Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

XXXVI - Ideas Without Legs, Ideas Without Arms

I left them on the pretext of playing, and went back to thinking about the adventure of the morning. It was the best he could do, without Latin, and even with Latin. After five minutes, he reminded me to run to the next house, to take Capitú, to undo his braids, to remake them, and to conclude them in that particular way, on a bocca. This is it, come on, this is it ... Only idea! idea without legs! The other legs did not want to run or walk. Much later they left slowly and took me to Capitú's house. When I got there, I found her in the living room, in the same room, sitting on the couch, cushioned in her lap, sewing in peace. He did not look at me with a face, but with theft and fear, or, if you prefer the phraseology of the aggregate, obliquely and disguised. The hands stopped, after the needle was stuck in the panno. I, on the opposite side of the table, did not know what to do; and again the words that I had carried away. So we spent a few long minutes, until she completely left the seam, rose and waited for me. I went to her, and asked if her mother had said anything; he replied that he did not. The mouth with which he replied was such that I think I had caused a gesture of approximation. Certainly Capitú stepped back a little..

It was an opportunity to pegal it, pull it and kiss it ... Idea only idea without arms! Mine fell and died. I did not know anything about Escriptura. If I knew, it is probable that the spirit of Satanaz made me give the language mystica of Cantico a direct and natural sense. Then he would obey the first verse; "Apply the lips to him, giving me the bone of his mouth." And as for the arms, which had inert, it would suffice to keep the verse. 6th of cap. II: "His left hand is already under my head, and his right hand will embrace me later." You see there the chronology of gestures. It was just an execution; but even though I knew the text, Capitú's attitudes were now so withdrawn that I do not know if I would not stay still, but it was she who took me out of that situation.