A Escrava Isaura 10.20 · 10.20

Álvaro's tale begins with the accident of a passing glance — 'avistei-a sentada em um banco' — the chance sighting that Romantic love requires. The garden bench recalls, faintly, the workroom stool of Cap IX where Isaura wept; the same woman, transplanted to a genteel garden, sits now in the pose of a lady at leisure. The whole scene is domestic peace built over a fault line, and Álvaro, riding idly by, has no idea he is looking at a hunted woman. His 'em duas palavras', in two words, promises a light anecdote; the reader knows the anecdote is the outer face of a life-and-death concealment.

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