In the half-light, all must be brief as that moment. Our farewells did not take long, though they were as long as we could make them, in her house, in the parlor, before the candles were lit; that was where we finally said goodbye. We swore once more that we would marry each other, and it was not only the squeeze of our hands that sealed the contract, as in the yard: it was the meeting of our loving lips … I might take this out when the book is printed, unless I change my mind before then. In fact, it can stay, because in all truth it is our defense. What the holy commandment says is that we should not take the Lord’s name in vain. I was not entering the seminary under false pretences, since I had a contract signed and registered in heaven itself. As for the seal, God made clean lips as He made clean hands, and the evil intent is rather in your perverse mind than in that pair of adolescents … Oh, sweet companion of my childhood, I was pure, and pure I remained, and entered the portals of São José pure, in appearance to seek priestly investiture, and before that, a vocation. But you were my vocation, you my true investiture.