Three days later the Baroness, who had received the last sacraments, was dying, surrounded by her weeping family.
Just before she died, she took her husband's hand and pressed it, murmuring in his ear:
"My dear, I had nothing left to give up to you but my life. In a minute or two you will be free, and can make another Baronne Hulot."
And, rare sight, tears oozed from her dead eyes.
This desperateness of vice had vanquished the patience of the angel, who, on the brink of eternity, gave utterance to the only reproach she had ever spoken in her life.
The Baron left Paris three days after his wife's funeral. Eleven months after Victorin heard indirectly of his father's marriage to Mademoiselle Agathe Piquetard, solemnized at Isigny, on the 1st February 1846.
"Parents may hinder their children's marriage, but children cannot interfere with the insane acts of their parents in their second childhood," said Maitre Hulot to Maitre Popinot, the second son of the Minister of Commerce, who was discussing this marriage.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Beauvisage, Phileas
The Member for Arcis