The Marchese Lamberto was the wealthiest noble in Ravenna, and--putting aside his friend the Cardinal Legate--was, in many other respects, the first and foremost man of the city.

He was a bachelor of some fifty years old.

And bachelors' houses and bachelors' balls have the reputation of enjoying the privilege of a somewhat freer and more unreserved gaiety and jollity than those of their neighbours more heavily weighted with the cares and responsibilities of life.

But such was not the case at the Palazzo Castelmare.

Presided over on such occasions as that of the great annual Carnival ball by a widowed sister-in-law of the Marchese, the Castelmare palace was the most decorous and respectable house, as its master was the most decorous and respectable man, in Ravenna.
Not that it was a dull house.