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After these events, Marta's marriage to her uncle Feliciano took place. The ceremony took place in the chapel at the Retorta estate. Father Osório, the vicar of Caldelas, conducted the wedding. Dona Teresa was Marta's principal wedding witness. The Baron of Rabaçal was Feliciano's principal wedding witness. The Baron came from Porto and was a fat man. He was married to Eusébio Macário's daughter. The narrator describes that woman's fair, soft skin. Feliciano was the rich Portuguese man who had returned from Brazil.
The Baron spoke in a very marked way. He said, “Forgive me, my friend Prazins, but your bride is very thin.” “I prefer plumper women.” “That is my philosophy: a woman should fill our arms.”
The Baron was debauched, but Feliciano had lived chastely. The Baron's words therefore made Feliciano blush. Over dessert, the Baron told coarse jokes about marriage. Marta did not understand those jokes. Dona Teresa felt sick and rejected his double meanings. Father Osório, however, laughed at the Baron's brutality. The narrator calls that humour sharp and brutal. Ironically, he compares it with the humour of four famous writers. They were Cervantes, Rabelais, Swift and the Portuguese writer Luís de Araújo.
Since leaving the church, Marta had remained equally sad. Late that afternoon, she shut herself in her room with Dona Teresa. She opened her trunk and searched at the bottom. Then she took out a small packet containing José Dias's letters.
She handed the packet to Teresa. She asked her, “Keep these letters and burn them when I die.”
Teresa smiled and asked, “What if I die before you?”
Marta replied, “In that case, give them to Father Osório.” “He must burn them.” Then she embraced Teresa and began to sob. “I am going to die or lose my mind,” Marta said. “I have reached a terrible situation.” “I married only to obey my father.” “I agreed because I thought he was going to die.” “Now I can see only death or madness.” “I am afraid that I will end like my mother.”
Teresa tried to comfort her with familiar phrases. She said that Marta would eventually grow used to her husband. She also said that time would make Marta forget. However, Teresa looked at Marta with class prejudice. Her pride came from an aristocratic birth outside marriage. She did not believe that a farmer's daughter could have great sensitivity. To her, loving José was merely an ordinary affair. She also considered Marta's suicide attempt ordinary. But she thought obeying her father and marrying her uncle was the behaviour of a lower-class person. She concluded that Marta's humble origins had won. It was Teresa's cruel judgement, not a truth about Marta.
Father Osório understood Marta in a more humane way.
He told his sister, “Marta was already ill when she agreed to marry.” “The nervous illness will eventually lead her to suicide.” It was Osório's prediction, not a certain fact.
Teresa knew many heroines from novels by Sue and Dumas. She could not place Marta among those women of Paris. To her, Marta was merely a village girl. If Marta was ill, Teresa saw an illness. She did not see the grand tragedy she expected from books. Teresa had read French Romantic novels published between 1835 and 1845. The narrator calls much of that literature false and foolish. Teresa wanted more drama in Marta's misfortune. The suicide attempt still seemed poetic to her. But imagining Marta in her uncle's bed seemed like prose without poetry to her.
It was time to go to bed. Father Osório had gone to Caldelas to celebrate the early morning Mass. At Marta's request, he had left his sister Teresa there. The Baron yawned and stretched noisily. Feliciano looked at the clock with it almost against his eyes. Marta stayed very close to Teresa. She complained of cramps and noises in her ears. She said that she saw sparks and felt great heat in her head. Teresa told her that she needed to rest. Marta asked to sleep beside her. She begged this by the soul of her own mother. She also begged by the life of Teresa's brother, Father Osório.
Teresa understood Marta's fear and felt sorry for her. She feared that another attack was beginning. The sparks and cramps usually came before the convulsions. But Teresa did not know how to ask Feliciano to sleep alone. Her many novels contained no similar scene. At that difficult moment, Simeão intervened.
He told his daughter, “Go to bed.” “Your husband is falling asleep.”
Marta stared at her father with eyes full of anger. She raised her head and her lips began to tremble. Then she had convulsions and foam at her mouth. The attack lasted twenty minutes. Teresa asked for help to carry Marta to her bed. She ordered Simeão not to let anyone speak about the husband. Simeão showed great displeasure. Feliciano explained to the Baron that such attacks were usual. He said that a surgeon had promised a cure after marriage. That promise came from the surgeon, not the narrator. The Baron replied with another sexual joke. He thought that the supposed remedy should begin quickly. Then he told more jokes and went to bed. Feliciano still tried to find out how Marta was. But Teresa's room was already dark. So he slept alone for another night.
