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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: selfishness natural to spoilt children, who, like kings, make a
plaything of everything that comes to hand. As yet the graces of youth
and the charms of talent hid these faults from every eye; faults all
the more odious in a woman, since she can only please by self-
sacrifice and unselfishness; but nothing escapes the eye of a good
father, and Monsieur de Fontaine often tried to explain to his
daughter the more important pages of the mysterious book of life. Vain
effort! He had to lament his daughter's capricious indocility and
ironical shrewdness too often to persevere in a task so difficult as
that of correcting an ill-disposed nature. He contented himself with
giving her from time to time some gentle and kind advice; but he had
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