This ended, all rose and knelt down, Isaac with the point of his elbow just touching the point of Eliza's elbow, for he comforted his conscience over this tender advance by the reflection that marriage, though distant, was a sacred thing; and he made up for his unspiritual behaviour to a great extent by saying the "Amens" in a much louder voice than Cook, and finished off in the short space of silence after the Master of the Ceremonies had read the last Collect, and when all were expected to continue their genuflexions till that personage sighed and made a movement as if to rise, by adding a short extempore prayer of his own, one which he had repeated religiously for the past four years without effect, the supplication being: "And finally, may we all get the arrears of our wages, evermore.
"The Master of the Ceremonies"
George Manville Fenn
His facility was not less astonishing, and I have heard repeated some of his flashes of epigram enclosed in polished verse which it would be hard to believe were extempore but for the circumstances under which they were inspired.
"The History of "Punch""
M. H. Spielmann
For the first time in my life I prayed extempore.
"Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ"
Rev. A. Bernstein, B.D.