CHAPTER FOUR

THE DAY THAT Florentino Ariza saw Fermina Daza in the atrium of the

Cathedral, in

the sixth month of her pregnancy and in full command of her new

condition as a woman

of the world, he made a fierce decision to win fame and fortune in order to

deserve her.

He did not even stop to think about the obstacle of her being married,

because at the same

time he decided, as if it depended on himself alone, that Dr. Juvenal Urbino

had to die.

He did not know when or how, but he considered it an ineluctable event

that he was

resolved to wait for without impatience or violence, even till the end of

time.