And that was enough to draw forth half of the secret that seemed so eager to leave the comendador’s lips. When João das Mercês saw the look in his eyes, the gesture with which he beckoned him over to the window, and the promise he exacted from him, he swore on the souls of all his loved ones that he would listen and say nothing. He was not a man to divulge other people’s confidences, especially those of honorable persons of high rank like the comendador, who, satisfied with these assurances, finally plucked up the courage to tell him the first half of the secret, which was that the engaged couple, who had been brought up together, had come to Rio in order to get married, when that same relative from Mata-porcos had given them some dreadful news . . .

“Which was?” João das Mercês prompted, sensing some hesitation on the part of the comendador.

“That they were brother and sister.”

“What do you mean? Blood relatives?”

“Yes, they had the same mother, but different fathers. Their relative did not explain in detail, but she swore this was the truth, and for a day or more, they were both in a state of shock . . .”

João das Mercês was no less shocked, but he nonetheless determined not to leave without hearing the rest of the story. He heard ten o’clock strike and was prepared to hear the clock chime throughout the night and to watch over the corpse of one or both, as long as he could add this page to his other parish pages, even though these people were not from the parish.

“So was that when they fell ill with the fever?”

Brito clenched his jaw as if he would say nothing more. However, when he was once again summoned, he hurried off and returned half an hour later, with the news of the second death, news to which the sacristan had already been alerted by the sound of weeping, quieter this time, although not unexpected, since there was no one from whom it needed to be concealed.

“The brother, or bridegroom, has just passed away too. May God forgive them! I’ll tell you the whole story now, my friend. They loved each other so much that, a few days after learning of the natural and canonical impediment to their marriage, they decided that, since they were only half-siblings, they would elope, and they fled in a cabriolet. The alarm was given, and the cabriolet was stopped on its way to Cidade Nova. They, however, were so distraught and angry at being captured that they both fell ill with the fever from which they have now died.”