If it had not been for astronomy, I would not have discovered Capitu’s ten pounds so soon, but that is not why I’m returning to the subject; it is so that you don’t think that a teacher’s vanity made me suffer from Capitu’s inattention, and become jealous of the sea. No, my friend. My object is to explain to you that I felt that jealousy because of what might have been in my wife’s head, not outside or above it. It’s well known that people’s distraction may be to blame, or half to blame, or a third, a fifth, or a tenth to blame, since there is an infinite gradation where blame in concerned. The simple memory of a pair of eyes is enough to make us stare at others which remind us of them and delight us by making us imagine them. There is no need for real or mortal sin, or an exchange of notes, a word, a nod, a sigh or even a tinier, slighter sign. An unknown man or woman passing the corner of the street can make us put Sirius into Mars, and you know, dear reader, the difference between them in terms of size and distance; but astronomy leads us into this kind of confusion. That was what made me go pale and silent and want to run from the room to come back God knows when; probably ten minutes later. Ten minutes later, I would have been back in the room, at the piano or the window, going on with the interrupted lesson:
“Mars is at a distance of …”
Such a short time? Yes, such a short time, ten minutes. My jealous fits were intense, but short; it didn’t take much to make me want to destroy everything, but in the same little time I would put the sky, the earth and the stars back in their places.
The truth is that I grew even fonder of Capitu, if such a thing were possible, and she still more tender, the air milder, the nights clearer, and God more God-like. And it wasn’t exactly the ten pounds sterling that did this, nor the thrifty qualities they revealed, which I was aware of, but the caution that Capitu took to show me on one day the care she took every day. Escobar also became dearer to my heart. Our visits became more frequent, and our conversations more intimate.