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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: appearance the best-hearted woman in the world, had, in the depths of
her nature, a fearful quality, explainable only by Catherine de
Medici's device: "Odiate e aspettate"--"Hate and wait." Accustomed to
rule, having always been obeyed, she was like other royalties,
amiable, gentle, easy and pleasant in ordinary life, but terrible,
implacable, if the pride of the woman, the Spaniard, and the Casa-
Reale was touched. She never forgave. This woman believed in the power
of her hatred; she made an evil fate of it and bade it hover above her
enemy. This fatal power she employed against the man who had jilted
her. Events which seemed to prove the influence of her "jettatura"--
the casting of an evil eye--confirmed her superstitious faith in
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