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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: poor sub-lieutenant dining at his general's table. He let Clementine
talk, listened deferentially as to a superior, did not differ with her
in anything, and waited to be questioned before he spoke at all. He
seemed actually stupid to the countess, whose coquettish little ways
missed their mark in presence of such frigid gravity and conventional
respect. In vain Adam kept saying: "Do be lively, Thaddeus; one would
really suppose you were not at home. You must have made a wager to
disconcert Clementine." Thaddeus continued heavy and half asleep. When
the servants left the room at the end of the dessert the captain
explained that his habits were diametrically opposite to those of
society,--he went to bed at eight o'clock and got up very early in the
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