“Ladies! Gentlemen!” said Porfírio. “I do not intend to rummage around in the very heart of history, that teacher of life, to find out what marriage was like in the earliest ages of humankind. We all know, ladies and gentlemen, what marriage is. Marriage is the rose, the queen of the garden, unfurling its red petals in order to protect us from the thistles and thorns and barbs of life . . .”

“Bravo!”

“Delightful!”

“If marriage is what I have just revealed to your auricular senses, there is no need to explain the joy, the fervor, the loving impulse, the explosions of sentiment felt by all of us seated here around this altar to celebrate our dear and much-loved friend.”

José Lemos bowed his head so low that the tip of his nose touched a pear that lay in front of him on the table, and Dona Beatriz turned to Dr. Valença, who was sitting beside her, and said:

“Doesn’t he speak well! He’s like a walking dictionary!”

Porfírio went on:

“I fear, ladies and gentlemen, that I lack the necessary talent to speak on the subject . . .”

“Nonsense! You speak really well!” cried many of the people surrounding him.

“You are far too kind, but I still do not feel I have the necessary talent to grapple with a subject of such magnitude.”

“Nonsense!”

“Please, you’re too kind,” said Porfírio, bowing. “While, as I say, I may lack that particular talent, I have more than enough goodwill, the same goodwill that led the Apostles to plant the religion of Calvary in the world, and thanks to that same feeling, I can sum up in just a few words my toast to the happy couple. Ladies and gentlemen, two flowers were born in two different flower beds, both of them beautiful, both highly scented, both full of divine life. They were born for each other; they were the carnation and the rose; the rose lived only for the carnation, the carnation lived only for the rose: along came a breeze and mingled the perfumes of the two flowers, and they, knowing they were in love, ran to meet each other. The breeze was godfather to that union. The rose and the carnation are united in the embrace of love, and sitting over there is the breeze honoring our gathering here tonight.”

No one was expecting this breeze; the breeze was Dr. Valença.

Loud applause greeted this speech combining Calvary with the carnation and the rose. Porfírio sat down with a sense of having done his duty.