Who She Is
A French-style cocotte, comadre of Augusta Carne-Mole and godmother of Juju, who lives with her. She visits the tenement in showy clothes and open luxury, is admired by the residents, pays for the burial of Augusta's daughter, and in her house leads Pombinha to the alcove on an afternoon the girl never forgets.
Trajectory
The book names her through her goddaughter, on the morning of the washerwomen: Juju lives with her godmother, the cocotte Léonie (chapter III). She visits Augusta at night, with Juju, blonde-haired, and the whole tenement comes out to admire them; she invites Pombinha to dinner at her house (chapter IX).
Aquela afilhada era o seu luxo, a sua originalidade, a coisa boa da sua vida de cansaços depravados; era o que aos seus próprios olhos a resgatava das abjeções do ofício, That goddaughter was her luxury, her originality, the good thing in her life of depraved weariness; it was what, in her own eyes, rescued her from the abjections of her trade
On the Sunday of Miranda's title celebration, she receives Pombinha and her mother, Dona Isabel; she sends the old woman off to sleep in a room and locks the door from outside, leads the girl to the alcove and imposes on her, despite protests and tears, an intimate contact that leaves her ashamed. Pombinha only leaves after giving a kiss of reconciliation, and she accepts the diamond ring out of her mother's insistence (chapter XI).
Léonie franqueou-lhe um bom quarto, com boa cama, e, mal percebeu que a velha dormia, fechou a porta pelo lado de fora, para melhor ficar em liberdade com a pequena., Léonie gave her a good room, with a good bed, and, as soon as she saw the old woman was asleep, shut the door from the outside, so as to be left at liberty with the little one.
The photographs of respectable men she showed the girl on the day of the visit come back to Pombinha's memory when Bruno cries, and that is what makes her see her fiancé in another light (chapter XII).
After the fire, she pays for the burial of Augusta's daughter and arrives at the funeral in a cream-colored sateen dress, in a little carriage with a liveried coachman (chapter XVIII).
O enterro da pequenita foi feito à custa de Léonie, que apareceu às três da tarde, vestida de cetineta cor de creme, num carrinho dirigido por um cocheiro de calção de flanela branca e libré agaloada de ouro., The little one's burial was paid for by Léonie, who appeared at three in the afternoon, dressed in cream-colored sateen, in a little carriage driven by a coachman in white flannel breeches and gold-braided livery.
She keeps visiting the tenement after the renovation, and one Saturday afternoon she brings Pombinha, who already lives with her (chapter XXII). The narrator says the girl was lured by her own feet.
A serpente vencia afinal: Pombinha foi, pelo seu próprio pé, atraída, meter-se-lhe na boca., The serpent was winning at last: Pombinha, lured by her own foot, walked into its mouth.
Themes Embodied
The standard themes that pass through her are Sexuality, Social Class, and Corruption and Decay. The symbol that goes with her on stage is the São Romão tenement, where she is the admired visitor and from which she leaves with a young woman (chapter IX, chapter XXII).
The text gives Léonie two movements that do not cancel each other: the esteem of honest people is what makes her feel rescued from her trade (chapter IX), and it is she who prepares the afternoon in the alcove with Pombinha (chapter XI). The narrator does not separate them, and the same woman pays for the burial and locks the door.
Léonie lives by the gaze of those who see her from below: she drinks water from the tin mug, kicks off her shoes and trades her luxury for old house slippers. The generosity, the gifts, and the beer she pays for are what give her a place in Augusta's house, and it is on that credit that she leads the girl in. The book does not judge her, and Pombinha, at the end, repeats with Piedade's daughter the gesture of sympathy the cocotte once showed her.
Relationships
- Pombinha: the young woman she prepares in the alcove and takes in after the broken engagement.
- Rita Baiana: the washerwoman who describes Léonie's luxury to her companions.