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.