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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: buy property below its proper value. Before the Revolution the
property of our abbey was estimated at--[so much]. That is the
price I choose to give, and not that to which it has fallen since
the great depreciation of all property called national. In a word,
my friend, I wish to pay you more than you ask; let me know if
that suits you.
Laurent Goussard thought at first that either she had misunderstood
him or he her. But when it became clear to him that owing to these
pretended scruples of Mother Marie-des-Anges, he was the gainer of
fifty thousand francs, he would not do violence to so tender a
conscience, and he pocketed this profit (which came to him literally
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