The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: seashore. Here and there a few rocks lifted their heads; you might
have thought them gigantic animals couchant on the dunes. Along the
coast were reefs, around which the water foamed and sparkled, giving
them the appearance of great white roses, floating on the liquid
surface or resting on the shore. Seeing this barren tract with the
ocean on one side, and on the other the arm of the sea which runs up
between Croisic and the rocky shore of Guerande, at the base of which
lay the salt marshes, denuded of vegetation, I looked at Pauline and
asked her if she felt the courage to face the burning sun and the
strength to walk through sand.
"I have boots," she said. "Let us go," and she pointed to the tower of
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