“Do you know who I am?” asked the old man as soon as Duarte entered the room.
“No, I do not, sir.”
“No need. What we are about to do requires no introductions. You should first know that the theft of the slipper was a mere pretext—”
“Quite!” said Duarte, interrupting him.
“A mere pretext,” continued the old man, “to bring you to our house. The slipper was not stolen; it never left its owner’s possession. João Rufino, bring the slipper.”
The thin man left the room, and the old man informed our young graduate that the famous slipper was not sewn with diamonds, nor had it been purchased from a Jew in Egypt. It was, however, Turkish, according to what he’d been told, and it was miraculously small. Duarte listened to this explanation and, summoning all his strength, asked resolutely:
“But, sir, will you not tell me, once and for all, what you want from me and why I am here in this house?”
“All in due course,” replied the old man calmly.
The door opened, and the thin man appeared, holding the slipper. Invited to come closer to the light, Duarte was able to ascertain that the slipper was indeed miraculously small. It was made of the finest Moroccan leather and on its padded insole, lined with blue silk, gleamed two gold-embroidered letters.
“A child’s slipper, wouldn’t you say?” said the old man.
“I suppose so.”
“Then you suppose wrongly; it is a young lady’s slipper.”
“If you say so, but it has nothing to do with me.”
“Excuse me, but it has everything to do with you, because you will marry the owner of this slipper.”
“Marry?” exclaimed Duarte.
“Precisely. João Rufino, go and fetch the slipper’s owner.”
The thin man went out, and returned soon afterward. As he appeared, he drew back the door curtain and a woman entered. She walked toward the middle of the room. She was no mere woman, but a sylph, a poet’s vision, a divine creature.
Her hair was blond and her eyes blue, like Cecília’s; rapturous eyes that sought heaven or seemed to live by it. Her hair, untidily pinned back, formed a halo around her head like that of a saint; only a saint, mind, not a martyr, because the smile that played upon her lips was a smile of holy bliss the like of which has rarely been seen on Earth.
Her body was chastely clothed in a white dress of the finest linen, leaving little visible to the eye, but much to the imagination.
A young man such as ours does not lose his elegant manners, even in situations like this. Upon seeing the young lady, Duarte adjusted his dressing gown, straightened his necktie, and bowed ceremoniously, and she responded with such politeness and grace that the adventure began to appear much less terrifying.
“My dear sir, this is the bride in question.”
The young lady lowered her eyes; Duarte replied that he had no wish to marry.
“There are three things you will do right now,” the old man continued impassively. “The first is to marry, the second is to write your will, and the third is to swallow a particular drug from the Levant—”
“Poison!” cried Duarte.
“It is commonly known as such, but I give it another name: a passport to heaven.”
Duarte turned pale and cold. He tried to speak, but couldn’t; not even a whimper escaped his lips. He would have fallen to the floor, had there not been a chair nearby into which he let himself sink.
“You have a modest fortune,” continued the old man, “of one hundred and fifty contos de réis. This pearl standing before you will be your sole heiress. João Rufino, go and fetch the priest.”
The priest entered, the same priest who had blessed our young graduate a short time earlier. He went straight over to the young man, solemnly mumbling a passage from Nehemiah, or some other minor prophet. He crossed himself and said:
“Stand up!”
“No! I don’t want to! I will not marry!”
“Is that so?” said the old man from the other side of the table, pointing a pistol at him.
“So it’s murder, is it?”
“It is, but the difference lies in the manner of your death. You can either die violently from a bullet or gently by taking the drug. You choose!”
Duarte was sweating and shaking. He wanted to stand up, but couldn’t. His knees were knocking. The priest came and whispered in his ear:
“Do you want to escape?”
“Yes!” he exclaimed, although not with his lips, for then he would have been overheard, but with his eyes, in which he placed every remaining hope of life.
“See that window over there? It’s open and beneath it is the garden. Jump out now; it’s quite safe.”
“Oh, Father!” whispered our young man.
“I’m not a priest; I’m an army lieutenant. But don’t say a word.”
The window stood slightly ajar; through the crack he could see a sliver of sky, already brightening. Duarte did not hesitate; he summoned all his strength and jumped, throwing himself upon the mercy of God. It wasn’t very high, and the young man didn’t have far to fall; he quickly picked himself up, but the fat man, who was out in the garden, caught up with him.
“What’s all this?” he asked, laughing.
Duarte did not answer; he clenched his fists, beat them violently against the man’s chest, and started running across the lawn. The man didn’t fall despite the heavy blows, and when he’d recovered, he immediately set off in pursuit of the fugitive. Thus began a breakneck chase. Duarte scaled fences and walls, trampled flower beds, and collided with the trees that, from time to time, rose up in front of him. Sweat poured down his body, his chest heaved, and, little by little, his strength began to ebb away; one of his hands was gashed, his shirt damp with dew from the leaves; twice he was almost captured when his dressing gown got caught on a thorny hedge. At last, tired, bruised, and out of breath, he stumbled and fell on the stone steps leading up to a house standing in the middle of a garden.
