Salvatore listened to these explanations, but they did not alter the fact. Angelo had stolen his bride, and he had lied. For days, he could hardly bear the sight of his brother. At work, they joined different gangs so that they could avoid each other. They spent as little time in their lodgings as possible, and when they were both there, Salvatore did not speak to Angelo. After a few days Angelo asked him: “Do you want me to leave?” But Salvatore only shrugged.

“What’s the point? You’ll be going soon.”

The next weekend, Angelo disappeared. It was obvious that he’d gone to Long Island. Salvatore stayed in the city. When Angelo returned, he said nothing, but the next day Uncle Luigi gave Salvatore a letter from Teresa, which Angelo must have brought. The letter was full of expressions of affection. She hoped he could forgive her, that he would understand, that they might remain friends. He almost tore it up, but finally put it in a drawer with feelings of disgust.

“Maybe I’ll go to California,” he told Uncle Luigi, who remarked sadly: “I’ll be lonely.”

His uncle did tell him one other thing, in the hope that it might be of some comfort.

“Understand, Salvatore, that nobody except myself and the parties concerned even know that it was you who were courting Teresa. Nothing was ever said. Nothing happened. All anybody knows is that Teresa became friendly with two brothers and that she is marrying one of them. You haven’t made a brutta figura.”

At the time this seemed small comfort. But as the weeks went by, at least it was something.

What also astonished him was how quickly Teresa’s family seemed to take Angelo over. It was decided that he would move out to Long Island straight away. They would set him up with a little house-painting business. But as well as this, he was to design signs for the local businesses and undertake other decorative work. One thing was certain: with the family’s local connections, there would be plenty of commissions to start him off.

“I thought he didn’t like taking commissions,” he remarked to Uncle Luigi.

“Ah, but now he is to get married,” said his uncle. “He told me that when he was sick, he started to realize that he couldn’t rely on bricklaying to make a living. And he enjoyed those commissions he did more than he thought he would.” Uncle Luigi made a gesture with his hands. “It is necessary to adjust. A man has to accept responsibilities.”

But perhaps the thing that amazed Salvatore the most was the way that Angelo seemed to be taking charge of his bride. He had been living on Long Island only two weeks when he came back to the lodgings to fetch some things. On this occasion, Salvatore brought himself to speak to his brother. But when he remarked that Teresa might want to live in the city one day, Angelo just smiled and shook his head.