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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: sake, she ought to be the first to urge him to marry. In short, the
well-intentioned mother forgot no arguments which the feminine
intellect can bring to bear upon the masculine mind, and by these
means she had brought her son into a wavering condition.
Mme. de Beauseant's letter arrived just as Gaston's love of her was
holding out against the temptations of a settled life conformable to
received ideas. That letter decided the day. He made up his mind to
break off with the Marquise and to marry.
"One must live a man's life," said he to himself.
Then followed some inkling of the pain that this decision would give
to Mme. de Beauseant. The man's vanity and the lover's conscience
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