Mocking a devout woman
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e principalmente para deprimir costumes religiosos, que eram os seus?
and above all to disparage religious customs, which were her own?
Capitú jeers at religion that is Dona Glória's own.
The specific offense: Capitú mocked religious observance, "costumes religiosos, que eram os seus" — customs that were Dona Glória's own. To jeer at a devout woman's piety is to strike at what she holds sacred.
The detail matters because Dona Glória's religion is the engine of the whole plot: her old promise to God is why Bento is bound for the seminary. Capitú's scorn for the pious is thus not idle — it is aimed, however wildly, at the very devotion that threatens to take Bento from her. Machado lets the girl's fury land, unknowing, on the true obstacle.
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