"What object? Ah—if I knew that—"
Maria Consuelo rose and paced the room, her head bent and her hands nervously clasping and unclasping. Orsino stood by the empty fireplace, watching her.
"You will send the woman away of course?" he said, in a questioning tone.
But she shook her head and her anxiety seemed to increase.
"Is it possible that you will submit to such a thing from a servant?" he asked in astonishment.
"I have submitted to much," she answered in a low voice.
"The inevitable, of course. But to keep a maid whom you can turn away at any moment—"
"Yes—but can I?" She stopped and looked at him. "Oh, if I only could—if you knew how I hate the woman—"
"But then—"
"Yes?"