Phyllis of Philistia [54]
"Even if you want to--a condition which doesn't apply to my case," said he. "My publishers admitted to me last week that they wouldn't rest easy if any newspaper appeared during the next month without my name being in its columns in some place."
"I'm sure they were delighted at the development of the /Spiritual Aneroid's/ attack upon you," said Phyllis.
"They told me I was a made man," said he.
She threw back her head--it was her way--and laughed. Her laughter-- all the grace of girlhood was in its ring; it was girlhood made audible--was lightening her fair face as she looked at him.
"How funny!" she cried. "You fight your way through the New Guinea forests; you are in daily peril of your life; you open up a new country, and yet you are not a made man until you are attacked by a wretched newspaper."
"That is the standpoint of the people who sell books, so you may depend upon its being the standpoint of the people who buy books," said he.
"I can quite believe it," said she. "Mr. Geraint, the novelist, took me down to dinner at Mrs. Lemuel's last night, and he told me that the only thing that will make people buy books is seeing the author's portrait in some of the illustrated papers, or hearing from some of the interviews which are published regarding him that he never could take sugar in his coffee. The reviews of his books are read only by his brother authors, and they never buy a book, Mr. Geraint says; but the interviews are read by the genuine buyers."
"Mr. Geraint knows his public, I'm sure."
"I fancy he does. He would be very amusing if he didn't aim so persistently at going one better than someone else in his anecdotes. People were talking at dinner about your having massacred the natives with dynamite--you did, you know, Mr. Courtland."
"Oh, yes; I have admitted so much long ago. There was no help for it."
"Well, of course everyone was laughing when papa told how the massacre came about, and this annoyed Mr. Geraint and induced him to tell a story about a poor woman who fancied that melinite was a sort of food for children that caused their portraits to appear in the advertisements; so she bought a tin of it and gave it all to her little boy at one meal. It so happened, however, that he became restless during the night and fell out of his cradle. That happened a year ago, Mr. Geraint said, and yet the street isn't quite ready for traffic yet."
"That little anecdote of Mr. Geraint makes me feel very meek. If at any time I am tempted to think with pride upon my dynamite massacre, I shall remember Mr. Geraint's story, and hang my head."
"We were all amused at Mr. Geraint's lively imagination, but much more so when Mr. Topham, the under-secretary, shook his head gravely, and said in his most dignified manner, that he thought the reported occurrence--the melinite incident--quite improbable. He was going on to explain that the composition of the explosive differed so materially from that of the food that it would be almost impossible for any mother to take the one for the other, when our hostess rose."
"Mr. Topham must have been disappointed. As a demonstrator of the obvious he has probably no equal even among the under-secretaries. You discussed him pretty freely in the drawing room afterward, I may venture to suggest."
"No; we discussed you, Mr. Courtland."
"A most unprofitable topic. From what standpoint--dynamite massacres?"
"From the standpoint of heredity, of course. Can you imagine any topic being discussed in a drawing room, nowadays, from any other standpoint? There was a dear old lady present, Mrs. Haddon, and she said she had been a friend of your mother's."
"So she was; I recollect her very well. I should like to go see her."
"She told us a great deal about your mother, and your sister--a sister to whom you were greatly attached."
Phyllis' voice had become low and serious; every tone suggested sympathy.
"I had such a sister," said he slowly. His eyes were not turned toward her. They were fixed upon a little model of St. Catherine of Siena,--a virgin