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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: "What did you give up?"
She touched him with her mocking smile again.
"That is not a very civil question, asked in that way."
"You mean that I seem to doubt your abnegation?"
"You seem to insinuate that I had nothing to renounce. I gave up--
I gave up--" and she looked about her, considering a little--"I gave
up society."
"I am glad you remember what it was," said Bernard.
"If I have seemed uncivil, let me make it up. When a woman speaks
of giving up society, what she means is giving up admiration.
You can never have given up that--you can never have escaped from it.
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