“But why then do people use them so harshly?”
“Thou hadst better ask the people,” answered Bruno, drily.
“Father, is it right to use Jews so?”
“Thou hadst better ask the Lord.”
“What does He say, Father?”
“He said, speaking to Abraham, the father of them all, ‘I will bless him that blesseth thee, and curse him that curseth thee.’”
“Oh, I am so glad!” cried Doucebelle. “If you please, Father, I could not help loving Belasez: but I tried hard not to do so, because I thought it was wicked. It cannot be wrong to love a Jew, if Christ Himself were one.”
Bruno did not reply immediately. When he did, it was with a slight quiver in his voice which surprised Doucebelle.
“It can never be wrong to love,” he said. “But, daughter, let not thy love stop at liking the maid’s company. Let it go on till thou canst take it into Heaven.”
The strangest of all strange ideas was this to Doucebelle. She had been taught that love was always a weakness, and only too frequently a sin. That so purely earthly a thing could be taken into Heaven astonished her beyond measure.