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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: another tries to keep the tumult within bounds; the steadiest will
propose an orgy. If any one in possession of his faculties should come
in, he would think that he had interrupted a Bacchanalian rite.
"It was in the thick of such a chaos that M. de Trailles tried to
insinuate himself into my good graces. My head was fairly clear, I was
upon my guard. As for him, though he pretended to be decently drunk,
he was perfectly cool, and knew very well what he was about. How it
was done I do not know, but the upshot of it was that when we left
Grignon's rooms about nine o'clock in the evening, M. de Trailles had
thoroughly bewitched me. I had given him my promise that I would
introduce him the next day to our Papa Gobseck. The words 'honor,'
 Gobseck |