To circulate false reports of the people you know, to lay hold upon their most recondite faults and carefully pass them on from hand to hand, to undermine the good name of your acquaintances,--that is certainly not a nice occupation, I call it ungentlemanly scandal.

But to be acquainted with the vices of the world, and communicate them to innocent souls liable to err; to warn and call the attention of the sensitive and the tottering to the thorns, the flints, the vermin, and the pitfalls which beset their path,--that is a proper thing to do in season, and I call it gentlemanly scandal--although many who read these lines will perhaps prefer to call it nonsense.
We will therefore confine ourselves to gentlemanly scandal, and let us take the men first.

It is not I who do it, remember, but these two young women who have got hold of such an interesting list.

If I had a hand in it, I should certainly begin with the ladies.
"Here's one right at the top," said Lady Szentirmay, "let us begin with him.

If he were an ordinary man instead of a nobleman, they would call him badly behaved.