by a Benedictine monastery, has been seized and sold to a peasant moneylender. Many of the villagers complain to Father Pirrone about their new landlord. During a conversation with a childhood friend, Father Pirrone enters a lengthy speech explaining why the Prince and other aristocrats do not really have any reaction one way or the other to the events of the revolution. They "live in a world of their own...all they live by has been handled by others." He concludes by saying that the feelings and attitudes that give rise to class consciousness, never truly die. The next day, Pirrone finds his sister Sarina in tears in the kitchen, and gets her to admit that her daughter Angelina (whom Pirrone mentally compares to the beautiful Angelica, and finds wanting) is pregnant out of wedlock. She confesses furiously that the father is the girl's first cousin Santino, the son of paternal uncle of Sarina and Father Pirrone. The latter ponders the long-standing family feud between Pirrone's father and his uncle. After saying Mass, he goes to visit his uncle and manipulates him and Santino into accepting what he proposes as the terms of marriage. Back home, Father Pirrone persuades Angelina's grudging father into agreeing to the terms of marriage by sacrificing his own inheritance. Santino and his father arrive; the marriage is contracted and the young people are happy. Later, while travelling back to the Salinas' Palace, Father Pirrone is certain that Santino and his father had planned Angelina's seduction so they could get their hands on property they had believed was rightfully theirs. He also realizes that the nobility and the peasants are, at least on one level, far more similar than he once thought. "A Ball." November 1862 The Salinas prepare to attend a ball, one of the most important of the Palermo social season. The Prince is both excited and concerned about the evening to come. It will be the first time Angelica and her beauty are to be presented to the public. However, he remains concerned that Don Calogero will make a complete fool of both himself and the Salinas. When Angelica, looking beautiful, and Don Calogero, looking acceptable, arrive shortly after, Angelica makes a huge social success, thanks to detailed training in etiquette given to her by Tancredi. The Prince, after being satisfied that Angelica has been accepted, wanders through the rooms of the Palazzo Ponteleone