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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: hole, for he had been a major of dragoons in the time of the Emperor.
M. de Nucingen, who had been a contractor before he became a banker,
had had reason in those days to know the honorable disposition of his
cashier, who then occupied a high position. Reverses of fortune had
befallen the major, and the banker out of regard for him paid him five
hundred francs a month. The soldier had become a cashier in the year
1813, after his recovery from a wound received at Studzianka during
the Retreat from Moscow, followed by six months of enforced idleness
at Strasbourg, whither several officers had been transported by order
of the Emperor, that they might receive skilled attention. This
particular officer, Castanier by name, retired with the honorary grade
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