'I see nothing of the sort'
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Eu? porque? é a primeira vez que a vejo, mas o senhor Alvaro já me tinha dado noticias dela, dizendo que era um assombro de belleza. Não vejo nada disso; é bonita, mas não tanto, que assombre.
I? why? It is the first time I have seen her, but Senhor Álvaro had already given me news of her, saying she was a marvel of beauty. I see nothing of the sort; she is pretty, but not so much as to be a marvel.
Dona Emília delivers the envious woman's oldest verdict on a rival: 'é bonita, mas não tanto', she is pretty, but not that pretty. Against the men's 'assombro', their amazement, she flatly denies she sees anything to be amazed at. The denial is transparently defensive — Álvaro's praise, relayed to her beforehand, has primed her not to be impressed — and Guimarády lets the reader hear the jealousy under the appraisal. But there is a mercy hidden in it too, though the ladies cannot know: their determination to find 'Elvira' unremarkable is, for a fugitive, a kind of safety. The eyes that refuse to be dazzled are the eyes least likely to look long, to remember, to describe. The women's envy, uglier than the men's worship, is paradoxically the less dangerous response — contempt does not study a face the way adoration does.
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