Good company in the solitude
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que affeita aos prazeres e passatempos da côrte, muito folgou de encontrar tão boa e amavel companhia na solidão, que ia habitar.
who, accustomed to the pleasures and pastimes of the court, was very glad to find such good and amiable company in the solitude she was about to inhabit.
who, accustomed to the pleasures and pastimes of the court, was very glad to find such good and amiable company in the solitude she was about to inhabit.
The paragraph closes on Malvina's own need, and it humanizes her further. City-bred, 'affeita aos prazeres e passatempos da côrte', used to the amusements of Rio, she faces the 'solidão' of the plantation with something like dread — and Isaura is her relief, 'tão boa e amavel companhia', such good and amiable company. So the bond runs both ways: it is not charity flowing downward but two women, differently trapped on the same estate, glad of each other. The tragic geometry is now complete. Isaura is loved by the old mistress as a daughter and by the young one as a friend; she is wanted by the master as prey. Three loves and one appetite, all under one roof, and the chapter has only its long, cruel sequel left to tell.
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