'You yourself force me'
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Bem me custa tratar-te assim, mas tu mesma me obrigas a este excesso.
It pains me much to treat you thus, but you yourself force me to this excess.
Leôncio reaches for the abuser's oldest sentence: 'tu mesma me obrigas' — you yourself force me to this. The cruelty is recast as something she does to him, the shackles a regrettable necessity her stubbornness has imposed. He even claims to suffer — 'bem me custa' — as though he were the injured party. It is the perfect inversion, and Guimarães sets it right after Isaura's offer to bear any labour, so the reader can measure the lie against the fact. She has just tried to give him everything but her honour; he answers by blaming her for the iron he freely chose to send for.
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A Escrava Isaura 9.93 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/9.93/