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Darrell's active career once, and his rigid seclusion of late, could
not have established with any idle denizen of that brilliant society
in which Colonel Morley moved and had his being, yet to Alban Morley's
heart (a heart not easily reached) no friend was so dear as Guy Darrell.
They had entered Eton on the same day, left it the same day, lodged
while there in the same house; and though of very different characters,
formed one of those strong, imperishable, brotherly affections which the
Fates weave into the very woof of existence.

Darrell's recommendation would have secured to any young protege Colonel
Morley's gracious welcome and invaluable advice. But, both as Darrell's
acknowledged kinsman and as Charles Haughton's son, Lionel called forth
his kindliest sentiments and obtained his most sagacious deliberations.
He had already seen the boy several times before waiting on Mrs.
Haughton, deeming it would please her to defer his visit until she could
receive him in all the glories of Gloucester Place; and he had taken
Lionel into high favour and deemed him worthy of a conspicuous place
in the world. Though Darrell in his letter to Colonel Morley had
emphatically distinguished the position of Lionel, as a favoured
kinsman, from that of a presumptive or even a probable heir, yet
the rich man had also added: "But I wish him to take rank as the
representative to the Haughtons; and, whatever I may do with the bulk of
my fortune, I shall insure to him a liberal independence. The completion
of his education, the adequate allowance to him, the choice of a
profession, are matters in which I entreat you to act for yourself,
as if you were his guardian. I am leaving England: I may be abroad for
years." Colonel Morley, in accepting the responsibilities thus pressed
on him, brought to bear upon his charge subtle discrimination, as well
as conscientious anxiety.

He saw that Lionel's heart was set upon the military profession, and
that his power of application seemed lukewarm and desultory when not
cheered and concentred by enthusiasm, and would, therefore, fail him if
directed to studies which had no immediate reference to the objects of
his ambition. The Colonel, accordingly, dismissed the idea of sending
him for three years to a university. Alban Morley summed up his theories
on the collegiate ordeal in these succinct aphorisms: "Nothing so good
as a university education, nor worse than a university without its
education. B