Generally the family tie is a stronger one among the Italians than
among ourselves. In the upper classes, it is certainly so; and,
probably, among all classes. It may be thought strange, perhaps,
that this should be the case with a people whose lives are supposed
to be less pervaded by the sentiment of domesticity than our own.
The explanation may, however, perhaps be found in the greater and
more frequent disruption of family ties, which is caused by that
more active social movement, which pushes our younger sons away from
the parental stock in search of the means of founding families of
their own.
And one of the results of the Italian mode of living and feeling is
seen in the very common family ambition of Churchmen.
The little Violante then, as has been said, was a personage of some
importance, at least in the eyes of the Cardinal and his sister; and
when she was left an orphan, was at once taken to live with her
great-aunt, under the auspices of her Cardinal great-uncle. Both of
those remaining members of the family would have preferred that the
one remaining scion of the race should have been a boy; but--when
the young Contessa should be married, of course her name should be
thenceforward borne as part of that of the family; into which she
should marry,--as is so commonly the case in Italy, (many of the
oldest and most illustrious names in the peninsula having survived
to the present day solely by virtue of such arrangements); and the
Marliani be thus saved from extinction.
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