Adeline gave a cry, dropped her candlestick, and fled.

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

Berthier (Parisian notary)
  Cousin Pons

Bianchon, Horace
  Father Goriot
  The Atheist’s Mass
  Cesar Birotteau
  The Commission in Lunacy
  Lost Illusions
  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  A Bachelor’s Establishment
  The Secrets of a Princess
  The Government Clerks
  Pierrette
  A Study of Woman
  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
  Honorine
  The Seamy Side of History
  The Magic Skin
  A Second Home
  A Prince of Bohemia
  Letters of Two Brides
  The Muse of the Department
  The Imaginary Mistress
  The Middle Classes
  The Country Parson
In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: 
  Another Study of Woman
  La Grande Breteche

Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
  The Purse
  A Bachelor’s Establishment
  The Government Clerks
  Modeste Mignon
  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
  The Firm of Nucingen
  The Muse of the Department
  The Member for Arcis
  Beatrix
  A Man of Business
  Gaudissart II. 
  The Unconscious Humorists
  Cousin Pons

Braulard
  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  Cousin Pons

Bridau, Joseph
  The Purse
  A Bachelor’s Establishment
  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  A Start in Life
  Modeste Mignon
  Another Study of Woman
  Pierre Grassou
  Letters of Two Brides
  The Member for Arcis

Brisetout, Heloise
  Cousin Pons
  The Middle Classes

Cadine, Jenny
  Beatrix
  The Unconscious Humorists
  The Member for Arcis