Quincas Borba

by Machado De Assis

  “What role do you want me to play?” he asked.

  Freitas explained. It wasn’t a discourse, but deeds, he was asking him for deeds, nothing untoward or anything left to the imagination.

  “Are you comfortable living here in Botafogo?” Carlos Maria interrupted, addressing the host.

  Freitas, cut off, bit his lip and cursed the young man a second time. He leaned back in his chair, taut, serious, looking at a picture on the wall. Rubião answered that he was quite comfortable, that the beach was beautiful.

  “It’s a pretty view, but I was never able to stand the stench there is here on certain occasions,” Carlos Maria said. “What do you think?” he went on, turning to Freitas.

  Freitas straightened up and said everything he thought, that they could both be right. But he insisted that the beach, in spite of everything, was magnificent. He went on without any ill humor or annoyance. He even did Carlos Maria the favor of calling his attention to a small piece of fruit that had become stuck to the tip of his mustache.

  They reached the end. It had been a little over an hour. Rubião, silent, was mentally recomposing the lunch, dish by dish, he looked with pleasure at the glasses and the remains of the wine there, the scattered crumbs, the final appearance of the table just before coffee. From time to time he would glance at the servant’s jacket. He managed to catch Carlos Maria’s face in flagrant pleasure as he was taking the first puffs on one of the cigars that Rubião had asked to be distributed. At that point the servant entered with a small basket covered with a cambric handkerchief and a letter that had just been delivered.

  XXXII

  “Who sent this?” Rubião asked. W “Dona Sofia.”

  Rubião didn’t recognize the handwriting. It was the first time she’d written him. What could it be? His commotion was visible on his face and his fingers. While he was opening the letter, Freitas, in a familiar way, uncovered the basket: they were strawberries. Rubião’s hand trembled as he read these lines:

  I’m sending you these bits of fruit for lunch, if they arrive in time. And by order of Cristiano you’re invited to come and dine with us tonight without fail. Your true friend,

  SOFIA

  “What kind of fruit is it?” Rubião asked, folding the letter.

  “Strawberries.”

  “They arrived late. Strawberries?” he repeated without knowing what he was saying.

  “You don’t have to blush, my dear friend,” Freitas told him, laughing, as soon as the servant left. “These things happen to people in love …”

  “People in love?” Rubião repeated, really blushing. “But you can read the letter, look...”

  He was going to show it but withdrew it and put it in his pocket. He was beside himself, half confused and half happy. Carlos Maria took delight in telling him that he couldn’t hide it, that the little gift was from some sweetheart. And there was no reason to scold him, love was a universal law. If it was some married lady, he praised his discretion …

  “But for the love of God!” the host interrupted.

  “A widow? It’s the same thing,” Carlos Maria went on. “Discretion there is still worthy. The greater sin, after the sin, is the publication of the sin. If I were a legislator, I would propose that all men convicted of indiscretion in these matters be burned at the stake. And they would go to the flames like prisoners of the Inquisition with the difference that instead of sackcloth they would wear a cape of parrot feathers …”

  Freitas couldn’t contain his laughter and pounded on the table as a way of applause. Rubião, half skewered, hastened to say that it wasn’t either a married woman or a widow …

  “A single woman, then?” the young man replied. “A wedding on its way? Well, it’s about time. Betrothal strawberries,” he continued, picking some up with his fingers. “They smell of a maiden’s chamber and a priest’s Latin.”

  Rubião didn’t know what else to say. Finally he went back to the beginning and explained. They were from the wife of a close friend. Carlos Maria winked. Freitas put in his word saying that now, yes sir, it was all explained. But that at first the mystery, the arrangement of the basket, the look of the strawberries themselves—adulterous strawberries, he said, laughing—all those things gave the matter an immoral and sinful look. But it turned out all right in the end.

