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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: wife. Carefully coached the evening before by des Lupeaulx, who knew
all the countess's weak spots, she was flattering her without seeming
to do so. Every now and then she kept silence; for des Lupeaulx, in
love as he was, knew her defects, and said to her the night before,
"Be careful not to talk too much,"--words which were really an immense
proof of attachment. Bertrand Barrere left behind him this sublime
axiom: "Never interrupt a woman when dancing to give her advice," to
which we may add (to make this chapter of the female code complete),
"Never blame a woman for scattering her pearls."
The conversation became general. From time to time Madame Rabourdin
joined in, just as a well-trained cat puts a velvet paw on her
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