ion, the girl attended the lady at her rude toilet,
rendering the assistance of a dressing maid.
Just before they left the room, Gentiliska, chancing to look out of the
window, uttered an exclamation of surprise and delight.
"What is it?" inquired Sybil.
"The captain's son! Oh! a beautiful boy, Mrs. Berners! An angel among
devils! He has been gone so long! And now he has unexpectedly come back
again. Look, Mrs. Berners! Oh! how I do wish somebody would deliver this
boy from this band! would save this pure young soul alive!" exclaimed
Gentiliska, with more feeling than Sybil had ever seen her display.
Following the glance of the girl's eye, the lady looked from the window.
Prepared as she had been by Gentiliska's praise to behold a boy of rare
beauty, she was really startled by the angelic loveliness of the lad
before her.
The charm was not alone in the soft bright golden hair that shone like a
halo around the fair, open forehead, nor in the straight brown
eye-brows, nor the clear blue eyes, nor the sweet serious mouth, nor in
the delicate blooming complexion; it was also in the expression of
earnest candor and trusting love that beamed from every feature of that
beautiful face.
"Yes, indeed; he looks like a seraph. What is his name?" inquired Sybil,
in a burst of admiration.
"It is Raphael."
"'Raphael!' an appropriate name. So might have looked the child-artist
Raphael, in his brightest days on earth. So may seem the love-angel
Raphael, to those who see him in their dreams," said Sybil, gazing, as
if spell-bound, on the beauty of the boy.
"There, he has passed in. Now let us go down to breakfast, where we
shall meet the little darling again. But look here! let me give you one
warning; take no notice of that child in his father's presence. Captain
Inconnu is intensely jealous of his beautiful boy, and visits that black
passion upon the poor lad's head," said Gentiliska, as they went below.
"Jealous of a boy of fourteen? (and the lad cannot be more;) what a
wretch!" cried Sybil, in honest indignation, as she followed her
conductress down stairs.
Breakfast was served in the back parlor, in the same rude style as the
supper of the night before had been.
As Sybil and Gentiliska entered the room, the captain left a group of
men among whom he had been standing, came forward, bade the lady
good-morning, took her hand and led her to a seat--not at the table, but
at the table-cloth, which, lacking a b
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