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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: the panels of my carriage among the folds of azure mantling, not to
drive like the princes down the broad walk of the Champs-Elysees on
the days of Longchamps in Holy Week. Besides, my father says that it
will someday be the highest dignity in France. He must be a soldier--
but I reserve the right of making him retire; and he must bear an
Order, that the sentries may present arms to us."
And these rare qualifications would count for nothing if this creature
of fancy had not the most amiable temper, a fine figure, intelligence,
and, above all, if he were not slender. To be lean, a personal grace
which is but fugitive, especially under a representative government,
was an indispensable condition. Mademoiselle de Fontaine had an ideal
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