By being a squire first, the
servant of one, he learned to rise to the higher rank, that of servant of
all. His horse was tended, this armour observed, his sword and spear and
shield held to his hand, that he might have no trouble looking after
himself, but might be free, strong, unwearied, to shoot like an arrow to
the rescue of any and every one who needed his ready aid. There was a grand
heart of Christianity in that old chivalry, notwithstanding all its abuses
which must be no more laid to its charge than the burning of Jews and
heretics to Christianity. It was the lack of it, not the presence of it
that occasioned the abuses that coexisted with it. Train our Theodora as a
holy child-servant, and there will be no need to restrain any impulse of
wise affection from pouring itself forth upon her. My firm belief is that
we should then love and honour her far more than if we made her just like
one of our own."
"But what if she should turn out utterly unfit for it?"
"Ah! then would come an obstacle. But it will not come till that discovery
is made."
"But if we should be going wrong all the time?"
"Now, there comes the kind of care that never troubles me, and which I so
strongly object to.
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