Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

CXXVI - Scismando

Shortly after leaving the cemetery, I tore the speech and tossed the pieces through the hatch, despite José Dias' efforts to prevent it.

"It's no use," I said, "and how I might be tempted to print it, it's already destroyed." It's no good, it's not worth anything.

José Dias demonstrated the opposite at length, then praised the burial, and finally made the panegyros of the dead, a great soul, an active spirit, a right heart, a friend, a good friend, worthy of the most wonderful wife God had given him ...

At this point of the speech, I let him speak on his own and I began to think with myself. What I scanned was so dark and confusing that it would not let me take my foot. At Cattete I had the car stopped, told Jose Dias to go get the ladies to Flamengo and take them home; I would walk.

-But...

I'm going to pay a visit.

The reason for this was to finish scsmar, and to choose a resolution that suited the moment. The car would move faster than the legs; they would pause or not, they could slow down the pace, stop, shiver, and let their heads feel free. I walked and watched. He had already compared Sancha's gesture to the evening and the despair of that day; were irreconcilable. The widow was really sweet. So the illusion of my vanity faded at all. Would not that be the case with Capitú? I took care of recomposing her eyes, the position in which I saw her, the gathering of people who should of course impose on her the concealment if there was anything to disguise. What here goes by a logical and deductive order, had before been a bundle of ideas and sensations, thanks to the bumps of the car and the interruptions of Jose Dias. Now, however, he reasoned and evoked clearly and well. It concludes from me that it was the old passion that still shook me and made me go wild as always.

When I reached this final conclusion, I would arrive at the door of the house, but I went back, and went up Cattete Street again. Was it the doubts that afflicted me or the need to afflict Capitú with my great delay? Let us say that they were the two causes; I walked wide, until I felt sorry, and straightened it home. They beat for eight hours in a bakery.