bull in a china shop

This is a guy who has his son-in-law clean his eyeglasses, for crying out loud.

But at the instant I caught a sight of my counterfeit presentment in a shop window, and veiled my haughty crest.

The well-known "cock and bull" stories of small children are inspired by this love of strong effect.

Now-a-days it is the bankrupt who flouts, and his too confiding creditors who are jeered and laughed at.

Distance, the uncertain light, and imagination, magnified it to a high wall; high as the wall of China.

Then a fat, untidy old man appeared in the doorway of a cubicle within the shop, and Edwin Clayhanger blushed.