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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: that island, a shady calm retreat, Marie-Gaston wished to remove the
body of his wife, after building a mausoleum of Carrara marble to
receive it. He wrote to us to communicate this idea, and, remembering
Dorlange in this connection, he requested my husband to see him and
ask him to undertake the work. At first Dorlange feigned not to
remember even the name of Marie-Gaston, and he made some civil pretext
to decline the commission. But see and admire the consistency of such
determinations when people love each other! That very evening, being
at the opera, he heard the Duc de Rhetore speak insultingly of his
former friend, and he vehemently resented the duke's words. A duel
followed in which he was wounded; the news of this affair has probably
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