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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: choose an angel among women; he has had the unspeakable happiness of
having an Adeline for his wife! And he has deceived her, he has soaked
her in sorrows, he has neglected her for prostitutes, for street-
hussies, for ballet-girls, actresses--Cadine, Josepha, Marneffe!--And
that is the brother I treated as a son and made my pride!
"Go, wretched man; if you can accept the life of degradation you have
made for yourself, leave my house! I have not the heart to curse a
brother I have loved so well--I am as foolish about him as you are,
Adeline--but never let me see him again. I forbid his attending my
funeral or following me to the grave. Let him show the decency of a
criminal if he can feel no remorse."
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