Limit wp_page_list ?

I’ve read through the codex that I think is relevant and I can’t find an answer.
I’m trying to dynamically limit the wp_page_list on my sidebar. I don’t want to get into excluding manually because that will require way too many sidebars.

Basically, I have about 40 child pages and I’d like to only show maybe the most recent 10 or 15 in my sidebar. Is there a way to do this?

This is what I’m using to display the list.

<?php
  if($post->post_parent)
  $children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->post_parent."&echo=0");
  else
  $children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->ID."&echo=0");
  if ($children) { ?>
  <?php echo $children; ?>
  <?php } ?>

[Please post code snippets between backticks or use the code button.]