The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: Somers Chichele, Anna's son, it is absurd to think, must have been
about fifteen then, reflecting at Winchester with the other 'men'
upon the comparative merits of tinned sardines and jam roll, and
whether a packet of real Egyptians was not worth the sacrifice of
either. His father was colonel of the Twelfth; his mother was still
charming. It was the year before Dick Forsyth came down from the
neighbourhood of Sheikhbudin with a brevet and a good deal of
personal damage. I mention him because he proved Anna's charm in
the only conclusive way before the eyes of us all; and the station,
I remember, was edified to observe that if Mrs. Chichele came out of
the matter 'straight'--one relapses so easily into the simple
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