Isaura, the SlavePart 9
Página 1 de 9
Part 9
Leoncio shut in his room spoke to no one, nor did he appear for some days, and seemed plunged in the most inconsolable and profound grief. However, it was not so. It is true that Leoncio did not cease to suffer a certain shock, a certain surprise, which was not a painful blow, with the news of the death of his father; but in the depths of his soul,--one must say it,--once the first moment of shock and dismay had passed, he even came to welcome that event, which so opportunely came to free him from the predicaments in which he found himself entangled in the face of Malvina and Miguel. Therefore during his seclusion, instead of giving himself over to the grief that such a sensitive blow should have caused him, Leoncio, who by no means could resign himself to parting with Isaura, only meditated on the means of extricating himself from the difficulties in which he found himself involved, and wove plans to secure for himself the possession of the gentle captive. The difficulties were great, and constituted a knot that could be cut, but never untied. Leoncio had acknowledged the promise that his father had made to Miguel, to free Isaura by means of the enormous sum of ten contos de réis. Miguel had that sum ready, and had come to put it into his hands, demanding the freedom of his daughter. Leoncio also acknowledged, and could not even contest, that it had always been the vow of his deceased mother to leave Isaura free upon her death. On the other hand Malvina, knowing of his passion and of his sinister intentions regarding the captive, justly irritated, demanded with authority the immediate manumission of the same. There remained to the young man no means of extricating himself decently from so many difficulties except by freeing Isaura. But Leoncio could not reconcile himself to such an idea. The violent and blind love that Isaura had inspired in him incited him to leap over all obstacles, to brave all the laws of decorum and honesty, to crush without pity the heart of his meek and affectionate wife, in order to obtain the satisfaction of his frenetic desires. He resolved therefore to cut the knot, using his overbearing power, and postponing indefinitely the fulfillment of his duty, he determined to confront with cynical indifference and brutal arrogance the just demands and reproaches of Malvina.
When she, after letting some days pass out of respect for the grief by which she judged her husband overwhelmed, touched upon that delicate business:
--We have time, Malvina,--her husband answered her with all calm.--I must first of all take stock and make an inventory of my father's estate. I have to go to the court to collect his papers and take cognizance of the state of his affairs. On my return and with more leisure we will deal with Isaura.
On hearing this response Malvina's face was covered with mortal pallor; she felt her heart grow cold, squeezed between the icy hands of the most poignant distress, as if there suddenly crumbled within her the entire dreamed castle of her conjugal happiness. She expected that her husband, struck down by such a painful blow in those days of bitter meditation and despondency, withdrawing into the sanctuary of conscience, would acknowledge his errors and wanderings, implore forgiveness for them, and resolve to enter upon the paths of duty and honesty. The cold excuses and futile evasions of her husband came to submerge her at once in the most bitter and profound discouragement.
--How?!--she exclaimed with an accent that expressed at once haughty indignation and the most deep-seated displeasure.--So you still hesitate to fulfill so sacred a duty?... if you had a soul, Leoncio, you would have considered Isaura as your sister, for you well know that your mother loved and idolized her as a dear daughter, and that it was her most ardent desire to free her upon her death and leave her a considerable legacy that would assure her the future. You also know that your father had made a solemn promise to Isaura's father to give her manumission for the sum of ten contos de réis, and Miguel has already come to put that exorbitant sum into your hands. You know all this, and still you come with doubts and delays!... Oh! this is too much!... I see no motive whatsoever for delaying the fulfillment of a duty that you should long ago have discharged.
--But why such haste?... will you not tell me, Malvina?--replied Leoncio with the greatest gentleness and tranquility.--Of what benefit can freedom be now to Isaura? is she perchance not well here? is she mistreated?... does she suffer any privation?... is she not still considered rather as a daughter of the family than as a slave? do you want us to set her loose right away into this world?... thus we would certainly not fulfill the wish of my mother, who showed herself so solicitous for the future fate of Isaura. No, my Malvina; we should not for now deliver Isaura over to herself. We must first secure for her a decent, honest position worthy of her beauty and education, seeking for her a good husband, and that cannot be arranged from one day to the next.
--What a wretched excuse, my friend!... Isaura for now does not need a husband to protect her; she has her father, who is a very honorable man, and has just given proofs of how much he adores his daughter. Let us deliver her to Senhor Miguel, who will be in very good hands, and under very good protection.
--Poor Senhor Miguel!--replied Leoncio with a disdainful smile.--He will have good intentions, I do not doubt; but where are the means at his disposal to make Isaura happy, especially now when he has certainly pawned the hairs of his head to arrange the manumission of his daughter, if indeed that did not come from alms that were given him, as seems more certain to me.
