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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: told her of the apparent failure of the phosphates, she had hailed it as
an escape for her beloved John, and for all of them, because she made
sure that Hortense would never marry a virtually penniless man. And when
the work went on, and the rich fortune was unearthed after all, her
influence had caused that revelation to be delayed because she was so
confident that the engagement would be broken. But she had reckoned
without Hortense; worse than that, she had reckoned without John Mayrant;
in her meddling attempt to guide his affairs in the way that she believed
would be best for him, she forgot that the boy whom she had brought up
was no longer a child, and thus she unpardonably ignored his rights as a
man. And now Miss Josephine's disapproval was vindicated, and her own
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