Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

CIII - Happiness Has a Good Soul

Moketone is vulgar; Jose Dias thought it was better. It was the only person below who visited us in Tijuca, taking hugs from us and his words, but words that were true songs; I do not put them here to save paper, but they were delicious. One day he compared us to birds raised in two contiguous roof spans. Imagine the rest, the birds feathering their wings and plying the sky, and the sky now wider to contain them as well. None of us laughed; we were both listened to, moved and convinced, forgetting everything, since the afternoon of 1858 .... Happiness has a good soul.