“Come, come!” he murmured, touching her lightly on the arm with his hand, which trembled like a leaf. He offered her some water, but she put it away with her hand. She slowly raised herself to a sitting posture, wiping her eyes, and drawing long breaths between her sobs.
“Have patience with me, Sebastião,” she said.
She drank a little water, and then let her hands drop powerless on her lap, while her tears continued to flow. Sebastião closed the door, and returning to her, said gently,—
“But let us see; what is it?”
Luiza raised her agitated countenance, in which her eyes burned feverishly, looked at him a moment, and then said, bowing her head in humiliation,—
“A misfortune, Sebastião! A disgrace!”
“Come, come; don’t distress yourself in this way!” He took a seat near her, and said to her in low and earnest accents, “I am at your disposal for whatever service you may require of me and I can perform.”
“Sebastião,” she exclaimed, her heart overflowing with gratitude, “believe me, I have been well punished. I have suffered a great deal, Sebastião.”
She remained silent a moment, her eyes fixed on the floor; then, catching him abruptly by the arm, she burst into a torrent of words that followed each other incoherently, like water escaping from a narrow-necked vessel.
“She stole the letters from me,—in what way I know not,—and she asked at first six hundred thousand reis for them; then she began to torture me; and I was obliged to give her gowns—everything she demanded. She changed her room, and she took for her own use my finest sheets; she was the mistress, I the servant. Every day she threatens me; she is a monster. All was in vain,—soft words, entreaties. Where could I find the money,—is it not so? She knew it well What have I not suffered! They say I have grown thin; you yourself have noticed it. My life is a hell. If Jorge were to know! That vile wretch threatened to tell him everything to-day. I work like a slave. In the morning I sweep and put things in order; often I wash the breakfast things. Have pity on me, Sebastião, if it were only for his sake! Unhappy creature that I am, I have no one in the world to turn to.” And burying her face in her hands, she burst into a fresh fit of weeping.