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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: to an ardent and pleasure-loving young man, perhaps I could not have
retained him; he might have left me, and I should have died of
jealousy. For I am jealous!" she said, in a tone of excitement, which
was like the thunderclap of a passing storm. "But Monsieur de Mortsauf
loves me as much as he is capable of loving; all that his heart
contains of affection he pours at my feet, like the Magdalen's cup of
ointment. Believe me, a life of love is an exception to the laws of
this earth; all flowers fade; great joys and emotions have a morrow of
evil--if a morrow at all. Real life is a life of anguish; its image is
in that nettle growing there at the foot of the wall,--no sun can
reach it and it keeps green. Yet, here, as in parts of the North,
The Lily of the Valley |
