I don't know whether I was made to play a part in it or not.
I saw him, perhaps, twice a year, not oftener.

His manner was always, to me, peculiarly grave and kind; to every one, practical and unpretending.
I had many letters from him, particularly when I was away on journeys.
He seemed always to want to know exactly where I was, and to feel a care of me, though his letters never went beyond business matters, and advice about things I did not understand.
As my guardian, he could not have done less, nor was it necessary that he should do more; still I often wished it would occur to him to come and see me oftener, and give me an opportunity of showing him how much I had improved, and how different I had become.

I had the greatest respect for his opinion; and he had grown, unconsciously to myself, to be a sort of oracle with me, and a sort of hero, too.
I was apt to compare other men with him, and they fell very far short of his measure in my eyes.

That may have been because I saw him much too seldom, and the other men much too often..