You will come to hate what I have loved and love still,
though it does not prevent me from loving you too--"
"But less well," said Orsino rather harshly.
"You would believe that, at least, and the thought would always be
between us."
"If you loved me as much, you would not hesitate. You would marry me
living, as you married him dead."
"If there were no other reason against it--" She stopped.
"There is no other reason," said Orsino insisting.
Maria Consuelo shook her head but said nothing and a long silence
followed. Orsino sat still, watching her and wondering what was passing
in her mind. It seemed to him, and perhaps rightly, that if she were
really in earnest and loved him with all her heart, the reasons she gave
for a separation were far from sufficient. He had not even much faith in
her present obstinacy and he did not believe that she would really go
away. It was incredible that any woman could be so capricious as she
chose to be. Her calmness, or what appeared to him her calmness, made it
even less probable, he thought, that she meant to part from him.
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