Cristiano de Almeida e Palha is Sofia's husband and the man who guides Rubião in Rio. Met on the train, he becomes his friend, his partner and, in the end, the one who commits Rubião and liquidates his assets.
His first scene is on the train. Palha's eyes "brightened instantly" when Rubião says he might go to Europe, but when he tells of the inheritance, Palha's eyes "no longer brightened, they reflected deeply," and only then does Palha ask him for discretion. He then offers the house in Santa Teresa, recommends a lawyer who is a kinsman of his, and accompanies Rubião on his purchases for the Botafogo house.
On hearing from Sofia about the declaration in the garden, he turns pale, minimizes it, and confesses that he owes his friend a great deal of money; afterward he becomes Rubião's partner. When he proposes dissolving the partnership, he claims that he is going to run a bank; the narrator reveals: "There was no bank, no director's post, no liquidation." He tells that Palha prospers through shares, bonds and war supplies, already thinking of a mansion and a baronetcy. The narrator notes that some find his soul "a patchwork quilt," and adds: "Maybe so; morally, whole quilts are so rare!"
When Rubião raves, Palha installs him in a small house on Rua do Príncipe and, with Dr. Falcão, commits him. He liquidates his assets and recovers three contos and two hundred. A few days before Rubião vanishes from the sanatorium, he finds him sane, gives him one hundred milreis, and asks the director not to hasten the discharge.