Gradually it had come to be understood, rather by tacit agreement
among the society which frequented these reunions than in obedience
to any desire expressed by the Marchese on the subject, that on the
Sunday evening ladies were expected; and on those days a sister-in-
law of the Marchese, the widow of a younger brother, was always
there to do the honours of the Palazzo Castelmare. The Wednesday
evening parties had come to be meetings of gentlemen only. And on
these occasions one marked element of the society consisted of all
that the city possessed in the way of professors of natural science.
For the Marchese was, in a mild way, fond of such pursuits, and had
a special liking for anatomical inquiries and experiments.
In one respect only could the world fail to be wholly and perfectly
contented with the Marchese Lamberto di Castelmare. At the age of
fifty he was still a bachelor! Not that the continuance of the noble
line of Castelmare was thereby compromised. The sister-in-law
already mentioned had a son, a young man of two-and-twenty, at the
time in question, who was the heir to the wealth and honours of the
house, and who, it was to be hoped, would also inherit all that
accumulated treasure of public esteem and respect which his uncle
had been so uninterruptedly laying up. Neither could a social
objection to the Marchese's bachelorhood be raised on the score of
any such laxity of moral conduct as the world is wont to expect, and
to tolerate with more or less of indulgence, in persons so free from
special ties.
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