Michael's father had appointed Wentworth as his son's guardian.

If it had been a jealous affection on Wentworth's part, it had also been a deep one.

And it had been returned with a single-hearted devotion on Michael's part which had gradually knit together the hearts of the older and the younger man, as it seemed indissolubly.

No one had come between them.

Once or twice Wentworth had become uneasy, suspicious of Michael's affection for his tutor at Eton, distrustful of the intimacies Michael formed with boys, and, later on, with men of his own age.