"I begin to see.

I suppose," he added, with what seemed to him reckless brutality, "that if I kissed you now you would be furious." He glanced uneasily at Aurora's face to note the effect of this terrible speech.

The result was not exactly what he had expected.

A faint colour rose in her cheeks, and then she laughed.
"When you do," she said, "I would rather it should not be before people." "I shall try to remember that," answered Marcello, considerably emboldened.
"Yes, do! It would be so humiliating if I boxed your ears in the presence of witnesses." "You would not dare," laughed Marcello.
From a distance, as Aurora had guessed, Folco was watching them while he quietly talked to the Contessa; and as he watched, he understood what a change had taken place since last year, when he had seen Marcello and Aurora riding over the same stretch of sand on the same little horses.
He ventured a reflection, to see what his companion would answer.
"I daresay many people would say that those two young people were made for each other." Maddalena looked at him inquiringly and then glanced at her daughter.
"And what do you say ?" she asked, with some curiosity.
"I say 'no.' And you ?" "I agree with you.

Aurora is like me--like what I was.