Phyllis of Philistia

Phyllis of Philistia

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Phyllis of Philistia, by Frank
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Title: Phyllis of Philistia
Author: Frank Frankfort Moore
Release Date: March 25, 2006 [EBook #2155]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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OF PHILISTIA ***

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PHYLLIS OF PHILISTIA
By Frank Frankfort Moore
CHAPTER I.
AN ASTRONOMER WITHOUT A TELESCOPE.

"After all," said Mr. Ayrton, "what is marriage?"
"Ah!" sighed Phyllis. She knew that her father had become possessed
of a phrase, and that he was anxious to flutter it before her to see how it
went. He was a connoisseur in the bric-a-brac of phrases.
"Marriage means all your eggs in one basket," said he.
"Ah!" sighed Phyllis once more. She wondered if her father really
thought that she would be comforted in her great grief by a phrase. She
did not want to know how marriage might be defined. She knew that all
definitions are indefinite. She knew that in the case of marriage
everything depends upon the definer and the occasion.
"So you see there is no immediate cause to grieve, my dear," resumed
her father.
She did not quite see that this was the logical conclusion of the whole
matter; but that was possibly because she was born a woman, and felt
that marriage is to a woman what a keel is to a ship.
"I think there is a very good cause to grieve when we find a man like
George Holland turning deliberately round from truth to falsehood,"
said Phyllis sternly.
"And what's worse, running a very good chance of losing his living,"
remarked the father. "Of course it will have to be proved that Moses
and Abraham and David and the rest of them were not what he says
they were; and it strikes me that all the bench of bishops, and a royal
commissioner or two thrown in, would have considerable difficulty in
doing that nowadays."
"What! You take his part, papa?" she cried, starting up. "You take his
part? You think I was wrong to tell him--what I did tell him?"
"I don't take his part, my dear," said Mr. Ayrton. "I think that he's a bit
of a fool to run his head into a hornet's nest because he has come to the
conclusion that Abraham's code of morality was a trifle shaky, and that

Samson was a shameless libertine. Great Heavens! has the man got no
notion of the perspective of history?"
"Perspective? History? It's the Bible, papa!"
Indignation was in Phyllis' eyes, but there was a reverential tone in her
voice. Her father looked at her--listened to her. In the pause he thought:
"Good Heavens! What sort of a man is George Holland, who is ready to
relinquish the love and loveliness of that girl, simply because he thinks
poorly of the patriarchs?"
"He attacks the Bible, papa," resumed Phyllis gravely. "What horrible
things he said about Ruth!"
"Ah, yes, Ruth--the heroine of the harvest festival," said her father. "Ah,
he might have left us our Ruth. Besides, she was a woman. Heavens
above! is there no chivalry remaining among men?"
"Ah, if it was only chivalry! But--the Bible!"
"Quite so--the--yes, to be sure. But don't you think you may take the
Bible too seriously, Phyllis?"
"Oh, papa! too seriously?"
"Why not? That's George Holland's mistake, I fear. Why should he
work himself to a fury over the peccadillos of the patriarchs? The
principle of the statute of limitations should be applied to such cases. If
the world, and the colleges of theology, have dealt lightly with Samson
and David and Abraham and Jacob and the rest of them for some
thousands of years, why should George Holland rake up things against
them, and that, too, on very doubtful evidence? But I should be the last
person in the world to complain of the course which he has seen fit to
adopt, since it has left you with me a little longer, my dearest child. I
did not, of course, oppose your engagement, but I have often asked
myself what I should do without you? How should I ever work up my
facts, or, what is more important, my quotations, in your absence,

Phyllis? On some questions, my dear, you are a veritable
Blue-book--yes, an _edition de luxe_ of a Blue-book."
"And I meant to be so useful to him as well," said Phyllis, taking her
father's praises more demurely than she had taken his phrases. "I