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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: which we decry through hatred of our own imperfections, the other with
all the vices which we deify through selfishness. Returning along that
avenue, looking back again and again at Madame de Mortsauf, as she
leaned against a tree surrounded by her children who waved their
handkerchiefs, I detected in my soul an emotion of pride in finding
myself the arbiter of two such destinies; the glory, in ways so
different, of women so distinguished; proud of inspiring such great
passions that death must come to whichever I abandoned. Ah! believe
me, that passing conceit has been doubly punished!
I know not what demon prompted me to remain with Arabella and await
the moment when the death of the count might give me Henriette; for
The Lily of the Valley |
