The rent paid punctually
Read the full text in our reader
O seo inquilino vinha todos os meses pontualmente adiantar o aluguel da chacara; eis tudo quanto a respeito delle sabia.
His tenant came every month punctually to pay the rent of the chácara in advance; that was all he knew about him.
The one visible fact about the mysterious tenant is his scrupulous punctuality — 'pontualmente adiantar o aluguel', paying the rent in advance every month. It is a small, telling detail: Miguel keeps his obligations impeccably precisely so as to give no cause for complaint, inquiry, or eviction, the ways an ordinary poor tenant might attract attention. Paying ahead means never being sought out for money, never having a reason for the landlord to come knocking. Even their honesty is a strategy of invisibility. Guimarães lets the reader admire the old man's careful competence and feel, underneath, the strain of a life lived so that no one ever has a reason to look twice.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open A Escrava Isaura 10.25 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the A Escrava Isaura — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
A Escrava Isaura 10.25 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/10.25/