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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: 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
incredible quickness, learned to swim, watched through the night. He
was not like the same boy; he was a young man already, with a
sunburned face, and a something in his expression that told of deep
purpose.
When October came, Mme. Willemsens could only rise at noon. The
sunshine, reflected by the surface of the Loire, and stored up by the
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