A Escrava Isaura 2.26 · 2.26

The sentence turns on 'o bom do commendador' — the good old Commander — an idiom that is half affection and half pity, the way one says 'poor old' of someone out of their depth. The son's 'idéas largas e audaciosas', his sweeping, audacious schemes, don't inspire the father; they 'terrify' him. It is a neat reversal: the boy who was never told no now frightens the man who could never say it, and the fortune the Commander built by patience is menaced by the heir he raised without any. Guimarães keeps the comedy and the dread in the same breath — the next lines will show us just what these terrifying 'ideas' are, and they are pure vanity dressed as ambition.

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