Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

XLIX - A Candle to the Sabbados

This is how, after so many years, we touched the port that we should have taken shelter soon. Do not reproach us, pilot of bad luck, do not sail hearts like the other seas of this world. We were happy, we talked about the future. I promised my wife a life socegada and beautiful, in the country or farm of the city. We would come here once a year. If it was in the suburbs, it would be far away, where no one would bother us. The house, in my opinion, should not be large or small, a middle ground; I planted her flowers, chose furniture, a seige, and an oratory. Yes, we had to have a beautiful, tall, or jacaranda oratory, with the image of Our Lady of Conception. I took longer in this than in the rest, partly because we were religious, partly to compensate for the cassock that I was going to throw the nettles: but there was still a part that attributed to the secret and unconscious intent of capturing the protection of the sky. We had to light a candle on the sabbados ...