The man's pale lip curled into a sinister sneer, and he glided back to his seat.

There, leaning his face on his hand, he continued to contemplate the child.

That child might have furnished to an artist a fitting subject for fair and blooming infancy.

His light hair, tinged deeply, it is true, with red, hung in sleek and glittering abundance down his neck and shoulders.

His features, seen in profile, were delicately and almost femininely proportioned; health glowed on his cheek, and his form, slight though it was, gave promise of singular activity and vigour.