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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: fearful of all eyes. When she recovered from the paroxysm, she saw
Louis and Marie kneeling on either side of her, like two angels; they
watched the expression of her face, and smiled lovingly at her.
"If only I could take that smile with me!" she said, drying her eyes.
Then she went into the house and took to the bed, which she would only
leave for her coffin.
A week went by, one day exactly like another. Old Annette and Louis
took it in turns to sit up with Mme. Willemsens, never taking their
eyes from the invalid. It was the deeply tragical hour that comes in
all our lives, the hour of listening in terror to every deep breath
lest it should be the last, a dark hour protracted over many days. On
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