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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: to a bill of exchange, legally not worth the paper it was written
upon, but practically very good business; for these women, poor
things, are afraid of the scandal that a protested bill makes in a
family, and would give themselves away in payment sooner than fail? I
wanted to find out what that bill of exchange really represented. Was
it stupidity, imprudence, love or charity?
" 'The second bill, bearing the signature "Fanny Malvaut," came to me
from a linen-draper on the highway to bankruptcy. Now, no creature who
has any credit with a bank comes to ME. The first step to my door
means that a man is desperately hard up; that the news of his failure
will soon come out: and, most of all, it means that he has been
Gobseck |
