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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: be desired."
A well-bred laugh went round the room, and even the prime minister
himself could not help smiling. The ambassadors seemed impatient for
the tale; de Marsay coughed dryly and silence was obtained.
"On a June night in 1800," began the minister, "about three in the
morning, just as daylight was beginning to pale the brilliancy of the
wax candles, two men tired of playing at /bouillotte/ (or who were
playing merely to keep others employed) left the salon of the ministry
of foreign affairs, then situated in the rue du Bac, and went apart
into a boudoir. These two men, of whom one is dead and the other has
/one/ foot in the grave, were, each in his own way, equally
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