Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

LXXXII - The Couch

Delles, only the couch seemed to have understood our moral situation, since he offered us the services of his straw, with such insistence that we acceded and sat down. Date is the private opinion I have of the couch. Elle makes intimacy and decorum, and shows the whole house without leaving the room. Two men sitting on it could debate the fate of an empire, and two women the grace of a dress; but a man and a woman only by aberration of the natural laws will say another thing that is not of themselves. That's what we did, Capitú and me. Vaguely reminds me that I asked him if the delay there would be great ...

-Do not know; the fever seems to give way ... but ...

It also reminds me, vaguely, that I explained my visit to the street of the Invalides, in the truth, that is, on my mother's advice.

-Advise her? muttered Capitú.

And he raised his eyes, which shone exceedingly:

-We will be happy!

I repeated these words with the simple fingers, pressing the words. The couch, whether he saw it or not, continued to render his services to our imprisoned hands and to our heads together or almost together.