"Did you miss my greeting?" was the cool reply. "You only came to hold a conference with Stephan, and your meal was already provided."
"No matter! It is seemly for you to welcome the man to whom your brother has promised your hand. You have long known that."
"And you know that I do not recognize this promise. I have never given you mine."
"Among us a woman has no will," replied Marco, imperiously. "Your brother is now the head of the house. He has a right to dispose of you, and will compel you to obey--he or I!"
"Try it!"
The two words were spoken with perfect calmness, but such unyielding resolution that Marco stamped his foot furiously.
"Have you learned defiance among the people down below? You have now returned to us, and none of the follies they taught you suit this place."
"You are mistaken. I have left everything there--." The girl's voice trembled for a moment. Then she repeated, with passionate, almost angry emphasis: "Everything. Ask my brother whether I shrink from the labor of which I was ignorant, whether I refuse to do what is imposed upon me. I ask only one thing--to be free! And I shall not be, if I belong to a husband. I did not fly from captivity to enter slavery, and with you a wife is a slave."
Her eyes wandered with a half pitying, half scornful glance toward her brother's wife, who, still busied with her work, crouched beside the hearth; spite of her youth and beauty the stamp of servitude was plainly visible. Scarcely as old as Danira, she was already worn by the hard burden of toil that rested almost entirely upon her shoulders. She had prepared the meal, and waited on the men without receiving the slightest notice from them. Even in her husband's presence she showed nothing but timid shyness and submission, and now gazed with actual horror at the girl who ventured to say such things to a man. Her whole appearance and bearing formed a convincing proof of the truth of Danira's words, and this exasperated the fierce Obrevic.
"Do you want to teach us foreign customs?" he furiously exclaimed. "With us the husband is the only person of importance, and what our wives have been they will remain."