good grace and a sufficient show of cordiality.

San Giacinto, for his part, was deeply engaged in maintaining the
exact standard of manners which he knew to be necessary for the
occasion, and his thoughts concerning his relatives were not yet
altogether defined. It was his intention to take his place among
them, and he was doing his best to accomplish this object as
speedily and quietly as possible. He had not supposed that princes
and princesses were in any way different from other human beings
except by the accidents of wealth and social position. Master of
these two requisites there was no reason why he should not feel as
much at home with the Saracinesca as he had felt in the society of
the mayor and municipal council of Aquila, who possessed those
qualifications also, though in a less degree. The Saracinesca
probably thought about most questions very much as he himself did,
or if there were any difference in their mode of thinking it was
due to Roman prejudice and tradition rather than to any
peculiarity inherent in the organisation of the members of the
higher aristocracy. If he should find himself in any dilemma owing
to his ignorance of social details he would not hesitate to apply
to the prince for information, since it was by no means his fault
if he had been brought up an innkeeper and was now to be a
nobleman. His immediate object was to place himself among his
equals, and his next purpose was to marry again, in his new rank,
a woman of good position and fortune. Of this matter he intended
to speak to the prince in due time, when he should have secured
the first requisite to his marriage by establishing himself firmly
in society. He meant to apply to the prince, ostensibly as to the
head of the family, thereby showing a deference to that dignity,
which he supposed would be pleasing to the old gentleman; but he