He knew that Pilar's was the stronger spirit of the two, that she had a great influence over her mother, and could induce her to adopt any opinion or feelings she might choose.
What if the marquise ranged herself on her daughter's side?
Then, instead of one, he would have two women against him, and his struggle for freedom, in which he had already succumbed to one of them, would be utterly hopeless.
The Marquise de Henares did not come.

She wrote that she was out of health, and was beside detained in Madrid by a thousand social duties; but in the spring or summer she would be very pleased to come and spend a few weeks with her only child and her grandchildren.
Wilhelm maintained an outward show of calm.

He did not renew his attempt at revolt, made no resistance against the fact that Pilar took entire possession of his existence, and clung to him like his shadow; he only grew paler, and quieter, and more despondent than before.

But he pondered day and night upon some way of unraveling the knot, and was in despair at finding none.

Should he cut it?
He could not.