  They drank their coffee in silence. Then they went into the parlor. Rubião outdid himself in courtesies, but he was worried. After a few minutes he was content with the first supposition of his two guests: that of an adulterous love affair. He even thought that he’d defended himself too heatedly. Since he hadn’t mentioned anybody’s name, he could have confessed that it really was an intimate affair. But it also might have happened that the very heat of his denial might have left doubts in the minds of the two, some suspicion … At this he smiled, consoled.

  Carlos Maria consulted his watch. It was two o’clock. He was leaving. Rubião thanked him warmly, obsequiously, and asked him to come back again. They could spend some Sundays like that in good friendly conversation.

  “I second the motion!” Freitas shouted, coming over.

  He had half a dozen cigars in his pocket, and as he left he whispered into Rubião’s ear:

  “These are the usual souvenirs. Six delightful days. A delight every day.”

  “Take some more.”

  “No, I’ll come back for them another time.”

  Rubião accompanied them to the iron gate. Quincas Borba, as soon as he heard voices, ran out from the back of the garden to greet them, especially his master. He paid particular attention to Carlos Maria, tried to lick his hand. The young man drew back with repugnance. Rubião gave the dog a kick, which made him yelp and run away. Finally they all said goodbye.

  “Which way are you going?” Carlos Maria asked Freitas.

  Freitas calculated that he would be going to visit someone in the direction of Sao Clemente and wanted to accompany him.

  “I’m going to the end of the beach,” he said.

  “I’m going back,” the other replied.

  XXXIII

  Rubião watched them leave, came back in, went into the parlor and read Sofia’s note again. Every word on that unexpected page was a mystery, the signature a capitulation. Only Sofia, no other family or married name. Your true friend was obviously a metaphor. As for the first words, I’m sending you these bits of fruit for lunch breathed the innocence of a good and generous soul. Rubião saw, felt, touched everything with only the force of instinct and gave in, kissing the paper—I’m not saying it right, kissing the name, the name given at the baptismal font, repeated by her mother, handed over to her husband as part of the moral document of marriage, and now stolen away from all those origins and ownerships to be sent to him at the bottom of a piece of paper … Sofia! Sofia! Sofia!

  XXXIV

  “Why did you come so late?” Sofia asked him as soon as he appeared at the garden gate in Santa Teresa. “After lunch, which lasted until two o’clock, I was working on some papers. But it’s not all that late,” Rubião went on, looking at his watch, “it’s only four–thirty.”

  “It’s always late for friends,” Sofia replied with a look of censure.

  Rubião got hold of himself but not in time to withdraw his hand. Facing him, on an iron bench alongside the house, were four silent ladies eying him curiously. They were Sofia’s guests, who were awaiting the arrival of the capitalist Rubião. Sofia brought him over to be introduced. Three of them were married, one was single, or more than single. She was thirty–nine, with a pair of dark eyes that were weary from waiting. She was the daughter of a Major Siqueira, who appeared in the garden a few moments later.

  “Our friend Palha has spoken about you, sir,” the major said after being introduced to Rubião. “I can vouch that he’s your very good friend. He told me that chance brought you together. Those are generally the best friendships. When I was thirtysomething, a little before becoming a major, I made a friend, my best friend in those days, whom I met b
y chance like that in Bernardes’ pharmacy. His nickname was Johnny Spats. I think he wore them when he was young, between 1801 and 1812, and the nickname happened to stick. The pharmacy was on the Rua de São José, corner of Misericórdia … Johnny Spats … You know, it was a way of making his ankles look bigger … Bernardes was his name, João Alves Bernardes … He owned the pharmacy on the Rua de São José. He would stay there long hours in the afternoon, into the night. People went around with their capes and their big walking sticks. Some carried lanterns. Not me. I only wore my cape … He went around in a cape, Bernardes—João Alves Bernardes was his full name. He was from Maricá but he grew up here in Rio de Janeiro … Johnny Spats was his nickname. They said he went around in spats when he was young, and it seems he was one of the dandies of the city. I never forgot: Johnny Spats … He went around in a cape …”

