Sarti, Caterina, called Tina

An affectionate and beautiful Italian girl with a fine voice, who is brought up by Sir Christopher and Lady Cheverel. "You are at once arrested by her large dark eyes, which, in their inexpressive unconscious beauty, resemble the eyes of a fawn; and it is only by an effort of attention that you notice the absence of bloom on her young cheek, and the southern yellowish tint of her small neck and face, rising above the little black lace kerchief which prevents the too immediate comparison of her skin with her white muslin gown. Her large eyes seem all the more striking because the dark hair is gathered away from her face, under a little cap set at the top of her head, with a cherry colored bow on one side. "With one exception, her only talent lay in loving ; and there, it is probable, the most astronomical of women could not have surpassed her. Orphan and protegee though she was, this supreme talent of hers found plenty of exercise at Cheverel Manor . . . the one other exceptional talent, you already guess, was music." "Said Mr. Bates, 'for she hasn't the cut of a gell as must work for her bread; she's as nesh an' dilicate as a paichblossom—welly laike a linnet, wi' on'y joost body anoof to hold her voice.' " She falls in love with the handsome unscrupulous Captain Wybrow, and when he heartlessly forsakes her for Miss Assher, she is maddened by jealousy. She goes to meet him in the Rookery, thinking that she will kill him. When she reaches the Rookery she finds him dead. Many months later, when she has partially recovered from the shock, her affectionate heart leads her to marry Mr. Gilfil, her faithful lover, but she lives only a few months after their marriage. The prototype of Caterina was Sally Shilton, a young girl with a beautiful voice who has brought up and educated by Lady Newdigate ("Lady Cheverel"). Sally Shilton married Bernard Gilpin Ebdell (" Maynard Gilfil ") but did not die at an early age, as did Caterina. (See Newdigate, The Cheverels, pp. 75, 220, 228.)

<em>Mr. Gilfil's Love Story, Scenes of Clerical Life</em>

Text