The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: dramatic labors and the pleasure caused him by the success of his
first play.
Mme. Gaston, therefore, is no rival of yours, and has every right to
your name. A man of Gaston's sensitive delicacy was bound to keep the
affair secret from you, knowing as he did, your generous nature. Nor
does he look on what you give him as his own. D'Arthez read me the
letter he had from your husband, asking him to be one of the witnesses
at his marriage. Gaston in this declares that his happiness would have
been perfect but for the one drawback of his poverty and indebtedness
to you. A virgin soul is at the mercy of such scruples. Either they
make themselves felt or they do not; and when they do, it is easy to
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