The Way of a Lady: Rule Nine

A Lady is Charitable.
By her means she benefits the needy.

A person may be charitable for many reasons. It may be religious law or it may be pity or it may have social expectations. When it is suggested that a Lady is charitable we are not saying she is or isn't moved by these other arena's motives. A Lady will be charitable as Lady because she is a servant of Peace in the society she serves. Initially she adjusts herself and the home that surrounds her to produce the greatest peace for its inhabitants. She fends off large and small assaults on her primary objectives. Still, as she becomes efficient in her service and older in life both her time and affluence find room in their budget for broader choices. A Lady is always aware that her efforts at peace are bordering lives that are far from it. While a Lady may devote aspects of her time and money to her own family's enjoyments her nature suggests that she remedy and raise the lives in chaos that surround her own. This is not the charity that fills out a check for the Sudan. That is a good for other reasons. A Lady's charity is toward her tenantry. She provides otherwise unavailable goods to those who, by some definition, exist under the umbrella of an informal statement of her effects. A Lady is trying to root out the calamity of all kinds, at all levels inside the mandate given her standing. A Lady of lower establishment may only be able, given a low budget and time, to favor the next door neighbor or the physical needs of her friends. A better established Lady may cast a wider net. She has both ability and range to fuel her charities. Her husband's employees for instance or community wide demands are the possible gift area for a woman with such status. The sum is this. A Lady will satisfy the demands for peace inside her obligations and then she will consider her ability to assist the gravest problems that lie closest at hand outside her obligations.