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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: them in again, letting the play of the light bring out all their
fires. He was more like a child than an old man; or, rather, childhood
and dotage seemed to meet in him.
" 'Fine stones! The set would have fetched three hundred thousand
francs before the Revolution. What water! Genuine Asiatic diamonds
from Golconda or Visapur. Do you know what they are worth? No, no; no
one in Paris but Gobseck can appreciate them. In the time of the
Empire such a set would have cost another two hundred thousand
francs!'
"He gave a disgusted shrug, and added:
" 'But now diamonds are going down in value every day. The Brazilians
Gobseck | 
