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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: "old screw" in the eyes of his protegee; but as he had the sense to
see that a danseuse at the Gaiete had a certain rank to maintain, he
raised the monthly stipend to five hundred francs, for which, although
he did not again become an angel, he was, at least, a "friend for
life," a second father. This was his silver age.
From 1820 to 1823, Florentine had the experience of every danseuse of
nineteen to twenty years of age. Her friends were the illustrious
Mariette and Tullia, leading ladies of the Opera, Florine, and also
poor Coralie, torn too early from the arts, and love, and Camusot. As
old Cardot had by this time acquired five additional years, he had
fallen into the indulgence of a semi-paternity, which is the way with
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