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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: Countess gave splendid entertainments to drown thought; but she, no
doubt, found a void at the bottom of the whirlpool; luxury was
ineffectual to disguise the emptiness and grief of her sorrowing soul;
for the most part, in spite of the flashes of assumed gaiety, her
beautiful face expressed unspoken melancholy. Emilie appeared,
however, full of attentions and consideration for her old husband,
who, on retiring to his rooms at night, to the sounds of a lively
band, would often say, "I do not know myself. Was I to wait till the
age of seventy-two to embark as pilot on board the Belle Emilie after
twenty years of matrimonial galleys?"
The conduct of the young Countess was marked by such strictness that
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