It always seemed to him as if his friend shared his right to the child; and he thought it a sort of presumption to scold Ernest, though he very often swore at Cuthbert.

As the younger son grew up, it certainly was evident that Cleveland did understand him better than his own father did; and so, as I have before said, on Cleveland the father was not displeased passively to shift the responsibility of the rearing.
Perhaps Mr.Maltravers might not have been so indifferent, had Ernest's prospects been those of a younger son in general.

If a profession had been necessary for him, Mr.Maltravers would have been naturally anxious to see him duly fitted for it.

But from a maternal relation Ernest inherited an estate of about four thousand pounds a year; and he was thus made independent of his father.

This loosened another tie between them; and so by degrees Mr.Maltravers learned to consider Ernest less as his own son, to be advised or rebuked, praised or controlled, than as a very affectionate, promising, engaging boy, who, somehow or other, without any trouble on his part, was very likely to do great credit to his family, and indulge his eccentricities upon four thousand pounds a year.