He looked back, but saw no one; his pursuer was nowhere to be seen, or at least not yet. Duarte struggled to his feet, climbed the remaining four steps, and crept into the house through a door that stood open and led into a small, low-ceilinged room.
A man was sitting there, reading a copy of the Jornal do Commercio, but he seemed not to have noticed him enter. Duarte collapsed into a chair. He stared at the man. It was Major Lopo Alves.
The major, still holding the newspaper, whose dimensions were gradually becoming smaller and smaller, suddenly exclaimed:
“Angel of heaven, you are avenged! End of the last scene.”
Duarte looked at him, at the table and at the walls, rubbed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
“So, what do you think?”
“Excellent!” replied the graduate, standing up.
“Strong stuff, isn’t it?”
“The very strongest. What time is it?”
“It’s just gone two.”
Duarte accompanied the major to the door, took another deep breath, brushed himself down, and went over to the window. No one knows what he thought for those first few minutes, but after a quarter of an hour, here is what he said to himself: “Nymph, sweet maid, restless, fertile fantasy! You saved me from a terrible play with a strange and original dream; you replaced tedium with a nightmare: it was a good bargain. A good bargain and a grave lesson: you proved to me that the best drama often lies in the spectator and not on the stage.”
IN THE ARK
Three Unpublished Chapters from the Book of Genesis
Chapter A
1. Then Noah said unto his sons Japheth, Shem, and Ham: “Let us leave the ark, according to the will of the Lord; we and our wives, and all the animals. The ark shall come to rest upon a mountaintop; there will we disembark.
2. “Because the Lord has fulfilled His promise, when He said unto me: ‘I have resolved to bring an end to all living flesh; wickedness rules over the earth and I will make all men perish. Thou sha
lt make a wooden ark and go into it; thou, thy wife, and thy sons.
3. “ ‘And thy sons’ wives, and two of every beast.’
4. “Now that the Lord’s promise has been fulfilled, and all men have perished, and the torrents of heaven have abated, we will return to inhabit the earth, and live in the bosom of peace and harmony.”
5. Thus spoke Noah, and the sons of Noah felt great joy upon hearing the words of their father; and Noah left them alone, withdrawing into one of the cabins inside the ark.
6. Then Japheth lifted up his voice and said: “A life of pleasure shall be ours. The fig tree shall give us its fruit, the sheep its wool, the cow its milk, the sun its light, and the night its shelter.
7. “For we will be the only ones upon the earth, and all the land shall be ours, and none shall disturb the peace of a family saved from the punishment that cut down all of mankind.
8. “Forever and ever.” Then Shem, upon hearing his brother speak, said: “I have an idea.” To which Japheth and Ham replied: “Let us hear this idea, Shem.
9. And Shem spoke with the voice of his heart, saying: “My father has his family; each one of us has his family; there is an abundance of land; we can live in separate tents. Each one of us will do as he thinks best: planting, hunting, hewing wood, or spinning flax.”
10. And Japheth replied: “I think Shem’s idea well thought; we can live in separate tents. The ark will come to rest upon a mountaintop; my father and Ham will disembark on the side of the rising sun; Shem and I on the side of the setting sun. Shem will occupy two hundred cubits of land, and I another two hundred.”
11. But when Shem spoke, saying: “Two hundred cubits is but little,” Japheth replied: “Then let it be five hundred each. Between thy land and mine shall be a river that divides them, so that our lands may be clearly marked. I shall keep to the left bank and thou to the right bank;
12. “And my land will be called the land of Japheth, and thine will be called the land of Shem; and we will each visit the tent of the other, and together we will break the bread of joy and harmony.”
13. And, having approved the division, Shem asked Japheth: “But what about the river? To whom will the waters of the river, the current itself, belong?
14. “Because we possess the riverbanks, but we have said nothing about the current.” And Japheth replied that they could fish from either side. But his brother disagreed, proposing to divide the river into two parts, by putting a stick in the middle. Japheth, however, said that the current would sweep the stick away.
15. And Japheth having replied thus, his brother answered him: “Since the stick does not serve thee, I will have the river and both of its banks; and so that there be no conflict between us, thou canst build a wall, ten or twelve cubits from the bank that was thine.
16. “And if by this thou losest something, the difference is not great, and nor is it any less fitting, so that the peace between us may never be disturbed, according to the will of the Lord.”
17. But Japheth replied: “Get thee hence! By what right dost thou take the riverbank, which is mine, and rob me of a piece of my land? Art thou better than I,
18. “Or fairer, or more beloved of my father? What right hast thou to violate so scandalously the property of another?
19. “For now I say unto thee that the river shall be mine, along with both of its banks, and if thou darest enter upon my land, I will slay thee just as Cain slew his brother.”
20. Hearing this, Ham was greatly afraid, and began to calm his two brothers,
21. Each of whom had eyes as big as figs and the color of fiery embers, and looked at each other full of hatred and scorn.
