|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: To know that he had loved her still, in spite of her cruelty, might
restore her reason.
If Jacques Collin was a grand general of convicts, he was, it must be
owned, a not less skilful physician of souls.
This man's arrival at the mansion of the Serizys was at once a
disgrace and a promise. Several persons, the Count, and the doctors
were assembled in the little drawing-room adjoining the Countess'
bedroom; but to spare him this stain on his soul's honor, the Comte de
Bauvan dismissed everybody, and remained alone with his friend. It was
bad enough even then for the Vice-President of the Privy Council to
see this gloomy and sinister visitor come in.
|