Costa was one of the most highly respected of Itaguaí’s citizens. He had inherited four hundred thousand cruzados in the good coinage of King João V, a sum of money that would, as his uncle had declared in his will, provide income enough to live on “until the end of the world.” No sooner had he received his inheritance than he began to share it out in the form of loans, at no interest; one thousand cruzados here, two thousand there, three hundred to this fellow, eight hundred to the next, so much so that, after five years, there was nothing left. Had penury befallen him suddenly, Itaguaí would have sat up and taken notice. But it came little by little; he slipped from opulence to affluence, from affluence to moderation, from moderation to poverty, and from poverty to penury, all in gradual steps. By the end of those five years, people who had once raised their hats to him as soon as they spotted him at the end of the street, would now clap him familiarly on the back, tweak his nose, and make all sorts of rude comments. And Costa would always laugh amiably. He seemed not even to notice that the least courteous men were precisely those who still owed him money; on the contrary, he would embrace them with even greater pleasure, and even more sublime resignation. One day, when one of these incorrigible debtors jeered at him and Costa simply laughed, a skeptical bystander commented, somewhat perfidiously: “You only put up with that fellow in the hope he will repay you.” Costa did not hesitate for a second; he went up to the man who owed him money and canceled the debt on the spot. “Don’t be surprised,” interjected the bystander, “all Costa has given up is a far-distant star.” Costa was perceptive enough to realize that the onlooker was mocking the worthiness of his actions, alleging that he was only relinquishing something he would never receive anyway. Costa prized his honor, and, two hours later, he found a means of proving that such a slander was untrue: he got hold of a few coins and sent them to the debtor as a new loan.

“Let’s hope that now . . .” he thought, not even bothering to finish the sentence.