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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: his mercy in favor of so deep a repentance."
The services went on. Veronique, lying on the bed, followed them with
a look of such inward contentment that she seemed, to every eye, no
longer the same woman. On her face was the candid and virtuous
expression of the pure young girl such as she had been in her parents'
home. The dawn of eternal life was already whitening her brow and
glorifying her face with its celestial tints. Doubtless she heard the
mystic harmonies, and gathered strength to live from her desire to
unite herself once more with God in the last communion. The rector
came beside the bed and gave her absolution. The archbishop
administered the sacred oils with a fatherly tenderness that showed to
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