She and Mrs. Ostier were the first of a long line of women whose help and approval he was to enjoy and rely upon throughout his life—a humanizing, counterdogmatic influence that mattered a great deal to him. Not that he was sexually precocious—far from it. At puberty he began to worship an occasional schoolgirl from afar, like most middle-class boys. But it was older women whose company he sought. He could learn from them, and he found them easy to get on with.
Source: wiktionary