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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: pathetic young creature that, in his presence, or alone with him, she
trembled. Hampered by her too eager desire to please, her wits and her
knowledge vanished in one absorbing feeling. Even her fidelity vexed
the unfaithful husband, who seemed to bid her do wrong by stigmatizing
her virtue as insensibility. Augustine tried in vain to abdicate her
reason, to yield to her husband's caprices and whims, to devote
herself to the selfishness of his vanity. Her sacrifices bore no
fruit. Perhaps they had both let the moment slip when souls may meet
in comprehension. One day the young wife's too sensitive heart
received one of those blows which so strain the bonds of feeling that
they seem to be broken. She withdrew into solitude. But before long a
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