Chapter CXXXIII: The Legend and the Dinner Guests
Section summary
At that time, Rubião's acquaintances grow, and he begins to be pointed out as the rich man from Minas, disciple of a great philosopher who supposedly left him between one and five thousand contos. The legend explains why he never speaks of philosophy, and the "disciples" are in fact dinner guests who visit his house every day, gnaw at their hunger while they wait, and listen silently and smiling to the host's speeches; many owe him money, which he pays in secret, so as not to embarrass the debtors. To be able to dine out, Rubião has the servants serve dinner at six sharp, with or without him, and the guests set their watches by those of the Botafogo house. When he praises the philosopher, saying he would make him a minister of state, one guest replies "Oh! Without a doubt!" out of sheer routine.
Analysis
Rubião supports the dinner guests, who owe him money and guarantees, and he pays in secret "so as not to embarrass the debtors." He turns down invitations out, so as to dine at home with them, and the rule of six sharp lets the table run without him. What he receives in return is an audience and the legend of being a disciple: speaking of the philosopher, he wants to see him a minister, and one of the guests confirms, out of sheer routine.
They gnawed at their hunger as they waited, and listened silently and smiling to the host's speeches
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Chapter CXXXIV: Cigars and the Two Busts
Section summary
One night, with the owner away, the guests go to his study to fetch cigars and admire the furniture and an ebony secretary; on it is a novelty, two marble busts, one of Napoleon I and one of Napoleon III. The Spanish servant says the busts arrived at noon and that the master stood admiring them for so long that he forgot everything else. The narrator justifies the chapter, which will seem frivolous to the frivolous: the sensible will say there is some interest in this circumstance of seemingly minimal importance.
Analysis
Chapter CXXXV: Patron of Letters
Section summary
Rubião lavishly protects letters: books dedicated to him go to press with a guarantee of two and three hundred copies, and he collects diplomas from literary, choreographic and pious societies. He is a member of a Catholic Congregation and of a Protestant Guild, and pays the dues of both, because he did not remember one when he was told about the other. He subscribes to newspapers without reading them; one day the collector tells him that one of them belongs to the government party, and Rubião sends the collector to the devil.
Analysis
Chapter CXXXVI: The Collector
Section summary
The collector does not go to the devil: he takes the price of the paper's semester and, having the natural observation of collectors, grumbles in the street that there goes a man who hates the paper and pays, while so many who adore it do not pay.
Analysis
Chapter CXXXVII: Visions at Bernardo's Shop
Section summary
Rubião's wasted time has a compensation: time no longer passes over him as it does over an idle man with no ideas, because, lacking ideas, he now has imagination. Seated in Bernardo's shop, he spends whole mornings in delicious visions, such as those of his imagined wedding. More than once he was seen leaping from his chair to get a good look at the back of someone passing by; on one occasion no one passed, and he himself recognized the illusion, went back inside and bought a bronze trinket for Camacho's daughter, whose birthday it was and who was soon to marry.
Analysis
Chapter CXXXVIII: Sofia Weeds Out Her Friends
Section summary
Impatient, the female reader asks about Sofia, and the narrator replies that she, too, ate well and slept soundly and softly. Sofia finished the Alagoas commission with praise from the press, which called her an "angel of consolation," and, fearing to mortify her fellow commissioners, saw the same paper glorify them in the next issue. At home, she corrects her husband Cristiano Palha, who seemed like a servant before the favors he had received. She cuts off old relations, people of modest means, learning to receive without warmth and to say goodbye without regret, and begins to look the other way when she sees her old friends in the street, so they will not tip their hats to her.
Analysis
Chapter CXXXIX: The Invitation to Tijuca
Section summary
Rubião still wants to defend the major, but Sofia's air of boredom makes him prefer to ask whether, if it does not rain, they will go for a ride in Tijuca. Sofia says that Palha has some business and the outing is postponed to the following Sunday; Rubião proposes that they go just the two of them, and she looks at him with such longing to accept that he does not wait for an answer, but then refuses, saying her husband would be jealous. Sofia imagines the horseback ride, bold, hearing Rubião praise her daring, and even feels a kiss on the nape of her neck.