As her only response Malvina sadly shook her head and sighed. Yet she still wished to believe in the sincerity of her husband's words, pretended to be satisfied and withdrew without showing signs of irritation. She could not, however, prolong any longer that situation, for her so humiliating, so full of anxiety and displeasure, and the next day she insisted still more forcefully upon the same object. She received in response the same evasions and delays. Leoncio even affected to treat that business with a certain disdainful indifference, like one who was definitively resolved to do as he pleased. Malvina this time could not contain herself, and broke with her husband. He, as he had already coldly deliberated, parried the bolts of feminine wrath on the shield of a cynical and jesting imprudence, which drove to the utmost degree the wrath and resentment of Malvina.
The next day Malvina, without giving any satisfaction to anyone whomever, hastily left Leoncio's house, and departed in the company of her brother Henrique on the road to Rio de Janeiro, swearing in the height of her indignation never again to set foot in that house, where she was so vilely outraged, and to sweep forever from her memory the image of her disloyal and dissolute husband. In the outburst of resentment she did not calculate whether she would have strength enough to carry into effect those frenetic oaths, inspired by the fever of jealousy and indignation; she did not know that in souls as tender and kind as hers, hatred fades much more quickly than love; and the love that Malvina consecrated to Leoncio, in spite of his excesses and debaucheries, was much stronger than her resentment, however just the latter might be.
Leoncio on his side, carrying forward his plan of opposing to the outbursts of his wife the most inert and cynical indifference, watched with crossed arms and without making the slightest observation the preparations for that rapid journey, and leaning against the porch, indolently smoking his cigar, he attended the departure of his wife, as if he were the most indifferent of guests.
However, that indifference of Leoncio had nothing natural or sincere about it; not that he felt any regret for the abrupt departure of his wife; on the contrary, it was jubilation that he felt at the realization of that capricious resolution of Malvina, who thus abandoned the field entirely free of embarrassments to him, to pursue his nefarious projects regarding the unhappy Isaura. With that feigned nonchalance, he managed to disguise the pleasure and satisfaction with which his heart overflowed; and as it was an aphorism adopted and always put into practice by him, although in less grave circumstances,--that against the wraths and caprices of women there is no more powerful weapon than much cold blood and nonchalance, Malvina could not discover in the depths of that affected indifference the intense jubilation in which her husband's soul swam.
But what had become of the noble and unhappy Isaura during those long days of mourning, of dismay, of anxieties and displeasures?
Ever since she heard the reading of the letter announcing the commander's death, Isaura had lost all the flattering hopes that a moment before Miguel had made blossom in her heart. Transfixed with horror, she understood that an implacable destiny was delivering her up as a defenseless victim into the hands of her tenacious and heartless persecutor. Knowing of her mother's wretched fate, she found in her shaken imagination no other remedy for so cruel a situation but to resign herself and prepare for the most atrocious of martyrdoms. A cruel despondency, a mortal dread took possession of her spirit, and the unhappy girl, pale, undone, and as if hallucinated, now wandered aimlessly through the fields, now hidden in the thickest thickets of the orchard, or in the darkest recesses of the chambers, spent hours and hours between frights and anguish, like the timid hare that sees hovering in the sky the sinister wing of the hawk with bloody talons. Who could help her? Where could she find protection against the tyrannical wills of her libertine and execrable master? Only two people could have compassion and interest for her: her father and Malvina. Her father, an obscure and poor overseer, having no entry into Leoncio's house, and able only to communicate with her with difficulty and furtively, could be of little or no use to her. Malvina, who had always treated her with such kindness and affection, alas! Malvina herself, after the scandalous scene in which she had caught her husband addressing tender words to Isaura, began to look at her with a certain distrust and aloofness, the terrible effect of jealousy, which makes souls unjust and rancorous, even the most candid and benevolent. The mistress, as the days passed, became ever less approachable and benign toward the slave, whom she had formerly treated with affection and almost fraternal intimacy.
Malvina was good and trusting, and would never have doubted Isaura's innocence, had it not been for Rosa, her terrible rival and mortal enemy. After the quarrel, of which Isaura was the innocent cause, Rosa became Malvina's maid or chambermaid, and the latter sometimes vented in the presence of the malicious mulatta the jealousies and displeasures that seethed and overflowed from her heart.
"The mistress is trusting that sly one too much..." the malicious girl would say to her. "Well, be certain that these flirtations are not from today; for a long time I have been watching that impostor, who acts all simple before the mistress, go melting before the young master. She herself is to blame for him going about with his head turned like that."
These and many other similar intrigues, which Rosa knew how to skillfully insinuate into her mistress's ears, were enough to unsettle the spirit of a candid and inexperienced young woman like Malvina, and they went on producing the result that the wicked mulatta desired.
Overwhelmed by that new misfortune, Isaura made some attempts to draw near to her mistress and learn the reason why she was withdrawing the affection and trust she had always shown her, and in order to be able to manifest her innocence. But she was received with such coldness and haughtiness that the unhappy girl recoiled in fright, only to plunge herself even deeper into the abyss of her anguish and despondency.
Comentarios (0)