He yearned--as he had yearned that night in Worcester--for the lad's affection, and yet, for all his yearning, he realized that with the conviction that Kenneth was his offspring came a dull sense of disappointment.

He was not such a son as the rakehelly knight would have had him.

Swiftly he put the thought from him.

The craven hands that had reared the lad had warped his nature; he would guide it henceforth; he would straighten it out into a nobler shape.
Then he smiled bitterly to himself.

What manner of man was he to train a youth to loftiness and honour ?--he, a debauched ruler with a nickname for which, had he any sense of shame, he would have blushed! Again he remembered the lad's disposition towards himself; but these, he thought, he hoped, he knew that he would now be able to overcome.
He closed the window, and turned to face his companion.