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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: of perfidy. There was a moment when Mademoiselle de Fontaine seemed
sorry for an ill-judged sally against the commonalty to which Clara
had led her.
"Mademoiselle," said the sweet child, "I have heard so much of you
from Maximilien that I had the keenest desire to know you, out of
affection for him; but is not a wish to know you a wish to love you?"
"My dear Clara, I feared I might have displeased you by speaking thus
of people who are not of noble birth."
"Oh, be quite easy. That sort of discussion is pointless in these
days. As for me, it does not affect me. I am beside the question."
Ambitious as the answer might seem, it filled Mademoiselle de Fontaine
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