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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: loved flowers of the soul, you know not what long anguish I should
have had to bear. I met with disappointment before I was sixteen.
What would have become of me had I learned at twenty that fame is
a lie, that he whose books express the feelings hidden in my heart
was incapable of feeling them himself? Oh! my friend, do you know
what would have become of me? Shall I take you into the recesses
of my soul? I should have gone to my father and said, "Bring me
the son-in-law whom you desire; my will abdicates,--marry me to
whom you please." And the man might have been a notary, banker,
miser, fool, dullard, wearisome as a rainy day, common as the
usher of a school, a manufacturer, or some brave soldier without
Modeste Mignon |
