.
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.