"'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'll ever be seen Will still be the Lady Crinoline, The lovely Lady Crinoline.
"'With her hair done all _à l'impératrice_, Sweetly done with the best of grease, She looks like a Goddess or Queen,-- And so I declare, And solemnly swear, That the loveliest lady that ever was seen Is still the Lady Crinoline, The lovely Lady Crinoline.'"
'And so ends the third chapter,' said Mrs. Woodward.
Both Katie and Linda were beginning to criticize, but Mrs. Woodward repressed them sternly, and went on with
"'It was a lovely day towards the end of May that Macassar Jones, presenting himself before the desk of the senior clerk at one o'clock, begged for permission to be absent for two hours. The request was preferred with meek and hesitating voice, and with downcast eyes.
"The senior clerk shook his grey locks sadly! sadly he shook his thin grey locks, for he grieved at the sight which he saw. 'Twas sad to see the energies of this young man thus sapped in his early youth by the all-absorbing strength of a hopeless passion. Crinoline was now, as it were, a household word at the Episcopal Audit Board. The senior clerk believed her to be cruel, and as he knew for what object these two hours of idleness were requested, he shook his thin grey locks in sorrow.
"'I'll be back at three, sir, punctual,' said Macassar.
"'But, Mr. Jones, you are absent nearly every day for the same period.'
"'To-day shall be the last; to-day shall end it all,' said Macassar, with a look of wretched desperation.
"'What--what would Sir Gregory say?' said the senior clerk.
"Macassar Jones sighed deeply. Nature had not made the senior clerk a cruel man; but yet this allusion _was_ cruel. The young Macassar had drunk deeply of the waters that welled from the fountain of Sir Gregory's philosophy. He had been proud to sit humbly at the feet of such a Gamaliel; and now it rent his young heart to be thus twitted with the displeasure of the great master whom he so loved and so admired.
"'Well, go, Mr. Jones,' said the senior clerk, 'go, but as you go, resolve that to-morrow you will remain at your desk. Now go, and may prosperity attend you!'