“But my father, I am sure, would not have been angry with you. He would have said you had a right to do it.”

“Perhaps; but the earl is not the master I mean.”

“Who is, then?”

“Jesus Christ.”

“O—oh!”

“He says I must not return evil for evil, a blow for a blow. I don’t mind what people say about it: he would not have me disgrace myself! He never even threatened those that struck him.”

“But he wasn’t a man, you know!”

“Not a man! What was he then?”

“He was God, you know.”

“And isn’t God a man—and ever so much more than a man?”