She had been better after the news had come that he had been found, though she had barely said that she was glad to hear of him.

Then she had grown more restless than she used to be, and there had sometimes been a dash of hardness in the things she said; and her mother was now quite sure that Aurora had intentionally avoided all mention of Marcello.

To-day, she had suddenly made that rather startling remark about marrying him.

All this proved clearly enough that he had been continually in her thoughts.

When very young people take unusual pains to ignore a certain subject, and then unexpectedly blurt out some very rough observation about it, the chances are that they have been thinking of nothing else for a long time.
A good deal had happened on that afternoon, for what Corbario had said about Aurora, half playfully and half in earnest, had left Maddalena under the impression that he had been trying a little experiment on his own account, to feel his way.