And many a holy struggle for the sake
Of duties sternly, faithfully fulfilled—
For which the anxious mind must watch and wake,
And the strong feelings of the heart be stilled,—
Goes by unheeded as the summer wind,
And leaves no memory and no trace behind!”
Mrs. Norton.
“Do you believe, cousin Grace, that the world is as disinterested as it was in the days of the ‘preux chevaliers, sans peur et sans reproche?’ ”
“I do, Frank; and even though you quote the great Edmund Burke, you will not convince me that the days of chivalry are gone! The days of knight-errantry are passed away, and well is it for society that they are so, but there is as much of the true chivalric spirit now existing as was to be found in the time of Richard of the Lion Heart.”
“Do you really believe this, Grace?”