scant-of-grace

Updated: June 18, 2025

Michael Lambourne soon let Tressilian know that he suspected other motives than simple curiosity had led him, a gentleman of birth and breeding, into the company of such a scant-of-grace as himself, and owned that he expected both pleasure and profit from his visit. They found the gate open, and passed up an avenue overshadowed by old trees, untrimmed for many years.

- The World's Greatest Books — Volume 07 — Fiction

You are a gentleman of birth and breeding your bearing makes it good; of civil habits and fair reputation your manners declare it, and my uncle avouches it; and yet you associate yourself with a sort of scant-of-grace, as men call me, and, knowing me to be such, you make yourself my companion in a visit to a man whom you are a stranger to and all out of mere curiosity, forsooth!

Sir Walter Scott - Kenilworth