Wybrow, Captain Anthony

Sir Christopher Cheverel's nephew and heir; a handsome, irreproachable young dandy, incapable of any strong emotion. "If this young man had been less elegant in his person, he would have been remarked for the elegance of his dress. But the perfections of his slim, well-proportioned figure were so striking that no one but a tailor could notice the perfections of his velvet coat; and his small white hands, with their blue veins and taper fingers, quite eclipsed the beauty of his lace ruffles. The face, however—it was difficult to say why—was certainly not pleasing. Nothing could be more delicate than the blond complexion—its bloom set off by the powdered hair—than the veined overhanging eyelids, which gave an indolent expression to the hazel eyes ; nothing more finely cut than the transparent nostril and the short upper-lip. Perhaps the chin nd lower jaw were too small for an irreproachable profile, but the defect was on the side of that delicacy and finesse which was the distinctive characteristic of the whole person, and which was carried out in the clear brown arch of the eyebrows, and the marble smoothness of the sloping forehead." He deliberately wins the love of Caterina, his uncle's penniless protegee, without intending to marry her. In response to his uncle's wishes he becomes engaged to the beauty, Miss Assher, and gives no thought to the suffering he causes Caterina. When her jealousy annoys him, his weak heart causes his death. Charles Parker, nephew and heir of Sir Roger Newdigate ("Sir Christopher Cheverel") was, in the matter of his personal appearance, his relation to a rich and childless uncle and his sudden death, the original of Captain Wybrow. Captain Wybrow's love affair with Caterina is purely fictitious, however, as Sally Shilton ("Caterina") was only a child at the time of Charles Parker's marriage to Miss Anstruther ("Miss Assher"). (See Newdigate, The Cheverels, p. 228.)

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

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