would run his glance speculatively over the assortment and select that individual who promised to be the most companionable.

He was a philosopher.