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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: of entire agreement on the mother's part--'if the child is really
mine'--another gesture of assent--'if there is a striking likeness, if
he bids fair to be a gentleman, if I can recognize in him my turn of
mind, and more particularly the Rusticoli air; then, oh--ah!'--a new
movement from the matron--'on my word and honor, I will make him a
cornet of--sugar-plums!'
"All this, if you will permit me to make use of the phraseology
employed by M. Sainte-Beuve for his biographies of obscurities--all
this, I repeat, is the playful and sprightly yet already somewhat
decadent side of a strong race. It smacks rather of the Parc-aux-Cerfs
than of the Hotel de Rambouillet. It is a race of the strong rather
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