"The house was under the rule of death." All the objects of worth are locked away for safekeeping. Chairs are lined up along the walls. His body is laid out on his fatherÂ’s desk in the library. Beside him, Fermina Daza receives condolences. At eleven the next morning she waves good-bye to her husband as his body is taken away.

She had had trouble regaining her self-control after she heard the maid cry out and found her husband lying on the ground. First, she hoped heÂ’d be alive because his eyes were open and shining with a light sheÂ’d never seen there before. She prayed that he would live a little longer so he could know how much she had loved him despite all their doubts. She wished she could live her life over with him so she could get it right this time. Instead, she had to give in to the inevitability of death. She expresses her grief in rage and that rage helps her face her solitude alone. She never feels peace again, but she is always careful of any gesture that would reveal her grief. She only has one moment of emotion. It is when they bring in the coffin. Before they close the coffin, she takes off her wedding ring and puts it on his finger and then she puts her hand over his and tells him she will see him very soon.

He is as he seems: "a useful and serious old man." He has a thin body, dark skin, and avid eyes. He wears a romantic mustache and combs the last of his hair across the top of his head as a solution to total baldness. "His natural gallantry and languid manner were immediately charming, but they were also considered suspect virtues in a confirmed bachelor." He had spent a lot of money and time to disguise his seventy-six years and he is convinced that he has loved in silence for longer than anyone ever had before.

On the night of Dr. UrbinoÂ’s death, Florentino Ariza is dressed in his usual dark suit, silk tie, felt hat, and carrying a black umbrella. When it gets light out, he leaves the vigil for two hours to freshen up and then returns. He belongs to a shipping family. He is President of the River Company of the Caribbean. He had told Dr. Urbino Daza, the son, not to hold the funeral before noon because it would certainly rain, but too many arrangements have already been made for a funeral at eleven in the morning. The funeral which was supposed to be a historic event is routed by heavy rains. Very few people make it out to the family mausoleum. On the other side of the cemetery wall, in the section reserved for suicides, Caribbean refugees had buried Jeremiah de Saint-Amour the day before and buried his dog beside him.

Florentino Ariza stays until the funeral is over. He returns home terrified he will die of pneumonia after he has spent so many years being overly cautious of his health. He takes great care when he gets home, drinking hot lemonade with brandy, wrapping himself in a wool blanket and sweating until he feels like he has regained his bodily equilibrium. Later he returns to the wake and finds that Fermina Daza has resumed control of her house. She has put a portrait of her late husband on the altar of the library. By eight oÂ’clock the rooms are totally full. Then someone circulates a request that people leave early so Fermina Daza can get some rest.

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