When the curtain fell again, and Anna issued from her trance, Laura said, "There is Giustino Morelli."
"Ah!" cried Anna, unable to control a contraction of her features.
But she had self-constraint enough not to ask "where?" Falling suddenly from a heaven of rapture to the hard reality of her life, where traces of her old folly still lingered; hating her past, and wishing to obliterate it from her memory, as the motives for it were already obliterated from her heart, she did not ask where he was. She covered her face with her fan, and two big tears rolled slowly down her cheeks.
Stella Martini looked at her, desiring to speak, but fearing lest thereby she might only make matters worse.
At last: "We were wrong to come here, Anna," she said.
"No, no," responded Anna. "I am very well—I am very happy," she added, enigmatically.
The door of the box was slowly pushed open. Cesare Dias and Luigi Caracciolo entered. With a word or two their guardian presented the young man to the sisters. The men sat down, Cesare Dias next to Anna, Luigi Caracciolo next to Laura. They began at once to talk in a light vein about the performance. Overcoming the tumult of her heart, Anna alone answered them. Stella Martini was silent, and Laura, with her eyes half shut, listened without speaking.
"Stagno is a great artist; he is immensely talented," observed Luigi Caracciolo, with a bland smile, passing his fingers slowly through his blonde beard.
"And so much feeling—so much sentiment," added Anna.