Dom Casmurro 6.15 · 6.15

The paragraph closes on a smile, and the smile gives everything away. 'Sorria de persuasão' — Cosme smiles because he has been persuaded, talked by José Dias's retelling into believing his own courtroom brilliance. The modesty of the previous clause dissolves in a single, contented expression.

Machado's whole method is in that last word. He does not tell us Cosme is vain; he shows the flattery landing and the face responding, and lets the reader draw the line. José Dias's compliments have done their quiet work, converting a man who wished to be modest into one who believes the praise. It is the same soft machinery — a well-placed word, a susceptible listener, a persuasion that feels like truth — that will operate, far less harmlessly, at the center of the novel.

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