'She's mine, she's mine-- The loveliest lady that ever was seen Is the lovely Lady Crinoline; and she's mine, she's mine!' "Exhausted nature could no more.

He sank into a chair, and his brother clerks stood in a circle around him.

Soon a spirit of triumph seemed to actuate them all; they joined hands in that friendly circle, and dancing with joyful glee, took up with one voice the burden of the song-- 'Oh how she walks, And how she talks, And sings like a bird serene, But of this be sure, While the world shall endure, The loveliest lady that ever was seen Is still the Lady Crinoline-- The lovely Lady Crinoline.' "And that old senior clerk with the thin grey hair--was he angry at this general ebullition of joy?
O no! The just severity of his discipline was always tempered with genial mercy.

Not a word did he say of that broken promise, not a word of the unchecked diocesan balance, not a word of Sir Gregory's anger.

He shook his thin grey locks; but he shook them neither in sorrow nor in anger.