After Emma’s death, things go even more downhill for Charles and little Berthe. They’re totally broke. And their finances are made even worse by the fact that Charles, who’s still in love with his dead wife despite the proof of her adultery, refuses to sell any of Emma’s extravagant possessions. He dies, poverty-stricken and lonely. Berthe is sent to live with her grandmother, who then dies as well. The young girl finally ends up living with a poor aunt, working as a child laborer in a cotton mill.