CXLI - The Solution
Here's what we did. We took ourselves and went to Europe, not to walk, to see anything, new or old; We stopped in Switzerland. A teacher from Rio Grande, who was with us, stayed with Capitú, teaching the mother tongue to Ezekiel, who would apprentice the rest in the country's schools. Thus regulated life, I returned to Brazil.
After a few months, Capitú had begun to write me letters, to which I responded briefly and dryly. The della were submissive, without hatred, perhaps affectionate, and to the end homesick; he asked me to see her. I embarked a year later, but I did not look for it, and repeated the trip with the same result. On the way back, those who remembered it, wanted news, and I gave it to them, as if I had just lived with it; of course the trips were made with the intention of simulating this very thing, and to deceive the opinion. One day, finally ...