  It is proved for a strongly pseudoconvex domain $D$ in $\Bbb C^d$ with
$\mathcal C^{2,\alpha}$-smooth boundary that any complex geodesic through every
two close points of $D$ sufficiently close to $\partial D$ and whose difference
is non-tangential to $\partial D$ intersect a compact subset of $D$ that
depends only on the rate of non-tangentiality. As an application, a lower bound
for the Kobayashi distance is obtained.
