The dropped handkerchief
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Um dia porém quando eu passava, cahio-lhe o lenço ao levantar-se do banco; a grade estava aberta; tomei a liberdade de penetrar no jardim, apanhei o lenço, e corri a entregar-lho, quando já ella punha o pé na soleira de sua casa.
But one day as I passed, her handkerchief fell as she rose from the bench; the gate was open; I took the liberty of entering the garden, picked up the handkerchief, and ran to hand it to her, just as she was setting foot on the threshold of her house.
The dropped handkerchief is the oldest device of romance, and Álvaro tells it as a lucky accident — but Geraldo will suggest, and the reader may suspect, that it was dropped on purpose. Either way, it is the hinge that lets a stranger cross the threshold Isaura had kept so carefully closed. Note the geography of the moment: 'a grade estava aberta', the gate was open — the one lapse in the fortress — and Álvaro is over it in an instant. The whole apparatus of concealment fails at a single unlatched gate and a fallen scrap of cloth. Guimarães makes the breach small and tender, a courtesy rather than an intrusion, but it is the first crack in the disguise, and from small courtesies, in this novel, large exposures grow.
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A Escrava Isaura 10.28 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/10.28/