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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: sixty thousand francs; she will be all or nothing, a great danseuse or
a marcheuse, a celebrated person or a vulgar courtesan. She has worked
hard since she was eight years old. Such as you see her, she is worn
out with fatigue; she exhausted her body this morning in the dancing-
class, she is just leaving a rehearsal where the evolutions are as
complicated as a Chinese puzzle; and she'll go through them again to-
night. The rat is one of the primary elements of the Opera; she is to
the leading danseuse what a junior clerk is to a notary. The rat is--
hope."
"Who produces the rat?" asked Gazonal.
"Porters, paupers, actors, dancers," replied Bixiou. "Only the lowest
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