If you had other friends whom you could consult I would rather have given you no advice, for there is no more serious matter than to say anything which might influence the career of a young fellow just starting in life.

Terrible harm often results from well intentioned advice or opinions carelessly expressed to young men by their elders; it is a matter which few men are sufficiently careful about; but as I know that you have no friends to consult, Ned, and as I regard you with more than interest, I may say with affection, I think it would be well for you to tell me all that there is in your mind before you take a step which may wreck your whole life.
"I have been waiting for some months in hopes that you would open your mind to me, for I have seen that you were unhappy; but it was not for me to force your confidence." "I don't know that there's much to tell," Ned said wearily.

"Everything has happened just as it was certain it would do.

Mulready is a brute; he ill treats my mother, he ill treats Charlie and Lucy, and he would ill treat me if he dared." "All this is bad, Ned," Mr.Porson said gravely; "but of course much depends upon the amount of his ill treatment.

I assume that he does not actively ill treat your mother." "No," Ned said with an angry look in his face; "and he'd better not." "Yes, Ned, he had better not, no doubt," Mr.Porson said soothingly; "but what I want to know, what it is essential I should know if I am to give you any advice worth having, is what you mean by ill treatment--is he rough and violent in his way with her?
does he threaten her with violence?
is he coarse and brutal ?" "No," Ned said somewhat reluctantly; "he is not that, sir; he is always snapping and snarling and finding fault." "That is bad, Ned, but it does not amount to ill treatment.