"His love may last as long as the playthings do." But the earl was mistaken, as Helen knew.

His love-victory had been in something deeper than toys and "goodies." Even when their charm began to cease Boy still crept up to the little chair, and looked from the empty footboard up to the loving face, which no one, man, woman, or child, ever regarded without something far higher than pity.
And, by degrees, Boy, or "Carr"-- which, as being the diminutive for his second Christian name, Cardross, he was often called now--found a new attraction in his friend.

He would listen with wide-open eyes, and attention that never flagged, to the interminable "tories" which the earl told him, out of the same brilliant imagination which had once used to delight his uncles in the boat.

And so, little by little, the child and the man grew to be "a pair of friends"-- familiar and fond, but with a certain tender reverence always between them, which had the most salutary effect on the younger.
Whenever he was sick, or sorry, or naughty--and Master "Boy" could be exceedingly naughty sometimes--the voice which had most influence over him, the influence to which he always succumbed, came from the little wheeled chair.

No anger did he ever find there--no dark looks or sharp tones--but he found steady, unbending authority; the firm will which never passed over a single fault, or yielded to a single whim.