I think this is yet another case of Victorian male friendships looking gay to modern readers because modern men aren't allowed to have as many emotions as Victorian men were.
Knowing that this novel was published in the 1880s, I'm just going to say that it reads as very platonic to me (and yes, this is a novel I've ready many times over so I'm not talking out of my arse; it's even less gay in context).

Imagine if both characters were women. In that case, it wouldn't seem all that gay. Victorian men were allowed the same emotional friendships that modern women are allowed today.