Tell me what to do to change your mind.

Gabriel.
This has to be his fault, somehow. I'm going to track him down, pluck out his angel feathers, and stuff a pillow with them.

Ah, there’s the governess voice. All stern and disapproving. It makes me feel like a naughty schoolboy.

It is essential to persuade the soldier that those he is being urged to massacre are bandits who do not deserve to live; before killing other good, decent fellows like himself, his gun would fall from his hands

"For your own good" is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction.

The young mind is pliable and imitates, but in more advanced states grows rigid and must be warmed and softened before it will receive a deep impression.