To the marrow of their bones
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se bem que estou certo que só com a simples vista ficarão penetrados de assombro até a medulla dos ossos.
though I am certain that at the mere sight of her you will be pierced with amazement to the marrow of your bones.
Álvaro's hyperbole — 'penetrados de assombro até a medulla dos ossos', pierced with amazement to the very marrow — is the extravagant confidence of the lover certain his beloved will conquer every eye. It is charming, and it is the last beat of the men's part of the chapter. Guimarády now uses the men's overwhelming admiration as a foil: the scene will cut, in the next passage, from these dazzled gentlemen to a knot of society ladies whose verdict on 'Elvira' will be the exact, cutting opposite. The men are pierced to the bone; the women will find her dress cheap and her beauty-mark a beetle. The two receptions, worship and contempt, frame Isaura between them, and neither sees her true — the one blinded by beauty, the other by envy. Álvaro's certainty that she will astonish everyone is about to meet the one audience beauty does not conquer.
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