  Rubião’s soul was flailing its arms under that torrent of words, but it was up a blind alley with no way out on any side. Walls all around. No open door, no hallway, and the rain kept falling. If he could have looked at the young ladies he would have seen, at least, that he was the object of the curiosity of all of them, most of all the major’s daughter, Dona Tonica. But he couldn’t. He was listening, and the major was raining cats and dogs. It was Palha who brought him an umbrella. Sofia had gone to tell her husband that Rubião had just arrived. Palha was in the garden in no time and greeted his friend, telling him he was late. The major, who was explaining the druggist’s nickname one more time, abandoned his prey and went over to the young ladies. Then he went outside.

  XXXV

  The married ladies were pretty. Even the single one couldn’t have been ugly when she was twenty–five. But Sofia stood out among all of them.

  That’s probably not all that our friend was feeling, but it was a good part of it. She was of that breed of women whom time, like a slow sculptor, doesn’t finish immediately but goes on perfecting all along its passage. Slow sculptures like that are miraculous. Sofia was bordering on twenty–eight. She was more beautiful than at twenty–seven. It was to be imagined that the sculptor would only give the final touches at the age of thirty, unless he wished to prolong the work for two or three more years.

  Her eyes, for example, are no longer the same ones they were on the train when our Rubião was talking to Palha, and they were underscoring the conversation … They seemed darker now, and they weren’t underscoring anything. They were setting type themselves in bold, clear letters, and it wasn’t a line or two but whole chapters. Her mouth seems livelier. Shoulders, hands, arms are better, and she makes them even better by means of well–chosen postures and gestures. There was one feature that the lady could never tolerate—something that Rubião himself found detracted from the rest of her face at first—her heavy eyebrows—even they, without having been diminished in any way, give the whole a very special look.

  She wears clothes well. Her waist and bodice are drawn in by a chestnut corselet of fine wool, a simple piece, and she’s wearing two genuine pearls on her ears—a gracious gift that our Rubião had made to Palha at Easter.

  The beautiful lady is the daughter of an old civil servant. At the age of twenty she married this Cristiano de Almeida e Palha, an idler on city squares, who was twenty–five at the time. The husband made money. He was skillful, active, and had a nose for business and circumstances. In 1864, in spite of being new in the business, he guessed—there’s no other term for it—he guessed that there would be bank failures.

  “We’ve got something here, for better or for worse. It’s held together by a thread. The slightest cry of alarm will carry it all off.”

  The bad part was that he spent everything he earned and more. He was attracted to the good life: frequent gatherings, expensive clothing and jewels for his wife, household furnishings, usually of the latest style or invention—all carried off present and future profits. Except for meals he was frugal with himself. He went to the theater quite often without enjoying it and to balls where he didn’t have a good time—but he went not so much for himself as to show off his wife’s eyes, her eyes and her breasts. He had that one touch of vanity. He would have his wife wear low–cut gowns whenever he could and even where he shouldn’t in order to show others his personal good fortune. In that way he was a kind of King Candules,* more personal on one side, more public on the other.

  Now let us do justice to our lady. At first she gave in to her husband’s wishes under protest, but such was the admiration received and since habit accustoms people to circumstances, it reached the stage where she ended up enjoying being seen, seen often for the enjoyment of others. Let’s not make her more of a saint than she is, nor less. For the demands of vanity her eyes were sufficient. They were laughing, restless, inviting, only inviting. They could be compared to the light of a guest house with no accomodations. The lamp made everybody stop, it was beautiful in its color and in the originality of its emblems. People would stop, look, and go on their way. Why open the windows wide? She opened them finally, but the door, if we can call her heart a door, was closed tight and bolted.

