Act 3, Scene 1 Summary

It is now evening and Serafina sits on her sofa dressed, as she was when she was waiting for Rosario the night he was killed. She struggles with the discomfort of her girdle and hides behind a dividing curtain when she hears Alvaro coming up the steps. To hide her embarrassment, she starts to arrange wine glasses on a try and he comes in offering to help. He comments that he did not expect to see her looking so pretty; that she was a nice young widow. She notices that he has been to the barbershop and then she smells the rose oil in his hair and retreats from him a bit. He tells her he will wash it out but that is not necessary she says.

They sit in the parlor and he is distressed when she chooses another chair...