“Here she comes!”
“Who, Luiza?”
Luiza was in fact just then passing by, dressed in black. She responded to the salutation of the two gentlemen with a smile, waving an adieu to them in some confusion.
Sebastião, motionless, following her devoutly with his eyes, said,—
“If that does not breathe of purity! God be with you, virtuous creature! God be with you!”
CHAPTER XI.
A LOYAL FRIEND.
AS soon as Luiza began to go out regularly every day, Juliana said to herself,—
“Good; now I am certain, when she goes out, that it is to meet that coxcomb.”
And her attitude towards her mistress became more servile than ever. She ran joyfully, with an obsequious smile upon her lips, to open the door for Luiza when she returned home at five o’clock. And what zeal in her service! What exactitude! If a button were wanting in a garment, if a bill had been mislaid, it was, “A thousand pardons, Senhora; forgive me this once,” followed by the humblest lamentations. She interested herself, with real devotion, in the matter of Luiza’s health, of her clothing, of what she ought to eat. Since her mistress had begun to go out daily, Juliana’s work had increased; she was obliged to iron every day; she was often obliged to wash stockings and cuffs till eleven o’clock at night, or even later.
At six o’clock in the morning, and sometimes still earlier, she was already with the smoothing-iron in her hand. Yet she did not complain. On the contrary, she would say to Joanna, when washing or ironing,—