of Lionel, as a favored 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 society of youths of his own age—the age of wild spirits and unreflecting imitation—unless he cling to the safeguard which is found in hard reading, less by the book-knowledge it bestows than by the serious and preoccupied mind which it abstracts from the coarser temptations."
But Lionel, younger in character than in years, was too boyish as yet to be safely consigned to those trials of tact and temper which await the neophyte who enters on life through the doors of a mess-room. His pride was too morbid—too much on the alert for offence; his frankness too crude, his spirit too untamed by the insensible discipline of social commerce.
Quoth the observant Man of the World: "Place his honor in his own keeping, and he will carry it about with him on full cock, to blow off a friend's head or his own before the end of the first month. Huffy—decidedly huffy. And of all causes that disturb regiments, and induce court-martials, the commonest cause is a huffy lad! Pity! for that youngster has in him the right metal—spirit and talent that should make him a first-rate soldier. It would be time well spent, that should join professional studies
