People said that the account given by the family must
be true, since it was absurd to suppose that a child just out of
the convent could be either so foolish or so courageous as to go
out alone at such a moment. No other hypothesis was in the least
tenable, and the demonstration offered must be accepted as giving
the only solution of the problem. San Giacinto told no one that he
thought differently.
It was before all things his intention to establish himself firmly
in Roman society, and his natural tact told him that the best way
to accomplish this was to offend no one, and to endorse without
question the opinion of the majority. Moreover, as a part of his
plan for assuring his position consisted in marrying Faustina's
sister, his interest lay manifestly in protecting the good name of
her family by every means in his power. He knew that old
Montevarchi passed for being one of the most rigid amongst the
stiff company of the strait-laced, and that the prince was as
careful of the conduct of his children, as his father had formerly
been in regard to his own doings. Ascanio Bellegra was the result
of this home education, and already bid fair to follow in his
parent's footsteps. Christian virtues are certainly not
incompatible with manliness, but the practice of them as
maintained by Prince Montevarchi had made his son Ascanio a
colourless creature, rather non-bad than good, clothed in a
garment of righteousness that fitted him only because his harmless
soul had no salient bosses of goodness, any more than it was
disfigured by any reprehensible depressions capable of harbouring
evil.
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