"Do you mean to tell me that you are in some way in her power, so that you are bound to keep her always?"
Maria Consuelo hesitated a moment.
"Are you in her power?" asked Orsino a second time. He did not like the idea and his black brows bent themselves rather angrily.
"No—not directly. She is imposed upon me."
"By circumstances?"
"No, again. By a person who has the power to impose much upon me—but this! Oh this is almost too much! To be called mad!"
"Then do not submit to it."
Orsino spoke decisively, with a kind of authority which surprised himself. He was amazed and righteously angry at the situation so suddenly revealed to him, undefined as it was. He saw that he was touching a great trouble and his natural energy bid him lay violent hands on it and root it out if possible.
For some minutes Maria Consuelo did not speak, but continued to pace the room, evidently in great anxiety. Then she stopped before him.
"It is easy for you to say, 'do not submit,' when you do not understand," she said. "If you knew what my life is, you would look at this in another way. I must submit—I cannot do otherwise."