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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: Madame Evangelista wrapped herself in dignity. The notary learned to
his satisfaction that until the present moment his client's relations
to Paul had been distant and reserved, and that partly from native
pride and partly from involuntary shrewdness she had treated the Comte
de Manerville as in some sense her inferior and as though it were an
honor for him to be allowed to marry Mademoiselle Evangelista. She
assured Solonet that neither she nor her daughter could be suspected
of any mercenary interests in the marriage; that they had the right,
should Paul make any financial difficulties, to retreat from the
affair to an illimitable distance; and finally, that she had already
acquired over her future son-in-law a very remarkable ascendancy.
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