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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: which distinguishes women who are naturally pious.
The count followed. Masters, children, and servants knelt down, all
taking their regular places. It was Madeleine's turn to read the
prayers. The dear child said them in her childish voice, the ingenuous
tones of which rose clear in the harmonious silence of the country,
and gave to the words the candor of holy innocence, the grace of
angels. It was the most affecting prayer I ever heard. Nature replied
to the child's voice with the myriad murmurs of the coming night, like
the low accompaniment of an organ lightly touched, Madeleine was on
the right of the countess, Jacques on her left. The graceful curly
heads, between which rose the smooth braids of the mother, and above
The Lily of the Valley |
