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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: out of his place; he is not to be pitied therefore."
The count thanked Madame de Reybert coldly, bestowing upon her the
holy-water of courts, for he despised backbiting; but for all that, he
remembered Derville's doubts, and felt inwardly shaken. Just then he
saw his steward's letter and read it. In its assurances of devotion
and its respectful reproaches for the distrust implied in wishing to
negotiate the purchase for himself, he read the truth.
"Corruption has come to him with fortune,--as it always does!" he said
to himself.
The count then made several inquiries of Madame de Reybert, less to
obtain information than to gain time to observe her; and he wrote a
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