Perhaps she did not, in that change, recognise so closely the darling of the old time; perhaps the very weaknesses and importunities of Sidney, the hourly sacrifices the child entailed upon her, endeared the younger son more to her from that natural sense of dependence and protection which forms the great bond between mother and child; perhaps too, as Philip had been one to inspire as much pride as affection, so the pride faded away with the expectations that had fed it, and carried off in its decay some of the affection that was intertwined with it.
However this be, Philip had formerly appeared the more spoiled and favoured of the two: and now Sidney seemed all in all.

Thus, beneath the younger son's caressing gentleness, there grew up a certain regard for self; it was latent, it took amiable colours; it had even a certain charm and grace in so sweet a child, but selfishness it was not the less.

In this he differed from his brother.

Philip was self-willed: Sidney self-loving.

A certain timidity of character, endearing perhaps to the anxious heart of a mother, made this fault in the younger boy more likely to take root.