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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: The garden, as it now lay in the dusk and glimmer of the starshine,
breathed of April violets. Under night's cavern arch the shrubs
obscurely bustled. Through the plotted terraces and down the marble
stairs the Prince rapidly descended, fleeing before uncomfortable
thoughts. But, alas! from these there is no city of refuge. And
now, when he was about midway of the descent, distant strains of
music began to fall upon his ear from the ball-room, where the court
was dancing. They reached him faint and broken, but they touched
the keys of memory; and through and above them Otto heard the
ranting melody of the wood-merchants' song. Mere blackness seized
upon his mind. Here he was, coming home; the wife was dancing, the
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