She lifts her face
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Quando Isaura sentio, que seo senhor se havia ausentado, ergueo o rosto, e levantando ao céo os olhos e as mãos juntas,
When Isaura felt that her master had withdrawn, she raised her face and, lifting to heaven her eyes and her clasped hands,
Only when Leôncio is gone does Isaura lift her head — 'quando... seo senhor se havia ausentado, ergueo o rosto.' She would not raise her face to him; she raises it to heaven. The gesture draws the line the whole chapter has been about: before the master she was bowed, an object under his gaze, but the moment his eyes leave the room she reclaims the vertical, the upward look reserved for the one authority she recognizes. Guimarães stages a small liberation in a single motion. The 'mãos juntas', the clasped hands, are the same hands he meant to shackle; put together in prayer, they are already, for this instant, free.
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A Escrava Isaura 9.106 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/9.106/