"I respect your honest prejudices in favor of those boys of mine with all my heart.

But you are _so_ wrong about them--you are indeed! I wish to give no offense; I speak quite impartially--but mark my words, Vanstone: they'll all three turn out ill, in spite of everything you can do to prevent it." In later years, when Frank had reached the age of seventeen, the same curious shifting of the relative positions of parent and friend between the two neighbors was exemplified more absurdly than ever.

A civil engineer in the north of England, who owed certain obligations to Mr.
Vanstone, expressed his willingness to take Frank under superintendence, on terms of the most favorable kind.

When this proposal was received, Mr.Clare, as usual, first shifted his own character as Frank's father on Mr.Vanstone's shoulders--and then moderated his neighbor's parental enthusiasm from the point of view of an impartial spectator.
"It's the finest chance for Frank that could possibly have happened," cried Mr.Vanstone, in a glow of fatherly enthusiasm.
"My good fellow, he won't take it," retorted Mr.Clare, with the icy composure of a disinterested friend.
"But he _shall_ take it," persisted Mr.Vanstone.
"Say he shall have a mathematical head," rejoined Mr.Clare; "say he shall possess industry, ambition, and firmness of purpose.

Pooh! pooh! you don't look at him with my impartial eyes.