Doubtless there were explanations between them as to that hapless expedition to the Pineta; and doubtless they were satisfactory.  Assuredly Ludovico never in his moments of most severe self-examination, sharpened, as such self-examination was, by the terrible nature of the result which had seemed to grow out of his conduct on that Ash Wednesday morning, could accuse himself of having done aught that could reasonably be held to leave at his door the responsibility of the events that had followed from it.  Italian men are not apt to bring into any prominence the idea that where evil or misfortune is found there fault of some kind must exist also.  They are content, for the most part, to accept the notion that all such matters are sufficiently accounted for by attributing them to “disgrazia”—­the absence of favour, that is to say—­the want of that favour at the Heavenly Court which it is on every occasion of life seen to be so necessary to successful well-being to possess at the Courts of Heaven’s ecclesiastical, or lay vice-gerents.

Paolina insisted on employing a part of the time which necessarily elapsed before her marriage in completing the engagement she had undertaken, and the promise she had made to her English patron.  But she found herself compelled to beg that some other specimen, chosen from among the wonderful wealth of early Christian art that remains at Ravenna, might be substituted for that in the choir of St. Apollinare.  She made the attempt to return to the scaffolding by the side of the window, but she found that her strength was unequal to the task.  She could not bear to look on the prospect from that window.  By agreement with her employer, some further figures from the mosaics in San Vitale were substituted for those which had originally been selected in St. Apollinare.  Her associations with the former church were of a more pleasant character; and Paolina never visited the desolate old building “in Classe” again.  When the specimens selected in lieu of those in the latter building had been completed, Paolina and her friend and protectress returned with them to Venice, where it had been arranged that they were to be delivered to the Director of the Gallery.

In the ensuing Carnival Ludovico came hither, and the marriage was there solemnized.  It is not intended to insinuate that he had not often made the journey from Ravenna to Venice in the interval.  More of his time was probably passed there than in his native city.  From Venice the newly married couple proceeded to Rome, and it was not till three or four years later, that the Marchese and Marchesa di Castelmare, bringing with them their two boys Lamberto and Ludovico, and their little Violante, the most exquisite little fairy that ever was seen, returned to make the Marchese’s ancestral palace, ancestral city, their home.