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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: affection as he drew a last puff from his perfumed pipe.
"Then why don't you take your meals with us? why did you not accompany
us to Italy and Switzerland? why do you hide yourself in such a way
that I am unable to thank you for the constant services that you do
for us?" said the countess, with much vivacity of manner but no
feeling.
In fact, she thought she perceived in Paz a sort of voluntary
servitude. Such an idea carried with it in her mind a certain contempt
for a social amphibian, a being half-secretary, half-bailiff, and yet
neither the one nor the other, a poor relation, an embarrassing
friend.
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