"If I do, as a friend I shall expect you to let my opinions go no further."
"Cela va sans dire."
"You must first understand, then, that every man here has an employment. We have absolutely no 'unemployed rich'."
"Idleness must be at a premium."
"On the contrary it is tabooed. However, though we are all in trade we have distinctions as intricate as the most ancient aristocracy."
"How so?"
"In the peculiar meshes from which society is woven. For example: a wholesale dry-goods merchant is an aristocrat, a retailer a plebeian; a hotel keeper may be a lord, a restaurant keeper a commoner; a car builder is a prince, a carriage builder a burgher; a brewer may be a count, a beer seller a churl; and so on, although even if a member of a certain trade is in society, his confrères may be without the pale."
"Much the same as in New York, only there hotels and dry goods are commoners, while tobacco and skins are lords."
"Yes, but at least society is older there. The skins have been buried for a generation or two."
"In some cases, yes, but in others they are still uncured. I am a working man myself, and I must defend my class."