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Quincas Borba · Chapters XLI to XLIX

The night after the garden

Appearance and RealityDesireLoyalty and Betrayal

Chapter XLI: Ten Sublime Minutes

Desire

Section summary

Sofia wants to return to the parlor, but Rubião holds her by the arm and by the hand and asks her to gaze at the Southern Cross at ten at night. She pleads, he loosens his grip, and he is about to kiss her hand when a voice wakes him.

Analysis

Rubião holds her by the arm and the hand because he wants to prolong what the garden has given him: "ten sublime minutes," and the Southern Cross at ten as a meeting of minds. The invitation is poetic, the gesture is not. Sofia nearly says a harsh word and swallows it, remembering that he is a good friend of the house; she moves from offended to pleading, because she wants to leave without losing the friend.

Rubião shuddered at this possessive: our absence
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Chapter XLII: Father Mendes

Appearance and Reality

Section summary

Major Siqueira walks into the garden, remarks on the moon and on lovers' nights, and interrupts the scene. Sofia, calm, invents that Rubião had been comparing the nights of Rio with those of Barbacena and had told an anecdote about a Father Mendes, and Rubião, clumsy, can only repeat "Mendes, yes" and sticks to the lie. The major, who saw their hands held, is left between having seen and not having seen, and he talks without stopping, while Sofia returns to the house through another door, as if she had gone to give orders about the tea. Rubião, afraid the major will denounce him, flatters him, and Dona Tônica comes to fetch her father.

Analysis

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Chapter XLIII: Dona Tônica's Anger

Section summary

At the house on Rua do Senado, Dona Tônica imagines denouncing Sofia to her husband and degrades her in thought. Once the anger has passed, she looks at her unmarried woman's bedroom, thinks of the forty years drawing near, and weeps on the bed.

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Chapter XLIV: Tyrants of Intention

Section summary

The narrator says that, after seeing Rubião and Sofia exchange glances and suspecting adultery, Dona Tônica's pain and anger were the same in themselves, and only their effects differed: the anger came to nothing, and the humiliation turned into genuine tears. She came to feel impulses to strangle Sofia, trample her underfoot, and tear out her heart in pieces, but these were only imaginings, for there are tyrants of intention, and the narrator adds that a faint thread of Caligula ran through her soul.

Analysis

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Chapter XLV: Rubião Between Remorse and Hope

Loyalty and Betrayal

Section summary

While one weeps, another laughs. Rubião comes down the hill, alternately exalted and repentant, accusing and defending Sofia. He recalls the debt and the three promissory notes he accepted on behalf of Cristiano Palha, and he ends up at the Largo de São Francisco.

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Chapter XLVI: The Beggar and the Sky

Section summary

A beggar wakes on the church steps and lies on his back, gazing at the starry sky. The two size each other up like rival majesties, calm, and each tells the other that he will never reach him.

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Chapter XLVII: The Hanged Man of Other Times

Section summary

Rubião, envious of the beggar, gets into a Tilbury and remembers the time when he was poor: he followed the procession of a condemned Black man, ended up at the execution square, and shouted at the fatal moment.

Analysis

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Chapter XLVIII: Coachman, Horse, and Metempsychosis

Section summary

The coachman talks about horses and dogs, and Rubião recalls Quincas Borba (the dog), the clause in the will, and his fear of losing his fortune. He wonders whether the dog and Quincas Borba (the philosopher) might be the same creature, through transmigration.

Analysis

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Chapter XLIX: The Dog and Elusive Sleep

Desire

Section summary

At home, Quincas Borba (the dog) greets him with joy, and his gaze recalls the philosopher's. Rubião strokes him and orders that he be taken down without blows. Lying in bed, he mixes up the whole day; his love for Sofia overcomes his remorse, and he does not fall asleep until before four.

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