And now I take the liberty;--for it is a liberty--"
"Oh no."
"Because I feel so anxious that you should do nothing to mar your
chances as a rising man."
"You are only too kind to me,--always."
"I know how clever you are, and how excellent are all your instincts;
but I see that you are a little impetuous. I wonder whether you will
be angry if I take upon myself the task of mentor."
"Nothing you could say would make me angry,--though you might make me
very unhappy."
"I will not do that if I can help it. A mentor ought to be very old,
you know, and I am infinitely older than you are."
"I should have thought it was the reverse;--indeed, I may say that I
know that it is," said Phineas.
"I am not talking of years. Years have very little to do with the
comparative ages of men and women. A woman at forty is quite old,
whereas a man at forty is young." Phineas, remembering that he had
put down Mr. Kennedy's age as forty in his own mind, frowned when
he heard this, and walked about the room in displeasure. "And
therefore," continued Lady Laura, "I talk to you as though I were a
kind of grandmother."
"You shall be my great-grandmother if you will only be kind enough to
me to say what you really think."
"You must not then be so impetuous, and you must be a little
more careful to be civil to persons to whom you may not take any
particular fancy.
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