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clothing and miscellaneous expenses that arrived with a note from Dilermando urging
perhaps led Ana to hope for some assistance from her kinswomen; a very late confes-
sional evening ensued on Wednesday August 11, when she and the Ratto sisters stayed
up talking until three in the morning. Later, both Neném and Lucinda Ratto reported on
it in their depositions. In testimony at the trial of Dilermando, Lucinda explained that
she and Neném had witnessed a marital explosion over money, so they asked Ana why
she was supporting their nephews given that it caused so much conflict with her hus-
couple, this could hardly have been a revelation to Dilermando's interfering aunts. But
many reputations were under scrutiny at the trial, and certainly the Ratto sisters, omni-
present as instigators and observers of this affair from the beginning, and hardly inno-
cent, needed to feign a modicum of propriety.
In the Rattos' view (and statements), their nephew Dilermando was affectionate and
kind, while Ana's husband was cold and lived only for his topics. The ardor of the illi-
cit couple, especially in light of the overheated romantic ideals of the day, was imbued
with its own passionate, if disastrous, logic. In her testimony, Neném sanctimoniously
suggested that even if Ana were unable to rectify the situation on the moral plane, she
should not have deprived her children in favor of the de Assis men. The predawn con-
versation apparently became increasingly histrionic: Ana averred that she could never
forget Dilermando, nor could she ever leave him, because, she asserted, he had prom-
was not exactly unaware of his mother's relations of with the older de Assis brother but
whose larger understanding was blurred by the ambiguous oedipal terrain.
Armed with such intimate knowledge, and as witnesses to ugly scenes that played out
at every encounter and meal, Angelica and Lucinda maintained their malign presence
throughoutthefamily'sfinaldays—apointedinterjectionhere,anastycrumbofinform-
ation there, a perverse chorus luring and prodding the various protagonists to calamity.
For the most part, Euclides directed his venom at Ana. Dilermando told of encounter-
ing Ana, Solon, and Euclides a week before the events at Piedade in the Carioca Plaza
(in Rio's theater district) at midnight, when the shows were letting out. Perhaps Diler-
mando ached for a glimpse of his lover after their São Paulo tryst. Euclides passed by
him,andDilermandofearedthatsomeenormouspublicaccusationwouldensue—acon-
ment chose to berate his wife and Solon, though later he left them in the crowd, announ-
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