The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: first Communion I will give her thirty thousand francs and find her a
good husband, some worthy young man."
"My eldest son, then madame! He is two-and-twenty, and he worships the
child."
The Baron now came down; there were tears in his eyes.
"You are forcing me to desert the only creature who had ever begun to
love me at all as you do!" said he in a whisper to his wife. "She is
crying bitterly, and I cannot abandon her so--"
"Be quite easy, Hector. She will find a home with honest people, and I
will answer for her conduct."
"Well, then, I can go with you," said the Baron, escorting his wife to
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