"Our disagreement has a natural explanation. I am a single girl, full of complications, dreams, ambitions, and poetry; you are already a woman of the house, a calm and happy wife, soon to be a mother; you see things through a different lens."
Raquel and her married friend Luísa exchange lively letters in this brief tale that amply illustrates Machado de Assis's knack for creating sympathetic female characters.
Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Juan LePuen
Date of translation: 2012
Length: 5,000 words
Genre: short story
