The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: And he showed Gazonal one of those untidy shops which made an ugly
stain in the midst of the dazzling show-windows of modern retail
commerce. This shop had a front painted in 1820, which some bankrupt
had doubtless left in a dilapidated condition. The color had
disappeared beneath a double coating of dirt, the result of usage, and
a thick layer of dust; the window-panes were filthy, the door-knob
turned of itself, as door-knobs do in all places where people go out
more quickly than they enter.
"What do you say of THAT? First cousin to Death, isn't she?" said Leon
in Gazonal's ear, showing him, at the desk, a terrible individual.
"Well, she calls herself Madame Nourrisson."
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