Teresa felt uncomfortable in that house. Marta would not let go of her. She seemed like a frightened child clinging to her mother. This happened whenever she heard her uncle's footsteps. Feliciano approached with an affectionate manner. He wore his monocle in his right eye. He offered her castanhas de ovos and toucinho do céu. He took her hand and stroked her face. Later, Teresa discreetly left the couple alone. Marta kept looking at the door through which Teresa had left. Her gestures showed that she was thinking of fleeing. But Feliciano held both her hands. He kissed her hands and continued up to her wrists. Marta was motionless and did not refuse the caresses. She even seemed to incline her face slightly. Feliciano had asked her for a kiss. The kiss lasted longer than one might have expected. None of this proves that Marta gave free consent. They were both flushed, but Marta's face was very red. Her gaze wandered towards the far end of the room. Marta saw José Dias's shadow there. Later, she told Teresa that she had seen José himself. When she recovered her senses, she was in Teresa's bed. She did not know how she had been taken there. Marta remembered her uncle kissing her face. She also remembered him leading her by the arm into the couple's bedroom. She remembered him pressing her against his chest and lifting her forcefully. She remembered that he would not let her escape. She remembered him silencing her sighs with kisses. After that, Marta remembered nothing. Teresa also knew only part of what had happened. Feliciano had called her while she was in the orange grove. He had told her that Marta was unconscious in bed. He had also asked for vinegar to hold beneath her nose.
Father Osório returned for dinner and to collect his sister. He saw intense happiness on Feliciano's face. The man seemed to feel that his mission as a husband was complete. It was then that Osório formed an ironic theory about chastity. He thought that some people's chastity could serve other people's impurity.
That afternoon, the surgeon visited the house. Feliciano told him private details without much modesty. He called the episode “my wife's fainting fit”. The surgeon was old and fond of joking. He said that the faint did not surprise him. In his opinion, Marta was very nervous and still fragile. New and violent impressions disturbed weak people, according to him. He assured Feliciano that it was nothing serious. He also claimed that habit created a second nature.
The surgeon advised sea bathing. He also recommended grilled steak and stale port. He wanted Marta to have a boy. He said that a child strengthened a weak woman. According to him, the child carried away the mother's bad nerves. Then, in his opinion, the attacks would end. These were medical ideas of the period, not certain cures.
Without Teresa, Marta's sadness increased day by day. She showed no interest in running the household. She seemed like a guest in her own home. Feliciano did not force her to deal with those matters. Simeão said that she had shown no interest at Prazins either. The Baron sent a cook and a housekeeper from Porto. Marta seldom left a small sitting room. There she kept a small altar brought from her father's house. She confessed to Friar Roque every month. Friar Roque was the brother of Marta's former schoolmistress. He had also been the teacher of the young man from Vilalva. Marta asked him many questions about José's soul. She told the friar that she saw José in body and soul. She claimed that she heard him speak. She also said that she felt his hands on her body. The text does not confirm that José was really present. Friar Roque did not tell his sister the secrets of the confession. But he told her that Marta seemed to be going mad like her mother.
On one occasion, Marta had another attack in front of Feliciano. She laughed at him with disturbed eyes. She called him José and little José. Feliciano was terrified. After the crisis, Marta fell into a physical and mental stupor. Her husband told her that she had called him little José. Marta tried hard to remember what had happened. She said that she remembered nothing. The surgeon visited her often. He called Marta's condition “hysteria”. Feliciano's confidences made him expect a boy. Father Osório then consulted Dr Pedrosa. Pedrosa was considered a great doctor. Pedrosa said that it was not simply epilepsy. He also spoke of delirium and temporary mental disturbance. According to him, Marta had periods of abnormal consciousness. He admitted that he could not clearly separate her lucid periods.
Father Osório observed, “Marta is pregnant.” He thought that this showed some normal consciousness. In his view, Marta had somehow understood her duties as a wife.
“That shows nothing,” Pedrosa replied. “Think of her as a sleepwalker.” Pedrosa called the disturbance functional rather than organic. For that reason, he said, her body could still allow her to become a mother. But the doctor did not claim to have seen all the events. A colleague had told him about another episode. Minutes before an attack, Marta had shown great agitation. She had said that she would flee to Vilalva to see José Dias. At that moment, Feliciano had gone to fetch vinegar from the pantry. This was another moment, distinct from the episode in the orange grove. Pedrosa considered Marta lost unless her mind was completely diverted. Even that change would have only a temporary effect, according to him. His explanation blamed inheritance from her mother and grandmother. Pedrosa said that he had followed Genoveva's illness. According to him, her attacks returned many times. Then her reason weakened, with delirium, confused ideas and difficulty thinking. Genoveva eventually died by suicide. The doctor used the old term “epileptic dementia”. In his opinion, Marta would follow the same course. He also condemned the marriage to her uncle. He called it a stupid arrangement concerning Marta's fortune. He blamed Simeão for the bargain and Feliciano for his sexual desire. He claimed that Marta would have this fate even without passion and drama. In Pedrosa's view, her brain had a physical defect. He compared this supposed defect to a malformed spine. Then he spoke of sight being lost through paralysis of the optic nerves. He applied the same image to what he called the soul's sight. Pedrosa ended, “I know that this troubles the theological metaphysicians.” “But they must deal with it: this is the truth.”