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. 'God bless you, Macassar Jones,', said he, 'God bless you!' "He too had once been young, had once loved, had once hoped and feared, and hoped again, and had once knelt at the feet of beauty. But alas! he had knelt in vain. "'May God be with you, Macassar Jones,' said he, as he walked out of the office door with his coloured bandana pressed to his eyes. 'May God be with you, and make your bed fruitful!' "'For the loveliest lady that ever was seen Is the lovely Lady Crinoline,' shouted the junior clerks, still dancing in mad glee round the happy lover. "We have said that they all joined in this kindly congratulation to their young friend. But no. There was one spirit there whom envy had soured, one whom the happiness of another had made miserable, one whose heart beat in no unison with these jocund sounds. As Macassar's joy was at its height, in the proud moment of his triumph, a hated voice struck his ears, and filled his soul with dismay once more. "'There's two to one still on the Lying-in,' said this hateful Lucifer. "And so Macassar was not all happy even yet, as he walked home to his lodgings. "CHAPTER VI "We have but one other scene to record, but one short scene, and then our tale will be told and our task will be done. And this last scene shall not, after the usual manner of novelists, be that of the wedding, but rather one which in our eyes is of a much more enduring interest. Crinoline and Macassar were duly married in Bloomsbury Church. The dresses are said to have come from the house in Hanover Square. Crinoline behaved herself with perfect propriety, and Macassar went through his work like a man. When we have said that, we have said all that need be said on that subject.