If he was a woman, Saul often thought, he would have been called a spinster. As it was, he was instead referred to by equally dubious "confirmed bachelor." And objectively, he could see why.
After all, he was Ankh-Morpork's most eligible bachelor-in terms of cash, land, and blood that is, but was in his forties and still unmarried. He was gentle, soft-spoken, and big-hearted. He had never, the male members of the gentry scoffed, gone to war or even big game hunting. He wasn't even that great at being a confirmed bachelor, in the eyes of high society, always wearing his ratty old sweaters and leathers and raggedy boots and an absolutely atrocious toupee.
His biggest passion in life was the decidedly feminine land of dragon-breeding, and all of his friends were women because of that. He never made a move on the single ones however. If anyone had ever asked Saul (and no one ever did, just made assumptions and moved on), he'd tell them that while the ladies he knew were lovely, yes, and quite good friends, none of them interested him in that way. He simply couldn't imagine raising a family with them or waking up next to them. He hadn't met that woman yet. He didn't think he ever would.
So Saul was labeled a 'confirmed bachelor' and he just accepted that he would be the last of the Ramkins (and oh wasn't his father just rolling in his grave at that thought). He got on with getting on, breeding dragons, having tea with his friends, and working on his book about common diseases found in swamp dragons.
And if Saul sat around his empty house sometimes, and wished for someone, anyone who would spark the fire of interest in him, who looked at who he was, and not what he liked to do and say, well. No one ever knew because no one ever asked, not even his closest friends.
Then there was the day Sam came into his life.