Doctor Juvenal Urbino had often thought, without any prophetic intent, that it was not a suitable place to die in the glory of the Lord. Over time, however, he came to suppose that its disorder perhaps obeyed some inscrutable will of Divine Providence. A policeman had arrived earlier with a very young medical intern, who was doing his forensic practice at the municipal health center, and they had aired out the room and covered the corpse while waiting for Doctor Urbino to arrive. Both greeted him with a formality that this time indicated condolences more than respect, since both knew of his great friendship with Jeremiah de Saint-Amour. The distinguished teacher shook hands with both of them, as he always did with each of his students before starting the daily lesson in the general clinic, and then he took the edge of the blanket between the tips of his index finger and thumb, as if it were a flower, and revealed the corpse inch by inch with ritual slowness. He was completely naked, rigid and doubled up, with open eyes and a bluish body, and looked about fifty years older than he had the previous night.