'Dear me, six will be changed to sixteen, before we have time to look about us.' 'Ten years,' croaked the unsympathetic Pipchin, with a frosty glistening of her hard grey eye, and a dreary shaking of her bent head, 'is a long time.' 'It depends on circumstances, returned Mr Dombey; 'at all events, Mrs Pipchin, my son is six years old, and there is no doubt, I fear, that in his studies he is behind many children of his age--or his youth,' said Mr Dombey, quickly answering what he mistrusted was a shrewd twinkle of the frosty eye, 'his youth is a more appropriate expression.

Now, Mrs Pipchin, instead of being behind his peers, my son ought to be before them; far before them.

There is an eminence ready for him to mount upon.
There is nothing of chance or doubt in the course before my son.

His way in life was clear and prepared, and marked out before he existed.

The education of such a young gentleman must not be delayed.