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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: with the slow, majestic glance of her blue eyes. It was impossible for
the ablest physiognomist to imagine calculation or self-will beneath
that unspeakable delicacy of feature. There were faces of women which
deceive knowledge, and mislead observation by their calmness and
delicacy; it is necessary to examine such faces when passions speak,
and that is difficult, or after they have spoken, which is no longer
of any use, for then the woman is old and has ceased to dissimulate.
The princess is one of those impenetrable women; she can make herself
what she pleases to be: playful, childlike, distractingly innocent; or
reflective, serious, and profound enough to excite anxiety. She came
to Madame d'Espard's dinner with the intention of being a gentle,
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