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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: other side of the Beresina; but at this moment the cold was less
intense; my fellow-officers were resting, they were warm, they had
food, and the room, strewn with trusses of straw, gave the promise of
a delightful night. We did not ask for so much in those days. My
comrades could be philanthropists /gratis/--one of the commonest ways
of being philanthropic. I sat down to eat on one of the bundles of
straw.
"At the end of the table, by the side of the door opening into the
smaller room full of straw and hay, sat my old colonel, one of the
most extraordinary men I ever saw among all the mixed collection of
men it has been my lot to meet. He was an Italian. Now, whenever human
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