Section 16 Summary

This section begins with the sentence, "In the aedicule at hip height, I found Bebert."

Bardamu is called for the most desperate, shameful cases. After the Henrouille family, he visits a beautiful, young woman in a dangerous condition after having had an abortion, her third and whom he cannot help but admire for her exquisite form and her unabashed love of pleasure. While the girl is bleeding to death, her mother rants incessantly about the family honor and repeatedly refuses to send the girl to the hospital, where immediate surgery to save her could be performed. Bebert's aunt, the concierge, wants her tip for showing Bardamu these cases, but in fact, Bardamu is rarely paid himself. Bardamu cannot bring himself to collect the last five francs from the poor and the wicked, for the man who does so "remains a louse to his...