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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: all the dealers in old paper for a register, made of paper with the
mark of the eighteenth century, duly bound in parchment, on which
should be the stamp of an order in council. Having found such a volume
it was left about in the dust, on the stove, on the ground, in the
kitchen, and even in what the clerks called the "chamber of
deliberations"; and thus it obtained a mouldiness to delight an
antiquary, cracks of aged dilapidation, and broken corners that looked
as though the rats had gnawed them; also, the gilt edges were
tarnished with surprising perfection. As soon as the book was duly
prepared, the entries were made. The following extracts will show to
the most obtuse mind the purpose to which the office of Maitre
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