  * King of Lydia in the seventh century B.C. According to Herodotus, Candules was so proud of his wife’s beauty that he forced a courtier, Gyges, to see her nude. The queen caught Gyges spying on her and compelled him to kill her husband, marry her, and become king. [Ed.]

  XXXVI

  “God, she’s beautiful! I feel capable of causing a scandal Rubiao was thinking that night by the window with his back to the outside, looking at Sofia, who was looking at him.

  A lady was singing. The three husbands from out of town who were there on a visit interrupted their card game and came into the parlor for a few moments. The singer was the wife of one of them. Palha, who was accompanying her on the piano, didn’t see the mutual looks between his wife and the capitalist. I don’t know if all the other people were in the same situation. One of them, I do know, was watching them: Dona Tonica, the major’s daughter.

  “God, she’s beautiful! I feel capable of causing a scandalé” Rubião kept thinking, leaning against the window with his back to the outside, his eyes lost on the pretty woman who was looking back at him.

  XXXVII

  It must be understood that Dona Tonica was watching the mutual contemplation of the pair. Ever since Rubião had arrived, she did nothing but attempt to attract him. Her poor thirty–nine–year–old eyes, eyes with no partners in the world, ready now to slip into the weariness of despair, had a few sparks left. Rolling them about once and several times, putting a tender expression on them, was her long-held stock in trade. It was no problem for her to aim them at the capitalist.

  Her heart, half–disillusioned, got worked up once more. Something was telling her that heaven had destined this rich man from Minas Gerais to solve her marriage problem. Rich was more than she was asking for. She wasn’t asking for riches, she was only asking for a husband. None of her campaigns had been made with any pecuniary considerations. In recent times they’d been getting lower, and lower, and lower. The last had been waged against a poor student… But, who knows, could it be that heaven had meant her precisely for a rich man? Dona Tonica had faith in her patron saint, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, and she attacked the fortress with great skill and valor.

  “All the others are married,” she thought.

  It didn’t take her long to notice that Rubião’s eyes and those of Sofia were aimed at each other. She noted, however, that Sofia’s looks were less frequent and lingered less, a phenomenon that seemed explainable by the natural caution called for by the situation. It could be that they were in love … That suspicion pained her, but desire and hope told her that a man, after one or more affairs, could very well arrive at marriage. The question was to catch him. The perspective of marrying and having a family could well end up doing away with any other inclination on his part, if there was such.

  With that she redoubled her efforts. All her charms were called into action, and they obeyed, even though faded. Gestu
res with her fan, opening her lips, eyes askance, walking back and forth to make a good display of the elegance of her body and her narrow waist, everything was put to use. It was the old formula in action. None of it had brought her anything up till then, but that’s how the lottery works: a ticket comes along that makes up for all the previous losses.

  Now, however, at night, on the occasion of the singing and the piano, Dona Tonica caught them taken with each other. She had no more doubts. They weren’t apparently casual, brief looks, as up till that point, it was contemplation that shut out everything else in the room. Dona Tonica could hear the croak of the old raven of despair. Quoth the raven: NEVERMORE.

  Even so she continued the battle. She managed to get Rubião to come and sit beside her for a few minutes, and she tried to say pretty things, phrases she’d got from novels, others that the melancholy of her situation itself inspired in her. Rubião listened and replied, but he got restless when Sofia left the room and was no less so when she returned. At one time the distraction was too much. Dona Tonica was confessing that she’d like to see Minas very much, especially Barbacena. What was the climate like?

  “The climate,” he repeated mechanically.

  He was looking at Sofia, who was standing with her back to him, talking to the two seated ladies. Rubião admired her figure once more, her sculptured torso, narrow below, broad above as it emerged from her ample hips the way a large bouquet comes out of a vase. Her head, he was able to tell himself then, was like a single, straight magnolia thrusting up in the center of the bouquet. That was what Rubião was looking at when Dona Tonica asked him about the climate in Barbacena, and he repeated her word without even giving it the same interrogative tone.