"Are you sorry you met me, Adelberto?" said Tilia softly.
"No, no!" said Ugolini hastily.
He rushed over to where she sat at his table and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Without you," he said earnestly, "my life would have been flat and empty."
Love, thought Sophia. He loves her. That might make the difference.
"And I helped you become wealthier than you ever dreamed possible. I helped you buy the red hat."
"True," said Ugolini. "But Fortune raises men high only so they may fall farther when she casts them down."
Tilia brought her large hand down hard on Ugolini's marble-topped table. "Enough of this talk of the stars and Fortune. Look here, Adelberto, for this little cimice, this bedbug of a man, d'Ucello, to walk into the house of Cardinal Ugolini and arrest one of his guests—it is insufferable! You must not permit it."
Sophia did not dare to breathe as she watched Ugolini's face for a sign of returning strength.
"No doubt you are right," said Ugolini, nodding slowly like a boy being taught his lessons.