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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: "Come ashore, indeed!" he thought, as he rowed. "Make the captain lose
a passenger! If one listened to those walruses we'd have nothing to do
but embark and disembark 'em. He's afraid that son of his will catch
cold."
The sailor gave Paul the letter and said not a word of the message.
Recognizing the handwriting of his wife and de Marsay, Paul supposed
that he knew what they both would urge upon him. Anxious not to be
influenced by offers which he believed their devotion to his welfare
would inspire, he put the letters in his pocket unread, with apparent
indifference.
Absorbed in the sad thoughts which assail the strongest man under such
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