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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: that booby of a marshal--yes, the Conde of the Republic is a booby!--
that her husband, who served under him in Spain, had left her without
means, and if she didn't get a thousand francs, or two thousand, that
day her children must go without food; she hadn't any for the morrow.
The marshal, who was always ready to give in those days, took two
notes of a thousand francs each out of his desk, and gave them to her.
I saw that fine countess going down the staircase where she couldn't
see me. She was laughing with a satisfaction that certainly wasn't
motherly, so I slipped after her to the peristyle where I heard her
say to the coachman, 'To Leroy's.' I ran round quickly to Leroy's, and
there, sure enough, was the poor mother. I got there in time to see
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