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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: person would have feared ridicule, but Castanier knew by experience
that a desperate man takes everything seriously. A prisoner lying
under sentence of death would listen to the madman who should tell him
that by pronouncing some gibberish he could escape through the
keyhole; for suffering is credulous, and clings to an idea until it
fails, as the swimmer borne along by the current clings to the branch
that snaps in his hand.
Towards four o'clock that afternoon Castanier appeared among the
little knots of men who were transacting private business after
'Change. He was personally known to some of the brokers; and while
affecting to be in search of an acquaintance, he managed to pick up
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