Dom Casmurro 3.19 · 3.19

He drops his voice — 'abafando a voz' — into the register of the confidential, and the hush does its work twice over. It flatters the news into secrecy, making a small suspicion feel like a grave disclosure; and, in the scene's central irony, the very muffling that is meant to keep the words from strangers pours them directly into Bento's hidden ear. The lowered voice, the checked corridor, all the apparatus of discretion — and the one person who must not hear is hearing everything.

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