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Tadeu de Albuquerque would not have rejected Simão merely because of the Botelho family if the marriage could have existed alongside the hatred between the two fathers. Domingos mocked his neighbour's resentment, while Tadeu accused the magistrate of selling justice. Domingos pretended not to feel the slander, but his anger grew, and only concern for his family kept him from the blunderbuss favoured by his ancestors. Reconciling those men seemed a superhuman task. One day, young Rita was at Simão's bedroom window and saw Teresa at the facing window, her forehead resting on her hands. Teresa knew that the girl was Simão's favourite sister and also the one who most resembled him. She dropped her pretended indifference, waved to her and smiled. Rita returned the smile but fled at once because her mother had forbidden her daughters to look towards that house.
At the same hour the next day, the warmth of that gesture drew Rita back to the window. Teresa seemed to be waiting for her, and they exchanged discreet smiles while stepping back from the window ledges. The street was so narrow that they could speak quietly from inside their rooms. Using her lips more than her voice, Teresa asked Rita whether she wished to be her friend. Rita answered yes with a gesture and waved goodbye before running away. The brief meetings continued until both girls lost their fear and spoke for longer. Teresa told the eleven-year-old girl that she loved Simão and hoped one day to become her sister. She repeatedly asked her to keep the secret from the family.
During one of those conversations, Rita raised her voice and was overheard by another sister, who ran to tell their father everything. Domingos summoned his youngest daughter and terrified her until she revealed what Teresa had told her. Rita Preciosa came running, alarmed by her husband's shouting, but could not moderate his anger. Domingos ran to Simão's room and found Teresa still at the window. 'Do not dare look at anyone in my household again,' he shouted at the pale young woman. 'If you wish to marry, marry a shoemaker, who will be a son-in-law worthy of your father.' Teresa fled, dazed and humiliated, before hearing the end of the insult. When Tadeu appeared at another window, Domingos hurled at him all the fury of their old rivalry. Tadeu endured the torrent of abuse without daring to answer.
When he questioned Teresa, Tadeu accepted the explanation that the two girls had merely communicated by gestures about innocent matters. He excused his daughter's supposed childishness and ordered her not to return to that window. The gentleness of this naturally severe man was explained by his plan to marry Teresa to her cousin Baltasar Coutinho, the heir of Castro Daire and a nobleman of the same lineage. Tadeu believed he understood the female heart and thought that six months of absence would end the love of a fifteen-year-old girl. The narrator admits that the rule seemed sensible but observes that exceptions are precisely what confound the most prudent thinkers. He even quotes the ironic maxim that four incomprehensible women live within every woman, each occupied in contradicting the others. Teresa, however, seemed whole and constant, perhaps because she did not move in society and could not compare the absent Simão with new admirers before her. The narrator declines to decide whether other suitors would change her heart and returns to the story.
Tadeu never spoke Simão's name in his daughter's presence, either before or after Domingos's insults. Instead, he summoned his nephew from Castro Daire to Viseu and explained that he wished to see him married to Teresa. He expected Baltasar to play the perfect suitor until the two cousins promised a happy future to both houses. Baltasar's passion quickly caught fire, while Teresa's heart froze with terror and disgust. He mistook his cousin's coldness for modesty and innocence and imagined enjoying a slow but certain conquest. Urged on by his uncle, Baltasar finally decided to ask for a clear answer.
'It is time to open my heart to you, cousin; are you willing to listen to me?' 'I am always willing to listen to you, Cousin Baltasar,' Teresa replied without enthusiasm. The reply briefly shook the nobleman's fantasies, but he preferred to treat it as a shy expression of goodwill. 'I believe our hearts are already united; now our houses must be united as well.' Teresa turned pale but answered without hesitation that their hearts were not united. 'I am very fond of you, but I never thought of becoming your wife or imagined that you wished it.' Humiliated, Baltasar asked whether Teresa detested him. 'I am very fond of you, and for that reason I must not marry a friend whom I cannot love, for the unhappiness would not be mine alone.' With a false smile, Baltasar asked who was competing for his cousin's heart. Teresa confirmed only that she loved another man. 'And do you love him so passionately that you disobey your father?' 'I do not disobey, because the heart is stronger than a daughter's submissive will.' 'I would disobey him if I married against his will, but I have only said that I love.' Baltasar expressed surprise at finding so many words in the sixteen years that the narrative then assigned to his cousin. 'They are not merely words, cousin; they are true feelings that deserve your respect.' 'Would I stand higher in your opinion if I lied to you?' Baltasar praised her honesty but again asked for the name of the man she preferred. Teresa replied that she could no longer trust him with a secret as she would an intimate friend. She had understood that he would not forgive her honesty and would be her enemy from that day onwards.
With poorly concealed irony, Baltasar replied that he would prove his friendship if he ever saw her married to a wretch unworthy of her. He then called Simão a drunkard, a street fighter, a bully of water carriers and a student accustomed to Coimbra's prisons. The attack revealed that Baltasar already knew the secret, probably because Tadeu had told him before promising Teresa to him. Teresa rose proudly and asked whether her cousin had anything more to say. Baltasar told her to sit down and presented himself not as an unhappy suitor but as her kinsman, friend and guardian of her dignity and fortune. He said that he had known Simão well in Coimbra and accused him of going about drunk and armed with the poorest people in Viseu. He also recalled the servants injured at the fountain and Simão's proclamations against nobles, kings and religion. Teresa admitted that she had not known part of that past but replied that Simão had caused his family no distress since she had known him. When Baltasar asked whether Simão owed his reform to her love, Teresa refused to satisfy his curiosity. Baltasar promised to spend his life saving her from Simão's clutches, taking the place of her father and even the law in directing her fate. He also threatened to kick Simão out of Tadeu's house if his rival entered it. 'So you wish to rule me, cousin?' Teresa asked with open irritation. He replied that he would merely guide her while her reason needed help, thus revealing that his friendship meant control.
Baltasar told his uncle the substance of the conversation, and Tadeu rushed to his daughter's room intending to beat her. Baltasar restrained him, arguing that violence might drive Teresa to run away from home. Hours later, Tadeu spoke with studied calm and declared that he wanted the marriage, although he knew that his daughter wished otherwise. He said that he would not force her, but neither would he allow her to give her heart to the son of his greatest enemy. He added that he was close to the grave and that losing his daughter's love would send him down to it more quickly. Finally, he asked whether Teresa would enter a convent and wait there for his death before becoming unhappy as she pleased. Weeping, Teresa replied that she would enter the convent if that was her father's will. She asked, however, that he should not send his daughter away for fear of a dishonourable act or a disobedience she would not commit. She promised to consider herself dead to every man except her father. Tadeu listened without replying.