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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: dancers which, spring after spring, you put to rout. You have already
been the cause of many dangerous misunderstandings with certain
families. I hope to make you perceive more truly the difficulties of
your position and of ours. You are two-and-twenty, my dear child, and
you ought to have been married nearly three years since. Your brothers
and your two sisters are richly and happily provided for. But, my
dear, the expenses occasioned by these marriages, and the style of
housekeeping you require of your mother, have made such inroads on our
income that I can hardly promise you a hundred thousand francs as a
marriage portion. From this day forth I shall think only of providing
for your mother, who must not be sacrificed to her children. Emilie,
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