Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

XCI - Find That Console

Of course, the reflections that I leave behind were not made then, on the way to the seminary, but now in the Engenho Novo office. So I did not do any of it except this one: that I served as a relief to my little Manduca. Today, thinking better, I think I was not only helpful, but I even gave him happiness. And the find comforts me; now I shall not forget that I gave two or three months of happiness to a poor devil, making him forget the evil and the rest. It is some thing in the liquidation of my life. If there is in the other world such or such a prize for unintentional virtues, it will pay one or two of my many sins. As for the Manduca, I do not think it was a matter of opinion against Russia, but if he was, he would be purging forty years of happiness that he reached in two or three months, -which will conclude (already late) that it was even better to moan only, without saying anything.