“What precious babies they must be to sleep in the day!” he observed, disdainfully, as he planted himself without ceremony on the window seat. “I sit up until ten o’clock every night; sometimes I will not go to bed until mother goes.”
“‘Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,’
Master Rolf.”
“Wealthy means rich, doesn’t it? Well, Juddy said I shall be a rich man some day. I have got father’s watch and sword now, only mother locks them up until I am bigger. You are not rich, eh, Miss Fenton?” peeping into my face rather maliciously.
“No, Master Rolf,” I returned, quietly.
“Oh, I knew that you are only a nurse; I heard mother and Aunt Gay talking about you last night. Mother said you were a poor sort, and she wondered at Violet’s infatuation. She thought you stuck up and disagreeable, and not much to look at; a plain young woman, and very disrespectful. There, now!”
“Master Rolf,” I observed, calmly, and suppressing my inward wrath, “you call yourself a gentleman, but I assure you a savage shows more gentlemanly feeling than you. Don’t you know your mother’s words should be sacred, and you are bound in honour not to repeat them?” And then, as he seemed rather impressed at this, I told him how, even among savages and wild and uncultured nations, the sense of hospitality and gratitude was so strong that, when a man had partaken of bread and salt, broken the bread of fellowship, he was bound in honour not to betray or injure his host in any way; and I related to him an anecdote of an Armenian servant, who had long been faithful to his master, and had defended him in many dangers in his travels through a lawless country.
“The master,” I continued, “had vast treasures under his care, and he was greatly troubled when his servant said he must leave him. Judge what his feelings must have been when the man coolly told him that he had entered into a league with some banditti to rob him of his money; that it would be mean to remain in his service under these circumstances, and that he had given him warning of his intention, that he might defend himself, and that now they were equal.
“Even this lawless robber had some notions of honour, Master Rolf; while he ate his master’s bread and salt he was bound by his service not to injure him. Now you are only a little boy, but you ought to understand that you also are bound not to betray your mother or repeat her words, as long as you eat her bread and salt; that is the way people do so much mischief in the world, repeating things they know are not meant to be heard.”