To his lust-motif, inverted and muted to a sinister whisper in the strings and flutes, Tosca set a lighted candle down at each of his outflung hands. Weyland could hear Scarpia gallantly agreeing to write the safe-conduct that Tosca demanded for herself and her lover before she would actually yield her body. He identified it at once and smiled to himself: Scarpia and Tosca had finally overdone the pursuit scene and toppled the water pitcher from the dinner table.
Only two remained onstage: Scarpia, composed and watchful, and Tosca, newly arrived in his office and trying to hide her alarm. In the small prop room a final test was run with the two candlesticks which Tosca must appear to light at the end of Act Two. Scarpia was addressing Tosca for the first time, offering her on his own fingertips holy water from the stoup. Floria Tosca on this stage bore no resemblance to the thin, dark woman named Floria whom Weyland had known in New York.
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