The ruse succeeds
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Fiz-lhes ver, continuou Alvaro, que por infundadas e futeis, que fossem taes suspeitas, era necessario arredal-as de si, e para isso cumpria-lhes absolutamente frequentar a sociedade. Este embuste produzio o desejado effeito.
I made them see, Álvaro went on, that however unfounded and trifling such suspicions might be, it was necessary to put them aside, and that for this it was absolutely incumbent on them to frequent society. This deception produced the desired effect.
The lie is complete: to dispel suspicion they must show themselves. Álvaro's logic is a perfect trap, and 'este embuste produzio o desejado effeito' — this deception produced the desired effect. The word 'embuste', a barefaced lie, sits strangely beside a hero, and Guimarády does not spare Álvaro the term; his love has made him, briefly, a deceiver of the woman he adores. What he 'desired' — her appearance in society — is precisely what most endangers her, so the 'desejado effeito' is a small catastrophe dressed as a triumph. He has out-argued the fugitives' caution by turning their own logic against them, arguing that safety lies in visibility when for them the reverse is true. The reader, watching the trap close, understands that the peripeteia the diners craved has, in a sense, already begun: Isaura is in the room, and the machinery that could destroy her has been set turning by the hand that loves her.
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