Where did she come from?
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Mas dize-me cá, meo Alvaro; esse anjo, fada, deosa, mulher ou o que quer que seja, não te disse d’onde veio, de que familia é, se tem fortuna?
But tell me now, my Álvaro; that angel, fairy, goddess, woman, or whatever she may be, did she not tell you where she came from, of what family she is, whether she has a fortune?
Geraldo's questions are exactly the ones a fugitive most fears: origin, family, fortune — the three coordinates by which polite society fixes a stranger's identity and worth. In a world without documents or photographs, one's place was established by knowing where one came from and to whom one belonged, and these are the very facts Isaura cannot supply without destroying herself. The doctor asks them idly, as social small-talk, but the reader hears them land like probes against a hidden wound. 'De que familia é' — of what family — is the deadliest, for a slave in law has no family, only an owner. Geraldo means only to satisfy curiosity; he is unknowingly reciting the interrogatory that could unmask her.
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