Urchins Would Throw Cabbage Stalks

Zola wasn't kidding. By the next-to-last page of the book, he writes of his once-lively heroine, "urchins would throw cabbage stalks at her in the street," and that's the BEST thing that happens to her on those last two pages, oh, it's awful, thanks for bringing me down, Zola, just what I needed, I have a feeling you got a kick out of it, you weirdo, maybe the only urchin throwing a cabbage stalk was YOU, did you ever think of that? Creep.