"and returned her love"

"Her face no more affected than if she were immobile granite or marpesian stone. At length she flung away from him and fled, his enemy still, into the shadowy grove where he whose bride she had once been, Sychaeus, joined in her sorrows and returned her love. Aeneas still gazed after her in tears, shaken by her ill fate and pitying her.'' p.176
This is such a heartbreaking picture. Now, everyone has different opinions of Dido and how she could have handled their parting but we see here how truly ravaged her heart is over it all. She did nothing but ignore him, I would think because it just hurt too much to look at him. She went to Sychaeus, a former love, and basically settled for the man that would love her. Don't women do that? Not all, of course, but too many women simply settle for the man that will love them. Dido loves Aeneas but her heart is so torn that she feels she needs another to hold it together. My question though, is what is it that Aeneas is pitying? Is it his role in her heartbreak or just the fact that she is hurting? Is it the fact that she is settling with a man she does not love simply because she has no one else? Personally, I think it's a little of all three. He regrets his role, though he makes you just want to punch him, but also pities her situation and heartbreak. She must now live with an old flame, one who could join in her heartbreak...one who could love her. All this, despite the fact she did not love him back.