Two on a Tower - Page 123/147

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Swithin St. Cleeve, don't make a fool of yourself, as your father did.

If your studies are to be worth anything, believe me they must be carried on

without the help of a woman. Avoid her, and every one of the sex, if you

mean to achieve any worthy thing. Eschew all of that sort for many a

year yet. Moreover, I say, the lady of your acquaintance avoid in

particular. . . . She has, in addition to her original disqualification

as a companion for you (that is, that of sex), these two special

drawbacks: she is much older than yourself--' Lady Constantine's indignant flush forsook her, and pale despair

succeeded in its stead. Alas, it was true. Handsome, and in her prime,

she might be; but she was too old for Swithin!

'And she is so impoverished. . . . Beyond this, frankly, I don't think

well of her. I don't think well of any woman who dotes upon a man

younger than herself. . . . To care to be the first fancy of a young

fellow like you shows no great common sense in her. If she were worth

her salt she would have too much pride to be intimate with a youth in

your unassured position, to say no more.' (Viviette's face by this time

tingled hot again.) 'She is old enough to know that a liaison with her

may, and almost certainly would, be your ruin; and, on the other hand,

that a marriage would be preposterous--unless she is a complete fool; and

in that case there is even more reason for avoiding her than if she were

in her few senses.

'A woman of honourable feeling, nephew, would be careful to do nothing to

hinder you in your career, as this putting of herself in your way most

certainly will. Yet I hear that she professes a great anxiety on this

same future of yours as a physicist. The best way in which she can show

the reality of her anxiety is by leaving you to yourself.' Leaving him to himself! She paled again, as if chilled by a conviction that in this the old man was right.

'She'll blab your most secret plans and theories to every one of her

acquaintance, and make you appear ridiculous by announcing them before

they are matured. If you attempt to study with a woman, you'll be ruled

by her to entertain fancies instead of theories, air-castles instead of

intentions, qualms instead of opinions, sickly prepossessions instead of

reasoned conclusions. . . .

'An experienced woman waking a young man's passions just at a moment when

he is endeavouring to shine intellectually, is doing little less than

committing a crime.'