'She came almost by force'
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E quanto não me custou isso, meo amigo! respondeo Alvaro. Veio quasi violentada. Ha muito tempo, que procuro convencel-a por todos os modos, que uma senhora joven e formosa, como é ella, escondendo seos encantos na solidão, commette um crime, contrario ás vistas do creador, que formou a belleza para ser vista, admirada e adorada;
And how much that cost me, my friend! answered Álvaro. She came almost under compulsion. For a long time I have tried to convince her, by every means, that a young and beautiful lady like her, hiding her charms in solitude, commits a crime against the designs of the Creator, who made beauty to be seen, admired, and adored;
The word 'violentada' — she came almost by force, under compulsion — is quietly terrible in Álvaro's mouth. He means only that he had to overcome her great reluctance; but the reader, who watched Leôncio threaten to take her by force, hears the ugly echo. Even the gentlest man in the book, out of love, applies a mild coercion to bring Isaura where she does not want to go — and where, unknown to him, she is in real danger. His argument is charming and, in his own frame, generous: beauty is a gift of the Creator, 'para ser vista, admirada e adorada', made to be seen. But it is precisely the theology that undoes her disguise. What Álvaro calls a crime — hiding her beauty — is the one thing keeping her alive, and the 'crime' he presses her to renounce is her own survival. His loving philosophy is, for a fugitive, exactly backwards.
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