|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: A brazier of burnt charcoal told the tale of that dreadful morning.
The domino cloak and hood were lying on the ground. The bed was
undisturbed. The unhappy creature, stricken to the heart by a mortal
thrust, had, no doubt, made all her arrangements on her return from
the opera. A candle-wick, collapsed in the pool of grease that filled
the candle-sconce, showed how completely her last meditations had
absorbed her. A handkerchief soaked with tears proved the sincerity of
the Magdalen's despair, while her classic attitude was that of the
irreligious courtesan. This abject repentance made the priest smile.
Esther, unskilled in dying, had left the door open, not thinking that
the air of two rooms would need a larger amount of charcoal to make it
|
