The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: managed to convince the landlord of the house that M. d'Espard had no
money just at a time when, with the forgetfulness which often befalls
busy men, he had allowed the tax-collector to send him a summons for
non-payment of arrears. The landlord forthwith claimed his quarter's
rent from January 1st by sending in a receipt, which the porter's wife
had amused herself by detaining. On the 15th a summons to pay was
served on M. d'Espard, the portress had delivered it at her leisure,
and he supposed it to be some misunderstanding, not conceiving of any
incivility from a man in whose house he had been living for twelve
years. The Marquis was actually seized by a bailiff at the time when
his man-servant had gone to carry the money for the rent to the
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