David and Emily are approximately the same age, but where David seemed flattered by the suggestion that he is growing up, he reacts with discomfort to the idea that Emily is as well. On some level, this might simply be a reflection of his old wish to remain a child with her forever. In light of the novel's later events, however, it also perhaps points to David's (and the era's) discomfort with adult female sexuality. Emily is the most flirtatious of the novel's female characters, and she ultimately has an affair out of wedlock. David's anxiety about her becoming a woman possibly hints at her sexual "looseness."