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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: celebrated man. Such curiosities are to certain women what magic
lanterns are to children,--a pleasure to the eyes, but rather shallow
and full of disappointments. The more sentiments a man of talent
excites at a distance, the less he responds to them on nearer view;
the more brilliant fancy has pictured him, the duller he will seem in
reality. Consequently, disenchanted curiosity is often unjust.
Neither Blondet nor Rastignac could deceive d'Arthez; but they told
him, laughing, that they now offered him a most seductive opportunity
to polish up his heart and know the supreme fascinations which love
conferred on a Parisian great lady. The princess was evidently in love
with him; he had nothing to fear but everything to gain by accepting
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