The final section follows Henry’s decline as his obsession with money deepens into illness and moral decay. Chapters such as “At the Window,” “Charity,” and “Departure” depict his final struggle between redemption and ruin. Elsie’s attempts to save him only underline the futility of compassion in a decaying world. Bennett closes with quiet tragedy, where love, guilt, and survival intertwine in the dim light of postwar London. The novel ends as a meditation on fragility—how human warmth flickers yet persists amid loneliness and loss.
