He is a giant softie. Jo runs off to The Big City to work as a governess, and while she's happy with her work, she is unbearably lonely in the city. The Professor, though shy, is very perceptive and kind about that.

He also is her door to the kinds of culture that she hadn't had exposure to, like opera. He's an old-world egghead sort of fellow, and a giant romantic---the sort who runs off to her hometown to tell her that her book has been published, but when he runs into her childhood sweetheart (Laurie), he leaves the book and wanders off in woe.

But then of course they get married and set about moving from Little Women to Little Men, a far inferior book.