THE PYRAMIDS
José Dias now divided his time between my mother and myself, alternating his dinners in Glória with his lunches in Matacavalos. Everything was fine. After two years of marriage, apart from the bitter disappointment of not having a child, everything was fine. It is true I lost my father-in-law, and Uncle Cosme had one foot in the grave, but my mother was in good health, and ours was excellent.
I was the lawyer for several wealthy houses, and there was no lack of lawsuits. Escobar was most helpful in getting me my first introduction at court. He interceded with an eminent lawyer, who admitted me to his office and arranged several representations for me, all without my asking.
The relationship between the two families was already established: Sancha and Capitu continued, after their marriage, the friendship begun at school and Escobar and I ours of the seminary. They lived in Andaraí where they were continually inviting us, and, though not able to go as often as we wished, we occasionally went there for dinner on Sundays, or they came to us. To go for dinner is an understatement. We always went early, immediately after lunch, in order to stretch out the day and would return only at nine, ten or eleven o’clock, as late as possible. Now, when I look back on those days at Andaraí and Glória, I feel sorry that life and everything else are not so enduring as the pyramids.
Escobar and his wife were happy together; they had a little daughter. Once I did hear of an affair of his, something to do with the theatre and I don’t know which actress or dancer, but if it was true it provoked no scandal. Sancha was unassuming and her husband hard-working. One day, when I told Escobar how much I regretted not having children, he replied, ‘Don’t upset yourself. God will send them in His own good time, and if He doesn’t send any it is because He wants them for Himself and it is better that they should stay in heaven.’
‘A child, a son, is the natural complement of life.’
‘It will come if it is needed.’
It didn’t come. Capitu begged for one in her prayers, and I more than once took it into my head to pray and ask, too. Not now as when I was a child; nowadays I paid in advance, as I did the rent on the house.