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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: decent folk, so far as he knew - done to them, or what had he done
to them? Who had poisoned their blood with the fifth-rate social
ideal, the fixed idea of making smart acquaintances and getting
into the monde chic, especially when it was foredoomed to failure
and exposure? They showed so what they were after; that was what
made the people they wanted not want THEM. And never a wince for
dignity, never a throb of shame at looking each other in the face,
never any independence or resentment or disgust. If his father or
his brother would only knock some one down once or twice a year!
Clever as they were they never guessed the impression they made.
They were good-natured, yes - as good-natured as Jews at the doors
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