Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

XV - Another Sudden Voice

Another sudden voice, but this time a man's voice:

"Are you playing politics?"

It was Capitu's mother, who was at the back door, at the woman's feet. We let our hands go quickly, and we were in the way. Capitú went to the wall, and with the nail, covertly erased our names.

-Capitú!

-Papae!

"Do not ruin the plaster of the wall." Capitú scratched on the scratch, to erase the script. Padova went out into the yard, to see what it was, but her daughter had begun another thing, a profile, which she said was the portrait of him, and it could be as well as his mother; I laughed, that was the point. Besides, he arrived without a chuckle, all sweet, despite the dubious or less than doubtful gesture in which he caught us. He was a short, thick man, short legs and arms, abyss backs, whence came the nickname of Turtle, which Jose Dias gave him. No one called him back home; it was only the aggregate.

"Were you playing politics?" He asked.

I looked at a foot of the elder who was near; Capitú answered for both.

"We were, yes, sir, but Bentinho laughs, he can not bear it.

"When I got to the door, do not laugh.

"I've laughed at the other times; can not. Papae wants to see?

And seriously, she looked into my eyes, inviting me to play. The scare is naturally serious; I was still under the action of what brought the entrance to Padua, and I was not able to laugh, no matter how much I should do it, to legitimate Capitú's answer. This, tired of waiting, she turned away, saying that I did not laugh that time because I was at the foot of the pae. And he did not even laugh. There are things that only apprehend late; It is necessary to be born with them to make them early. And it is better of course early than artificially late. Capitú, after two turns, went to his mother, who was still at the door of the house, leaving us and her mother delighted; the pae, looking at her and me, said to me, full of tenderness:

"Who will say that this little girl is fourteen years old?" Looks like this. Is Mommy good? he kept turning fully to me.

-It is.

"I have not seen her for many days. I want to give a capote to the doctor, but I have not been able to, I work with the distribution office, at home; I write every night that it is in despair; business report. Have you seen my gumbomo? It's in the background. I was about to fetch the cage; go see That my desire was none, it is easily believed, without having to swear by the sky or the earth. My desire was to go after Capitú and tell him now of the evil that awaited us, but the father was the father, and the rest loved the little birds. It had them of varying species, color and size. The area that was in the center of the house was surrounded by cages of canaries, which they sang with a noise of all the devils. He traded birds with other amateurs, bought them, picked up some, in his own yard, setting up trapdoors. Also, if they get sick, treat them as if they were people.