“It would take a very long time, and meanwhile life goes on and we keep spending. As I’ve said, the best way out of this is to marry Adelaide off to Gomes.”

“No, I don’t want that,” said Augusta, “I won’t consent to such a marriage.”

Vasconcelos was about to respond, but Augusta, having uttered these words, had flounced out of the room.

Vasconcelos followed a few minutes later.

VI

Lourenço knew nothing about this scene between his brother and sister-in-law, and, given Vasconcelos’s stubbornness, he had decided to say nothing more; however, since he was very fond of his niece and did not want to see her handed over to a man of whose habits he disapproved, he decided to wait until the situation took a more decisive turn and only then play a more active role.

In order not to waste time, though, and possibly to gain the use of some potentially powerful weapon, Lourenço began an investigation intended to gather detailed information on Gomes.

Gomes, for his part, believed the marriage to be a certainty, and did not waste a moment in his conquest of Adelaide.

He could not fail to notice, however, that for no reason he could ascertain, her mother Augusta was becoming increasingly cold and indifferent, and it occurred to him that she was possibly the source of some opposition.

As for Vasconcelos, discouraged by the discussion in his wife’s boudoir, he was hoping for better days and depending, above all, on the sheer force of necessity.

One day, however, exactly forty-eight hours after his argument with Augusta, he asked himself this question:

“Why is Augusta refusing to give Adelaide to Gomes in marriage?”

One question led to another, one deduction led to another, and a painful suspicion took root in Vasconcelos’s mind.

“Does she perhaps love him?” he wondered.

Then, as if one abyss attracted another abyss, and one suspicion called to another suspicion, Vasconcelos thought:

“Were they once lovers?”

For the first time, Vasconcelos felt the serpent of jealousy biting his heart.

I say “jealousy” for want of a better word, because I don’t know if what he was feeling was jealousy or merely wounded pride.

Could Vasconcelos’s suspicions have any basis in fact?

To be honest, no. However vain Augusta might be, she remained faithful to her unfaithful husband, and for two reasons: her conscience and her temperament. Even if she hadn’t been convinced of her duty as a wife, she would never break her wedding vows. She was not made for passions, apart from the ridiculous passions aroused by vanity. She loved her own beauty above all things, and her best friend was whoever would tell her she was the most beautiful of women; and yet, while she would give away her friendship, she would never give away her heart, and this is what saved her.