How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The good sister said that 'she had just passed away'. (3.71)
The nun tells Félicité that she just missed Virginie. She didn't get to say goodbye to her, even though she was so close, unlike how Victor died far away in Cuba. Death seems to follow Félicité around and take anyone she loves. Notice the quotation marks—a gentle way of delivering the news compared to the letter Félicité got about Victor.
Quote #8
For two nights, Félicité remained with the dead girl. She would say the same prayers over and over, throw holy water over the sheets, then come back and sit down, and look at her. At the end of the first night, she noticed that the face had turned yellow, the lips blue, the nose pinched, the eyes sunken. She kissed them several times, and would not have been terribly surprised if Virginie had opened them: for such souls, the supernatural is something quite simple. (3.74)
It's kind of gruesome that Félicité hangs out with Virginie's corpse, kissing it for a few days after her death. But it's also understandable if you think about the fact that this is the first death we actually get to experience up close in the story. The others occur in the past or far away. As far as we know, this is Félicité's first chance to really say goodbye.
Quote #9
She was thinking about her nephew, and feeling even sadder at the thought that she had been unable to pay him her last respects. It was as if he were being buried now along with Virginie. (3.76)
Virginie, who gets a proper funeral and burial, is fused in Félicité's mind with her nephew, Victor. Besides the fact that both of their names start with V, they're also both young, innocent people that she loved dearly and who died too soon. She unites them in her mind to try to honor Victor, even though he died at sea.