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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: eager for information, used to follow in the lieutenant's wake for the
chance of a chat with him. It so happened that the sailor had a friend
and comrade in the colonel of a regiment of infantry, struck off the
rolls like himself; and young Louis-Gaston had a chance of learning
what life was like in camp or on board a man-of-war. Of course, he
plied the veterans with questions; and when he had made up his mind to
the hardships of their rough callings, he asked his mother's leave to
take country walks by way of amusement. Mme. Willemsens was beyond
measure glad that he should ask; the boy's astonished masters had told
her that he was overworking himself. So Louis went for long walks. He
tried to inure himself to fatigue, climbed the tallest trees with
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