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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: customer by way of finishing her question.
The pastry-cook could only see the old lady's head-dress, a huge black
silk bonnet with knots of violet ribbon round it, but he looked at his
wife as if to say, "Did you think I should leave such a thing as that
lying about in your drawer?" and then vanished.
The old lady kept so still and silent that the shopkeeper's wife was
surprised. She went back to her, and on a nearer view a sudden impulse
of pity, blended perhaps with curiosity, got the better of her. The
old lady's face was naturally pale; she looked as though she secretly
practised austerities; but it was easy to see that she was paler than
usual from recent agitation of some kind. Her head-dress was so
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