She also collected pewter, the history of which Sypher, during his years of self-education, had once studied, in the confused notion that it was culture.

All knowledge is good; from the theory of quaternions to the way to cut a ham-frill.

It is sure to come in useful, somehow.

An authority on Central African dialects has been known to find them invaluable in altercations with cabmen, and a converted burglar has, before now, become an admirable house-agent.

What Sypher, therefore, had considered merely learned lumber in his head cemented his friendship with Cousin Jane--or rather, to speak by the book, soldered it with pewter.