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