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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: said Leon, "and I am always the better for it."
"I'm expecting the virtuous fortune which Bilouche has promised me,"
said Bixiou.
"I've a fever," cried Gazonal. "If I believed what you say I should
have to believe in sorcery, in some supernatural power."
"It may be only natural," said Bixiou. "One-third of all the lorettes,
one-fourth of all the statesmen, and one-half of all artists consult
Madame Fontaine; and I know a minister to whom she is an Egeria."
"Did she tell you about your future?" asked Leon.
"No; I had enough of her about my past. But," added Gazonal, struck by
a sudden thought, "if she can, by the help of those dreadful
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