Analysis
Chapter CXL: The Steed of the Imagination
Section summary
The narrator says that, since horses are involved, Sofia's imagination was now a spirited and petulant steed, capable of climbing hills and crashing through thickets, and he explains the choice of image: it carries the idea of impetus, blood and headlong dash, along with the serenity with which the animal returns to the straight path and, at last, to the stable.
Analysis
Chapter CXLI: Roses from the Garden
Section summary
Rubião insists that the outing is the next day, but the steed of Sofia's imagination had come back weary from the run and settled sleepily in the stable: the vertigo of the venture has passed, and she postpones the outing, without spirit, to the following Sunday. When Rubião leaves, she feels relief, which she hides under a surprised "Já!", throws the threads into the basket he had given her, and says "What a boring man!" From the window, she overhears two roses in the garden: one tells her that the fault is her own, for she lends an ear to this repugnant intruder, and the other that he is firm, discreet, and loves her.
Analysis
Chapter CXLII: Talking to the Buttons
Section summary
Sofia listens in silence and questions other plants, which tell her nothing different. The narrator explains the discovery: a wall, a bench or an umbrella is rich in ideas or feelings when we are too, and the expression "talking to the buttons" has real meaning, for the buttons form a kind of senate, comfortable and cheap, which always votes our motions.
Analysis
Chapter CXLIII: The Horse's Fall
Section summary
The outing to Tijuca took place, with Rubião, Sofia and Cristiano Palha, with no incident other than a fall from the horse on the descent. The one who falls is Sofia, who had been thinking about "I don't know what" and whipped the animal in anger; it startled and threw her to the ground. She falls gracefully, dressed as an amazon, and the narrator recalls that Rubião had only said, when the outing began: "You are an angel, madam!"
Analysis
Chapter CXLIV: The Knee and the Oath
Section summary
At home, in the dressing room, Sofia shows her husband Cristiano Palha her bruised knee and asks whether she looked undignified when she fell. Wanting to be sure no one saw, she asks him to swear, and what troubles her is Rubião's gaze. Palha swears "by all that is most sacred" and, half in jest, slides his hand down her leg; afterward, in his own room, he laments that the casual glance had stopped at the tip of her boot and imagines the amazement and envy of the only witness had he seen more.
Analysis
Chapter CXLV: The Barber Lucien
Section summary
In January 1870, Rubião sends for a French barber, Lucien, to come to his house. When the barber arrives at the study, where the busts of the two Napoleons are, Rubião notices neither his courtesy nor the "uhm" of Quincas Borba (the dog): he is sprawled in a chair, "marching to the moon," imagining a placid life, without reverses, without failure, without poverty, from the cradle onward; he wears damask slippers and, on his head, a cap with a silk tassel.
Analysis
Chapter CXLVI: Napoleon III's Beard
Section summary
When Rubião comes to himself and finds Lucien there, the barber speaks to him in French, and Rubião, who does not understand, replies "Justamente!" in Portuguese, believing he is speaking French. He asks that his face be restored "to its earlier type" and points to the bust of Napoleon III; Lucien leaves him only the goatee and mustache of the emperor, comparing the face to the bust. Rubião runs to the mirror, sees that "it was the other, it was both," and pays with a twenty-milreis note, without change, with a sovereign gesture.
Analysis
Chapter CXLVII: Toward the Moon, by Way of Compiègne
Section summary
Alone, Rubião throws himself into an armchair and imagines himself at Compiègne or Biarritz, governing a great state, hearing ministers and ambassadors, dancing and dining, with scenes that come to him from newspaper correspondence he had read. Not even the whimpering of Quincas Borba (the dog) rouses him: Compiègne lay on the road to the moon, and he continues "marching to the moon."
Analysis
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Analysis