Phyllis of Philistia

ister who had found it convenient to adopt a course diametrically opposed to the principle involved in his early speeches. He chuckled, reading the extracts

ith himself, he was satisfied wit

t one!" he said. There was a pause bef

ast deliverances of another clergyman in order to confou

he believed her powers would be wasted as the wife of a ma

on his shirt front, "dearest papa, I will not leave you. I don't want t

hair. No, no, he said; he would not be selfish. He would rem

she should be a trifle hysterical in anticipating her new life-that strange untraveled country! Ah, is there anything more pathetic, he thought, than a girl's anticipations of wifehood? But he would do his duty, and

ch points as the sacredness of an engagement between a man and a woman. It was a contract practically as abiding as marriage, in the eyes of Philistia; and, indeed, Phyllis herself had held this belief, and had never hesitated to express it. So nothing was le

ok at which he had been working for some time. It came out just when the girl was becoming resigned to

m the standpoint of the comparative philologist; not from the standpoint of the comparative mythologist, but from the standpoint of the modern man of common sense and average power of disc

saac did not call for elaborate notice. He could not be accused of any actual crime, but if he was a man of strong personality, he was singularly unfortunate in having failed to impart to his wife any of that integrity which he may have practiced through life. Her methods of dealing with him after they had lived together for a good many years were criminal, considering the largeness of the issue at stake as th

rst and rapacity had no parallel in history. How could it be expected that a kingdom founded upon the massacre of men and cemented by the blood of women and children should survive? It had survived only as example to the world of the impossibility of a permanent success being founded upon the atrocious methods pursued by the worst of the robber states of the East. While civili

h was shown to be one of the most heroic of womankind, making greater s

ngness to give up her God at the bidding of another woman, and who had entered i

of the most revolting transactions in history, especially as there is some reason to believe that the unfortun

f course, be expected to have examined, from any standpoint but that of the clergyman, the characters of the persons dealt with in the book, and he was naturally shocked at the freedom shown by the rector of St. Chad's in criticising men whose names have been held in the highest esteem for some thousands of years. He at once perceived that the rector of St. Chad's had been very narrow-minded in his views regarding the conduct of the men whom he had attacked. It occurred to him, as it had to Mr. Ayrton, that the writer had drawn his picture without any regard for perspective. That was very foolish on the part of a man who was a Fellow of his college, the bishop thought; and besides, there was no need for the book-its tendency was not to help the weaker brethren. But to assume that the

g of the Bible; and when he came to the chapter in "Revised Versions" that dealt with the ep

naked brown-skinned women followed the binders, gleaning the ears, and among the women was the one who had said, "Entreat me not to leave thee." He had read that old pastoral when he was a child at the knee of his mother. It wa

land called Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob

lf only to think the adjectives which laymen find appropri

If the Rev. George Holland fancied that he was to be persecuted into popularity, the Rev. George Holland

he had read the book through, and found it was so cleverly wr

Great Heavens! Was it possible that she was actually at that moment engaged to marry the man who had written such a book-a boo

without a word of consultation with her father, she sat down at her desk and wrote a letter to George Holland, asking him to release her from her promise to mar

Then a copy of "Revised Versions" arrived for her from the author, and with the ink still wet upon the

in love with a man when she kisses the cover of a book which he has just published. That is what George

would find it convenient to see him, in order to give him an opportunity of making an explanation which he trusted would enable her to se

m know that she would be at home at four o'clock; and now she sat in her drawing

ast tone had died away, the footma