The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: through the streets, and visit the three salons where, night after
night, he played his whist or his backgammon.
"Ah! I did not think of it!" replied Monsieur de Bourbonne, gazing at
the priest with a sort of pity.
All Tours was soon aware that Madame la Baronne de Listomere, widow of
a lieutenant-general, had invited the Abbe Birotteau, vicar of Saint-
Gatien, to stay at her house. That act, which many persons questioned,
presented the matter sharply and divided the town into parties,
especially after Mademoiselle Salomon spoke openly of a fraud and a
lawsuit. With the subtle vanity which is common to old maids, and the
fanatic self-love which characterizes them, Mademoiselle Gamard was
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