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