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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: looking at his feet, because he thinks them small, and he gazes at
himself in the glass! Besides, he is fair. I don't like fair men."
"Well, then, Monsieur de Beaudenord?"
"He is not noble! he is ill made and stout. He is dark, it is true.--
If the two gentlemen could agree to combine their fortunes, and the
first would give his name and his figure to the second, who should
keep his dark hair, then--perhaps----"
"What can you say against Monsieur de Rastignac?"
"Madame de Nucingen has made a banker of him," she said with meaning.
"And our cousin, the Vicomte de Portenduere?"
"A mere boy, who dances badly; besides, he has no fortune. And, after
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