After these came innumerable little boys bearing little bells, which made little noises in comparison to the Big Tom that preceded them.

“It's sleeting cats and dogs.” Jellyneck's sneakers squished as he headed for the cloakroom, ignoring the question. “Oscar.” Miss Granberry looked up from her desk. “Drape your jacket across the radiator to dry.”

A kind of witty complicity emerges occasionally from Jonson’s treatment of his disguisers, to suggest that he was taken with their arts in spite of himself.

I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my sister would want to go to the concert.