At the same time a half-smile came to her husband's lips--a mute invitation for her to finish what she had begun.
"Joam," she continued, "here is an occasion which we shall never see again in this life.

Minha is going to be married away from us, and is going to leave us! It is the first sorrow which our daughter has caused us, and my heart quails when I think of the separation which is so near! But I should be content if I could accompany her to Belem! Does it not seem right to you, even in other respects that we should know her husband's mother, who is to replace me, and to whom we are about to entrust her?
Added to this, Minha does not wish to grieve Madame Valdez by getting married at a distance from her.

When we were married, Joam, if your mother had been alive, would you not have liked her to be present at your wedding ?" At these words of Yaquita Joam made a movement which he could not repress.
"My dear," continued Yaquita, "with Minha, with our two sons, Benito and Manoel, with you, how I should like to see Brazil, and to journey down this splendid river, even to the provinces on the seacoast through which it runs! It seems to me that the separation would be so much less cruel! As we came back we should revisit our daughter in her house with her second mother.

I would not think of her as gone I knew not where.

I would fancy myself much less a stranger to the doings of her life." This time Joam had fixed his eyes on his wife and looked at her for some time without saying anything.
What ailed him?
Why this hesitation to grant a request which was so just in itself--to say "Yes," when it would give such pleasure to all who belonged to him?
His business affairs could not afford a sufficient reason.