Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

LXXX - On to the Story

Let's go to the chapter. My mother was God-fearing; you know this, and their religious practices, and the pure faith that animated them. Nor do you not know that my ecclesiastical career was the object of promise made when I was conceived. Everything is told opportunely. Otherwise, you know that for the purpose of tightening the moral bond of obligation, he entrusted his plans and motives to relatives and relatives. The promise, made with fervor, received with mercy, was kept by her, with joy, in the inmost heart. I think I felt the taste of happiness in the milk that gave me to suckle. My father, if he lived, it is possible that he would change his plans, and as he had the vocation of politics, it is probable that he would refer me only to politics, even though the two offices were neither irreconcilable, and more than one priest parties and in the government of men. But my father died without knowing anything, and she stayed behind the contract, as sole debtor.

One of Franklin's aphorisms is that for those who have to pay in Paschoa, Lent is short. Our Lent was not longer than the others, and my mother, after sending me to teach Latin and doctrine, began to postpone my entrance into the seminary. This is what is called, commercially speaking, to reform a letter. The creditor was archimonary, he did not depend on that amount to eat, and he consented to the payment transfers, without even aggravating the interest rate. One day, however, one of the relatives who served as endorsers of the letter, spoke of the need to deliver the adjusted price; is in one of the first chapters. My mother agreed and I went to St. Joseph's.

Now, in this same chapter, she poured some tears, which she wiped without explaining, and that none of those present, neither Uncle Cosme, Bad cousin Justina, nor the whole José Dias understood absolutely; I, who was behind the door, understood no more than they. Well examined, in spite of the distance, one sees that they were previous homesicknesses, the sorrow of separation, -and might be also (it is the beginning of the point), it could be that repentance of the promise. Catholica and devout, she felt very well that the promises are fulfilled; the question is whether it is timely and appropriate to do them all, and naturally inclined to refuse. Why would God punish her by denying her a second child? The divine will could be my life, without the need to dedicate it to him. It was a late reason; it should have been done on the day I was raised. In any case, it was a first conclusion; but, not enough to complete to destroy, everything remained, and I went to the seminary.

A nap of faith would have solved the matter in my favor, but faith was watching with its large naive eyes. My mother would, if she could, exchange a promise, giving part of her years to keep me, from the clergy, married and father; is what I assume, just as I suppose that he rejected that idea, because it seems disloyal to him. So I always felt it in the current of ordinary life.

It happened that my absence was soon tempered by the assiduity of Capitú. This began to be necessary for her. Little by little he was persuaded that the little girl would make me happy. Then (it is the end of the annunciated point), the hope that our love, making me absolutely incompatible with the seminary, would lead me not to stay there neither by God nor by the devil, this intimate and secret hope came to invade the heart of my mother. In this case, I would break the contract without her being at fault. Ella would stay with me without her own act. It was as if, having entrusted to someone the importance of a debt to take it to the creditor, the bearer kept the money with him and took nothing. In common life, the act of third party does not relieve the contractante; but the advantage of contracting with the sky is that intention is worth money.

You must have had conflicts similar to this, and if you are religious you will have sought to reconcile heaven and earth in an identical or similar way. The sky and the earth end up being reconciled; They are quasi twin brothers, with the heaven being made on the second day and the earth on the third. Like Abraham, my mother took her son to the Mount of Sight, and the wood for the burnt offering, the fire, and the cutello. And he bound Isaac on the beam of wood, and took hold of the cutello, and lifted him up. When he causes him to fall, he hears the voice of the angel who commands him from the Lord: "Do not harm your son; I knew that you fear God. "Such would be my mother's secret hope.

Capitú was naturally the angel of the Scripture. The truth is that my mother could not tel her now far from her. The growing affinity was manifest by extraordinary acts. Capitú became the flower of the house, the morning sun, the coolness of the afternoons, the moon of the nights; He lived there for hours and hours, listening, speaking and singing. My mother touched his heart, rolled his eyes, and my name was between them as the password of the future life.