Aliandra hesitated an instant, glancing out and then looking again at Tebaldo.
'To-morrow,' she said suddenly, stepping out into the passage. 'To-morrow,' she repeated, as she went swiftly towards the stage.
She looked back just before she disappeared, but there was little light, and Tebaldo could no longer see her eyes.
He stood still by the door. Then his brother passed him.
'I am going to hear this act,' said Francesco, quietly, as though unaware that anything unusual had happened.
Before he was out of the door, he felt Tebaldo's hand on his shoulder, gripping him hard and shaking him a little. He turned his head, and his face was suddenly pale. Tebaldo kept his hand on his brother's shoulder and pushed him back against the wall of the passage, under the solitary gaslight.
'What do you mean by coming here?' he asked. 'How do you dare?'
Francesco was badly frightened, for he knew Tebaldo's ungovernable temper.
'Why not?' he tried to ask. 'I have often been here—'
'Because I warned you not to come again. Because I am in earnest. Because I will do you some harm, if you thrust yourself into my way with her.'