A Escrava Isaura 10.45 · 10.45

Álvaro's answer is unguarded and total — 'adoro-a cada vez mais' — and then comes the tender, hopeful hesitation: he believes she at least does not regard him 'com indifferença'. The double negative is the lover's careful modesty, but it also touches something true and sad. If Isaura returns any warmth, she does so knowing she must not, cannot, dares not love — a slave in law, a fugitive in fact, with no right to a future or a suitor. Her possible tenderness toward Álvaro is a feeling she has every reason to strangle, and the reader who knows her secret hears in his hopeful 'não me olha com indifferença' the outline of a love that cannot be allowed to bloom. The romance is real on both sides, and impossible on hers.

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