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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: gauged the man's infatuation, and was very well satisfied to find that
the varnished doors of a tolerably sumptuous future were ready to turn
at a word from Antonia so soon as his own fancy had passed off.
" 'And that other one yonder?' asked he, pointing out the stout fine-
looking elderly man with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. 'Who is
he?'
" 'A retired custom-house officer.'
" 'The cut of his countenance is not reassuring,' said Maxime,
beholding the Sieur Denisart.
"And indeed the old soldier held himself upright as a steeple. His
head was remarkable for the amount of powder and pomatum bestowed upon
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