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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: some one has spoiled the effect of a /coup de theatre/.
"For some days," I resumed after a pause, "Sarrasine had been so
faithful in attendance in his box, and his glances expressed such
passionate love, that his passion for La Zambinella's voice would have
been the town-talk of Paris, if the episode had happened here; but in
Italy, madame, every one goes to the theatre for his own enjoyment,
with all his own passions, with a heartfelt interest which precludes
all thought of espionage with opera-glasses. However, the sculptor's
frantic admiration could not long escape the notice of the performers,
male and female. One evening the Frenchman noticed that they were
laughing at him in the wings. It is hard to say what violent measures
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