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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: pleased with her own wit, delighted to be admired, and feeling herself
the queen of a salon full of remarkable men who smile to her, the
Parisian woman reaches a full consciousness of her grace and charm;
her beauty is enhanced by the looks she gathers in,--a mute homage
which she transfers with subtle glances to the man she loves. At
moments like these a woman is invested with supernatural power and
becomes a magician, a charmer, without herself knowing that she is
one; involuntarily she inspires the love that fills her own bosom; her
smiles and glances fascinate. If this condition, which comes from the
soul, can give attraction even to a plain woman, with what radiance
does it not invest a woman of natural elegance, distinguished bearing,
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