"
Robert was silent a moment, evidently pursuing his picture in his mind.
Then, as if it were the final result of his train of thought, he added:
"Yes, Doctor, if you could only put a fresh charge into a half-exploded
rocket."
The doctor smiled.
"To remain always young, we need only do at every age what harmonises
with it."
Linden looked disappointed. But Thiel, without allowing himself to be
disturbed by it, continued:
"Are you not young at twenty? Well, play with a humming-top in the
streets at that age, and every one who passes will exclaim: 'What an old
clown! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?' At fifty you consider yourself
old. If, at fifty, you are a commander-in-chief or a chancellor,
everybody will say: 'So young a general; a minister so young!'"
Linden rose and went to the window. Thiel followed, laid his hand on his
shoulder, looked him directly in the eye, and said very earnestly:
"Believe me, dear Baron Linden, that is the secret of perpetual
youth--there is no other. A man in the forties is not old--unless he
cannot resolve to give up the conceits of a page.
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