"Did you come this way ?" "Yes." "Perhaps he got back before you started.

He walks very fast." "Perhaps," Corbario said, "but I did not see him.

I came to look for you both." "Expecting to find us together, of course!" Aurora threw up her head a little disdainfully, for Marcello had offended her.
"He is generally somewhere near you, poor boy," answered Corbario in a tone of pity.
"Why do you say 'poor boy' in that tone?
Do you think he is so much to be pitied ?" "A little, certainly." Corbario smiled.
"I don't see why." "Women never do, when a man is in love!" "Women"-- the flattery was subtle and Aurora's face cleared.

Corbario was a man of the world, without doubt, and he had called her a woman, in a most natural way, as if she had been at least twenty years old.

It did not occur to her to ask herself whether Folco had any object in wishing to please her just then, but she knew well enough that he did wish to do so.