Chapter VIII: Jerônimo's Illness and Leocádia's Eviction
Section summary
The day after the pagode, Jerônimo leaves work at lunchtime, lies down and sends Piedade to tell João Romão that he is unwell. The news draws the washerwomen, and he only loses his irritation when he smells Rita Baiana, who treats him with strong coffee, parati and a blanket to sweat under. Piedade, humble and attentive, watches her rival look after her husband and senses the danger by instinct, but says nothing; Jerônimo, warmed by the liquor, embraces Rita around the waist and is seized by desire, and she slips away with a leap, threatening to tell his wife, but pretends otherwise when Piedade comes in.
Outside, Henrique, from Miranda's townhouse, who usually makes signs to Leocádia while she washes, goes down to the weedy patch with a white rabbit he had won at an auction. Leocádia takes him to a ruined shed and gives in, asking him for a child so she can hire herself out as a wet nurse, and her husband, the blacksmith Bruno, catches them; Henrique runs off without being recognized. Bruno beats her and throws out of the window everything that belongs to her, Leocádia retaliates by smashing the rest of the house amid the laughter of the tenement, and Alexandre, the policeman, steps in to separate them. Rita, who had rushed to take her in, takes Leocádia with her.
Analysis
It was not intelligence or reason that pointed out the danger to her, but instinct, the subtle and suspicious nose that every female has for other females when she feels her nest is exposed
The narrator explains Piedade's unease as scent, not as reasoning: she has no proof, she only sees a stranger looking after her husband. What she fears is losing the place she holds, and so she smiles grudgingly and falls silent, without saying what she feels.
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Chapter IX: Jerônimo Changes, Florinda Gets Pregnant and Léonie Visits
Section summary
In the weeks that followed, Jerônimo began taking his coffee and parati from Rita Baiana every morning, and a slow transformation took hold of him: he lost his energy, became contemplative and loving, forgot his dreams of ambition, swapped wine for cachaça, salt cod for black beans and Bahian sweets, and began to smoke. Piedade, who changes her habits but not her soul, grows ever sadder: he leaves her bed to sleep in a hammock, makes her wash herself every day and asks her to learn from Rita how to cook in the local way. She goes to the Witch, who prescribes baths, the wash water in his coffee and then hair powder in his food, and Firmo, who distrusts the Portuguese, exchanges with him a look of defiance.
The old woman Marciana discovers that her daughter Florinda is pregnant and beats her until she says the name of the shop clerk Domingos; she drags her to the grocery, and João Romão, before the tenement in uproar, promises that the young man will marry her or the little one will have a dowry. Bertoleza calls the boss to the door; alone with the clerk, he refuses to settle the accounts of what he owes him and tells him to wait until night.
At night Léonie visits her comadre Augusta with her goddaughter Juju, now with blonde hair, and the whole tenement comes to admire them; she invites Pombinha, who has just come back from the dance hall where she met her fiancé, to dinner at her place, and Rita, who admires Léonie's luxury, describes her to the other women. In the end Rita pinches Jerônimo and teases him, and he answers that "not even painted would that one be any use around here."
Analysis
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Analysis