It was a difference on the wrong side, but not so great as to form any serious objection to the proposed match.

But twenty-three is a rather mature age for an Italian noble lady to reach unmarried.
That such should have been the case with the Signora Violante was by no means because no suitor for her hand had ever presented himself.

Several such aspirants had entered the lists.

For the Contessa Violante was the great-niece of her great uncle.

But some of these had appeared objectionable to the Cardinal and his sister;--who also were not at all likely to forget all that was due to the prospects arising from such a relationship, and all that it implied; and all of them had been objectionable to the young Contessa herself.
Violante's expectations, indeed, in that line, or in any other of all the different ways in which happiness may come to mortals in this world, was very small.