“My goodness! What’s the matter? Anyone would think you were just up from the country!”

There were already some patients in the dentist’s waiting room. Mariana couldn’t see a single face she recognized, and went to the window to avoid the gaze of strangers. From the window she could enjoy the street without all the pushing and shoving. She leaned back; Sofia came to join her. Some men’s hats down below turned to stare up at them; others, passing by, did the same. Mariana felt annoyed by their insistence, but, when she noticed that they were staring principally at her friend, her irritation dissolved into a kind of envy. Meanwhile, Sofia was telling her all about some of the hats—or, more precisely, their romantic adventures. One of them was highly thought-of by Miss so-and-so; another was madly in love with Madam you-know-who, who was also in love with him, so much so that they were sure to be seen on Rua do Ouvidor on Wednesdays and Saturdays between two and three in the afternoon. Mariana listened in bewilderment. The hat was indeed rather handsome, and wore a beautiful necktie, and had an air about it that was somewhere between elegant and raffish, but . . .

“I can’t swear to it, mind,” Sofia continued, “but that’s what people are saying.”

Mariana gazed pensively at the hat in question. It was now joined by three more, of equal poise and elegance; the four were probably talking about them, and in favorable terms too. Mariana blushed deeply, looked away, then back again, then retreated into the room. As she did so, she noticed two ladies who had just arrived, and with them a young man who promptly stood up and came to greet her effusively. He had been her very first suitor.

He would be about thirty-three now. He had been away from Rio, first to somewhere in the interior, then to Europe, then as governor of one of the southern provinces. He was of medium height, pale, with a rather skimpy beard and clothes that were straining at the seams. He was holding a new top hat: black, serious, gubernatorial, ministerial even; a hat befitting his person and his ambitions. Mariana, however, could hardly look at him. She became so flustered and disorientated by the presence of a man whom she had known in such special circumstances, and had not seen since 1877, that she was unable to take in anything at all. She proffered him the tips of her fingers, apparently murmured some kind of response, and was about to rejoin Sofia at the window, when her friend turned from the window and came toward her.