CHAPTER THREE

AT THE AGE of twenty-eight, Dr. Juvenal Urbino had been the most

desirable of

bachelors. He had returned from a long stay in Paris, where he had

completed advanced

studies in medicine and surgery, and from the time he set foot on solid

ground he gave

overwhelming indications that he had not wasted a minute of his time. He

returned more

fastidious than when he left, more in control of his nature, and none of his

contemporaries seemed as rigorous and as learned as he in his science,

and none could

dance better to the music of the day or improvise as well on the piano.