In this sense, "conto" is short for conto de réis, a unit of account worth one million réis, or a thousand milreis, written 1:000$000, with a colon after the millions. People spoke of "five contos" for a large sum. It is not the conto as a short narrative: here the word refers to money.
Where It Appears
- Chapters I to IX: Death, plaster, and delirium
- Chapters XVII to XXIV: Coimbra and His Mother's Death
- Chapters XXXVIII to XLIX: Virgília Lost, the Death of His Father, and the Inheritance
- Chapters L to LXIII: Virgília Married and the "Let's Flee!"
- Chapters LXIV to LXXVI: The Little House, The Whip, and Dona Plácida
- Chapters LXXVII to LXXXVII: The Presidency and the Peak of the Mountain
- Chapters LXXXVIII to C: Viegas, Quincas Borba, and the Anonymous Letter
- Chapters CXXXVII to CLX: The Cap, the Ministry, and the Denials
Quotes
Marcela loved me for fifteen months and eleven contos de réis; nothing less.
Chapters XVII to XXIV: Coimbra and His Mother's Death, the narrator