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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: unfavourable occasion, I set him down among the most brilliant
conversationalists I ever met.
He was relating with great gusto, and seemingly no feeling of
shame, the manoeuvres of a scoundrelly commission merchant whom he
had known and studied in his youth, and we were all listening with
an odd mixture of mirth and embarrassment when our little party was
brought abruptly to an end in the most startling manner.
A noise like that of a wet finger on the window-pane interrupted
Mr. Huddlestone's tale; and in an instant we were all four as white
as paper, and sat tongue-tied and motionless round the table.
"A snail," I said at last; for I had heard that these animals make
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