They told him there was none in the house. Reynaldo looked with an air of consternation at Bazilio, and murmured in a hollow voice,—
“What a wretched country!”
CHAPTER IX.
DRAGON’S TEETH.
WHEN Luiza returned home, Juliana, who had not yet changed her dress, said to her at the door,—
“Senhor Sebastião is in the parlor. He has been waiting a long time; for he was here when I got back.”
He had been waiting, in fact, for half an hour. When Joanna, her face flushed, and looking as if she had been suddenly roused from sleep, opened the door for him and told him that her mistress was not at home, Sebastião’s first impulse was to go away, pleased at having escaped a difficult task. But he resisted this feeling, entered the house, and waited. He was resolved to speak to Luiza, to warn her that these frequent visits of her cousin in a neighborhood so given to gossips as was hers might compromise her. It was indeed terrible to say this to her; but it was his duty, for her own sake, for her husband’s, for the peace of the household. He was obliged to warn her; it was his duty to do so. At this thought his timidity vanished. In the face of an imperious duty he summoned all his energy to his aid. His heart beat a little faster, it is true; he turned pale, but he resolved to warn her. He walked up and down the parlor, with his hands in his pockets, mentally framing sentences that had a friendly and delicate turn. But when the bell rang, and a moment afterwards he heard the rustle of her dress in the hall, his courage collapsed, like a balloon from which the gas has escaped. He ran to the piano and began to play with spirit. When Luiza entered the room, her face flushed, without her hat, and taking off her gloves, he rose, and said, smiling,—
“I have come to chat with you awhile. I waited. Where have you been?”
Luiza seated herself with an air of fatigue. She had been to the dressmaker’s, she said. How warm it was! Why did he not come oftener? And a thousand thanks for the flowers! “I receive no visits of ceremony,” she added. “Only those of my cousin, who has returned from abroad.”
Sebastião remained seated on the piano-stool, and softly rubbed his knees.
“And your cousin,—is he well?” he asked.