red to some persons, than a clergyman
should be at such a recital. But then George Holland was not as other
clergymen. He was quite devoid of the affectations of his cloth. He did
not consider it necessary to put the tips of his fingers together
and show more of the white portion of the pupil of his eye than a
straight-forward gaze entailed, when people talked of the overflowing of
a river in China and the consequent drowning of a quarter of a million
of men--that is to say, Chinamen. He was no more affected by such
tidings than the Emperor of China. He was infinitely more affected when
he read of the cold-blooded massacre by David, sometime King of Israel,
in order to purchase for himself a woman for whom he had conceived a
liking. He knew that the majority of clergymen considered it to be their
duty to preach funeral service over the drowned Chinamen, and to impress
upon their hearers that David was a man after God's own heart. He also
knew that the majority of clergymen preached annual sermons in aid
of the missionaries who did some yachting in the South Seas, and had
brought into existence the sin of nakedness among the natives, in order
that they might be the more easily swindled by those Christians who sold
them shoddy for calico, to purge them of their sin. George Holland could
not see his way to follow the example of his brethren in this respect.
He did not think that the Day of Judgment would witness the inauguration
of any great scheme of eternal punishment for the heathen in his
blindness who had been naked all his life without knowing it. He knew
that the heathen in his blindness had curiosity enough at his command to
inquire of the missionaries if the white beachcomber and his bottle of
square-face represented the product of centuries of Christianity, and
if they did not, why the missionaries did not evangelize the beachcomber
and his bottle off the face of the earth.

Phyllis, being well aware of George Holland's views, was not shocked at
the sound of his laughter at the true story of Mr. Courtland's dynamite
outrage at New Guinea; but all the same, she was glad that she was not
going to marry him.

He had not, however, been altogether uninteresting in her eyes while
sitting beside her, and that was something to record in his favor.

She drove home early, and running upstairs found herself face to face
with Ella Linton.

CHAPTER XX.

I HAVE HEARD THE PASSIONATE GALLOP OF THOSE FIERY-FOOTED STEEDS.