They have kept their position in their _quartier_, I believe.

But they didn't keep their niece.

It might have been an act of sacrifice! For I seem to remember hearing that after attending for a while some school round the corner the child had been set to keep the books of that orange business.
However it might have been, the first fact in Rita's and Allegre's common history is a journey to Italy, and then to Corsica.

You know Allegre had a house in Corsica somewhere.

She has it now as she has everything he ever had; and that Corsican palace is the portion that will stick the longest to Dona Rita, I imagine.