22. The ark, meanwhile, was floating upon the waters of the abyss.
Chapter B
1. Then Japheth, seething with rage, began to foam at the mouth, and Ham spoke unto him with words of gentleness,
2. Saying: “Let us find a way to reconcile everything; I will call for thy wife and Shem’s wife.”
3. Each of them, however, refused, saying that the matter was one of rights, not of persuasion.
4. And Shem proposed to Japheth that he make up for the ten lost cubits by measuring out another ten at the back of his lands. But Japheth replied,
5. “Why not send me straightaway to the ends of the earth? Thou art no longer content with five hundred cubits; thou seekest five hundred and ten, and for me to have four hundred and ninety.
6. “Hast thou no moral feelings? Dost thou not know what justice is? Canst thou not see how brazenly thou steals from me? And dost thou not realize that I will know to defend what is mine, even at risk of my life?
7. “And that if blood must be spilt, then it will be spilt here and now,
8. “To punish thy pride and wash away thy iniquity?”
9. Then Shem advanced toward Japheth, but Ham put himself between them, placing a hand on the chest of each one;
10. Whilst the wolf and the lamb, who during all the days of the flood had lived in sweetest harmony, upon hearing the sound of voices came to see the brothers fight, and became wary of each other.
11. And Ham said: “Behold, I have a marvelous idea that will satisfy everyone.
12. “And inspired by the love I have for you my brothers. I will sacrifice the land that is mine beside that of my father, and instead I will have the river and its two banks, with each of you giving me around twenty cubits.”
13. And Shem and Japheth laughed with sarcasm and scorn, saying: “Go plant dates! Keep that idea for the days of thy dotage.” And they pulled Ham’s ears and nose; and Japheth, putting two fingers in his mouth, imitated the hiss of the serpent, mocking him.
14. Now Ham, annoyed and ashamed, spread wide his hands and said: “Let me be!” and went thence to meet with his father and the wives of his two brothers.
15. Japheth, however, said unto Shem: “Now that we are alone, let us decide this serious matter, whether it be by tongue or by fist. Cede unto me both riverbanks, or I will break one of thy ribs.”
16. Upon saying this, Japheth threatened Shem with clenched fists, while Shem, bracing himself, said in an angry voice: “I cede nothing unto thee, thief!”
17. To which Japheth retorted angrily: “Thou art the thief!”
18. They then advanced toward each other and came to blows. Japheth had a sturdy and well-trained arm; Shem stood his ground. Then Japheth, grabbing his brother around the waist, squeezed him mightily, shouting: “Whose river is it?”
19. And Shem responded: “It is mine!” Japheth tried to wrestle him to the floor, but Shem, who was strong, shook himself free and pushed his brother away; Japheth, however, foaming with rage, once again seized his brother and the two of them fought hand-to-hand,
20. Sweating and snorting like bulls.
21. As they fought, they fell and rolled, punching each other; blood flowed from their noses, their lips, and their cheeks; one moment Japheth was winning;
22. Then it was Shem; for anger spurred them on in equal measure, and they fought with their hands, their feet, their teeth, and their nails; and the ark trembled as if once again the heavens had opened.
23. Then the voices and shouts reached the ears of Noah, at the same time as his son Ham appeared before him, clamoring: “My father, my father, if for Cain vengeance will be taken seven times, and for Lamech seventy times seven, what will it be for Japheth and Shem?”
24. And when Noah asked him to explain what he meant, Ham spoke of his brothers’ strife, and the anger that seethed within them, and said: “Hasten to calm them.” Noah said: “Let us go.”
25. The ark, meanwhile, was floating upon the waters of the abyss.
Chapter C
1. And behold, Noah came to the place where his two sons were fighting,
2. And found them still clasped one to another, Shem pinned down by the knee of Japheth, who with clenched fist was punching his brother’s bruised and bloodied face.
3. Meanwhile, Shem, raising his hands, managed to grasp his b
rother by the throat, and Japheth began to shout: “Let me go! Let me go!”
4. Hearing the shouts, Japheth and Shem’s wives came also unto the scene of the struggle, and, seeing them thus, began to cry and say: “What will become of us? The curse has fallen upon us and upon our husbands.”
5. Noah, however, said unto them: “Be quiet, wives of my sons, and I will see what this quarrel is about, and I will ordain that which is just.” And, walking toward the two fighters,
6. He shouted unto them: “Stop the fight. I, Noah, your father, order and command it.” And upon hearing their father the two brothers suddenly halted, and remained a long time silent and ashamed, neither of them getting to their feet.
7. Noah continued: “Stand up, O men unworthy of salvation and deserving of the punishment that has befallen all other men.”
8. Japheth and Shem stood up. Each had cuts on his face, neck, and hands, and their clothes were splattered with blood, for they had fought with tooth and nail, incensed by mortal hatred.
9. The deck as well was soaked with blood, and also both men’s sandals, and their hair;
10. As if sin had wished to mark them with the sign of their iniquity.
11. The two wives, however, came unto them, weeping and caressing them, and the aching of their hearts was plain to see. Japheth and Shem did not respond, and stood with their eyes cast downwards, fearful of facing their father.
The Collected Stories of Machado De Assis Page 45