Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

XCII - The Devil Is Not As Ugly As It Looks

Manduca buried himself without me. To many others the same thing happened, without my feeling anything, but this case afflicted me particularly for the reason already said. I also felt I do not know how melancholy I remembered the first controversy of life, the taste with which he received my papers and intended to refute them, not counting the taste of the car ... But time quickly erased all these homesickness and resurrections . Nor was he alone; two people came to help him, Capitú, whose image he slept with me the same night, and another that I will say in the next chapter. The rest of this chapter is only to ask that if anyone has to read my book with any more attention than to demand the price of the copy, be sure to conclude that the devil is not as ugly as it is painted. I mean... I mean that my neighbor of Matacavallos, tempering the evil with the anti-Russian opinion, gave the rot of his flesh a spiritual reflection that comforted them. There are greater consolations, of course, and one of the most excellent is not to suffer this or any other evil, but nature is so divine that it amuses itself with such contrasts, and the most disgusting or more afflicts beckons with a flower. And perhaps it would leave the most beautiful flower; my gardener affirms that the violets, in order to have a superior odor, have no need of pig manure. I did not examine it, but it must be true.