The fact was, however, that the Marchese was much oftener in the
Strada di Porta Sisi than anybody guessed. Besides the morning
visits, which were patent to all the world, who chose to take heed
of them, the Marchese very frequently spent those evenings there,
when the "Diva" did not sing; slinking out of the Palazzo
Castelmare, and taking all sorts of precautions to prevent any human
being--nephew, servants, friends, or strangers--from guessing the
secret of these nocturnal walks.
Such precautions were very needless; if anybody had noticed the
Marchese Lamberto passing under the shadow of the eaves in any part
of the city after nightfall, it would only have been supposed that
he was bound on some mission of beneficence, or good work of some
sort! And if even it had become known to a few persons given to
prying into what did not concern them, that the Marchese Lamberto di
Castelmare was not more immaculate in his conduct than his
neighbours, the only result would have been a few jests which he
would have never heard, and a few sly smiles which be would have
never seen.
But the Marchese could not look at the matter in this light. He felt
as if his fall from the social eminence on which he stood would have
been as a moral earthquake in Ravenna. The idea that such jests and
such smiles could exist, however unseen and unheard, would have been
intolerable to him.
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