The hero of the story is a Venetian, named (for some unknown reason) Ivan di Sorno.  So far as I ascertained, he is the entire house of Di Sorno referred to in the title.  No other Di Sornos transpired.  Like others in the story, he is possessed of untold wealth, tempered by a profound sorrow, for some cause which remains unmentioned, but which is possibly internal.  He is first displayed “pacing a sombre avenue of ilex and arbutus that reflected with singular truth the gloom of his countenance,” and “toying sadly with the jewelled hilt of his dagger.”  He meditates upon his loveless life and the burthen of riches.  Presently he “paces the long and magnificent gallery,” where a “hundred generations of Di Sornos, each with the same flashing eye and the same marble brow, look down with the same sad melancholy upon the beholder”—­a truly monotonous exhibition.  It would be too much for anyone, day after day.  He decides that he will travel.  Incognito.

The next chapter is headed “In Old Madrid,” and Di Sorno, cloaked to conceal his grandeur, “moves sad and observant among the giddy throng.”  But “Gwendolen”—­the majestic Gwendolen of the balcony—­“marked his pallid yet beautiful countenance.”  And the next day at the bull-fight she “flung her bouquet into the arena, and turning to Di Sorno”—­a perfect stranger, mind you—­“smiled commandingly.”  “In a moment he had flung himself headlong down among the flashing blades of the toreadors and the trampling confusion of bulls, and in another he stood before her, bowing low with the recovered flowers in his hand.  ‘Fair sir,’ she said, ‘methinks my poor flowers were scarce worth your trouble.’” A very proper remark.  And then suddenly I put the manuscript down.

My heart was full of pity for Euphemia.  Thus had she gone a-dreaming.  A man of imposing physique and flashing eye, who would fling you oxen here and there, and vault in and out of an arena without catching a breath, for his lady’s sake—­and here I sat, the sad reality, a lean and slippered literary pretender, and constitutionally afraid of cattle.

Poor little Euphemia!  For after all is said and done, and the New Woman gibed out of existence, I am afraid we do undeceive these poor wives of ours a little after the marrying is over.  It may be they have deceived themselves, in the first place, but that scarcely affects their disappointment.  These dream-lovers of theirs, these monsters of unselfishness and devotion, these tall fair Donovans and dark worshipping Wanderers!  And then comes the rabble rout of us poor human men, damning at our breakfasts, wiping pens upon our coat sleeves, smelling of pipes, fearing our editors, and turning Euphemia’s private boxes into public copy.  And they take it so steadfastly—­most of them.  They never let us see the romance we have robbed them of, but turn to and make the best of it—­and us—­with such sweet grace.  Only now and then—­as in the instance of a flattened hat—­may a cry escape them.  And even then——­