Jules Verne (40 page)

A month afterward the fazender, his wife, his son, Manoel and Minha
Valdez, Lina and Fragoso, departed by one of the Amazon steamers for
the immense establishment at Iquitos of which Benito was to take the
management.

Joam Dacosta re-entered his home with his head erect, and it was indeed
a family of happy hearts which he brought back with him from beyond the
Brazilian frontier. As for Fragoso, twenty times a day was he heard to
repeat, "What! without the liana?" and he wound up by bestowing the name
on the young mulatto who, by her affection for the gallant fellow, fully
justified its appropriateness. "If it were not for the one letter," he
said, "would not Lina and Liana be the same?"

[1]
One thousand reis are equal to three francs, and a conto
of reis is worth three thousand francs.