ellauri090.html on line 116: Rubião misinterprets as a love offering a box of strawberries Sophia had sent him. At the Palhas’s house in Santa Thereza, he clutches her hand and makes his affection clear to her. Distressed by Rubião’s advances, Sophia suggests to her husband that they end their relationship with Rubião. Having borrowed money from Rubião, however, Palha is reluctant to break with him.
ellauri090.html on line 120: Rubião becomes friends with Dr. Camacho, a lawyer and the editor of a politically oriented newspaper called Atalaia. On his way to meet Dr. Camacho, Rubião rescues a small child, Deolindo, in danger of being run over by a carriage and horses. Rubião then goes on to Dr. Camacho’s office, where he subscribes generously to the capital fund for Atalaia. Dr. Camacho flatters Rubião by publishing an account of Rubião’s heroism in saving Deolindo. Although Rubião is at first modest and dismissive about his heroism, as he reads Camacho’s account he becomes increasingly self-important.
ellauri090.html on line 126: Palha’s business flourishes as Rubião’s wealth begins to dwindle. Rubião becomes subject to fits of madness, believing that he is Napoleon III of France. When Rubião gets into a carriage alone with Sophia, she thinks he is still attracted to her. She panics and orders him to get out. Thinking he is Napoleon III, Rubião treats Sophia as if she were the emperor’s mistress, but eventually he leaves the carriage.
ellauri090.html on line 130: For a time, Rubião’s friends accept his madness as he continues to provide meals and entertainment for them. Eventually, however, Rubião’s house falls into disrepair as his belief in himself as the emperor becomes constant. Doña Tonica becomes engaged to a man who dies before the wedding. Children on the street, including Deolindo, whose life Rubião had saved, make fun of him as a madman. Prodded by Doña Fernanda, a woman who barely knows Rubião, Sophia convinces Palha to set Rubião up in a little rented house on Principe Street. No one visits Rubião in his new humble residence. His former “friends” miss the luxury of Rubião’s wealthy surroundings in the house in Botafogo.
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