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.
Better throw a youth at once into the wider sphere of a capital--provided
you there secure to his social life the ordinary checks of good company,
the restraints imposed by the presence of decorous women, and men of
grave years and dignified repute--than confine him to the exclusive