could have made your plans with your lady. She would have rewarded you:
but so she would if, when she invited you to accompany her, you had
offered her your arm and put on your hat. What possessed you, then--what
inscrutable reasons had you? But there would be no end to my questions
and no satisfaction in your replies. Why, Heaven! the world was before
you two! You had happiness, adventure, all the rest of it. And if you
must needs wander this world, need I assure you that two are better
company than one?" Fra Palamone, I remembered, had been of that opinion
too. "As it is," she continued, "you may be years before you find
Aurelia, and you must be prepared for any step she may have been driven
to take in her extremity. I don't wish to wound you--but there can
hardly be any doubt about her plans." She rose to her feet and looked
kindly at me, saying, "I thank you for telling me your story. If I
understand it, I think you are rather mad; if I don't, then I must be.
But I admire you; I think I love you. I foretell happiness for you in
times to come, but not of the sort you seem to hope for at present." She
held out her hand to me. "Adieu, Don Francesco," she said, "we will part
here. Do you go to find Aurelia Gualandi, I to search for a lover like
you."

Deeply touched by this gentle conclusion of our argument, I held her
hand and made her sit down again. She resisted--faintly, not seriously.
I then told her that I did not intend her to leave me in this manner, or
in any manner which did not assure me of her honourable wellbeing; and
now it was she who pleaded feebly, now it was I who was convinced,
fiery, unanswerable. I said that I was resolved to protect her honour,
to work for her, to establish her firmly and comfortably in the world
which had used her so ill. I told her that, being devoted entirely to
the love of Aurelia, my company could do her no harm; that, on the
contrary, the world, putting the worst construction upon our alliance,