In his wildest passions of grief or wrath, it was only necessary to say to the child, "If the earl could see you!" to make him pause; and many and many a time, whenever motherly authority, which in this case was weakened by occasional over-indulgence and by an almost morbid terror of the results of the same, failed to conquer the child, Helen used, as a last resource, to bring him in her arms, set him down beside Lord Cairnforth, and leave him there.

She never came back but she found Boy "good".
"He makes me good, too, I think," the earl would say now and then, "for he makes me happy." It was true.

Lord Cairnforth never looked otherwise than happy when he had beside him that little blossom of hope of the new generation-- Helen's child.
As years went by, though he still lived alone at the Castle, it was by no means the secluded life of his youth and early manhood.

He gradually gathered about him neighbors and friends.

He filled his house occasionally with guests, of his own rank and of all ranks; people notable and worthy to be known.